London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.4% at 23,571.06 in afternoon trade on Friday.
Telecommunications group Airtel Africa surged after saying that its subsidiary, Smartcash, has been given approval in principle to operate a payment service bank business in Nigeria.
Travel stocks were on the rise after Pfizer announced that its new antiviral Covid pill cuts the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89%. WH Smith, SSP, Carnival, Trainline, Tui and easyJet all gained.
Morgan Advanced Materials rallied after it said full-year organic constant currency growth was set to be around the top end of its previous guidance range of 7% to 9%.
Beazley pushed up as the insurer reported higher-than-expected gross written premiums, driven by cyber & executive risk and its specialty lines divisions as it set aside $125m in natural disasters claims, including Hurricane Ida and the European floods.
FTSE 250 – Risers
Airtel Africa (AAF) 120.30p 10.37%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,689.00p 8.44%
SSP Group (SSPG) 274.90p 7.76%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 363.00p 7.72%
Carnival (CCL) 1,668.60p 7.65%
Trainline (TRN) 323.80p 6.79%
CMC Markets (CMCX) 275.00p 6.18%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 249.20p 5.95%
Beazley (BEZ) 416.70p 5.23%
easyJet (EZJ) 649.00p 4.71%
FTSE 250 – Fallers
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 1,532.00p -3.77%
Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG) 211.00p -3.21%
Clarkson (CKN) 4,055.00p -2.99%
PureTech Health (PRTC) 354.50p -2.88%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,740.50p -2.87%
Drax Group (DRX) 546.50p -2.50%
Tritax Eurobox (GBP) (EBOX) 111.80p -2.44%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 4,898.00p -2.33%
Draper Esprit (GROW) 1,020.00p -2.11%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 5,430.00p -1.99%
