FTSE 250 movers: Carillion rallies but TalkTalk drops on downgrade
London's FTSE 250 was up 0.6% to 19,514.73 in afternoon trade.
Infrastructure group Carillion surged as it said it had won a pair of contracts for the High Speed Two rail line worth £1.4bn as part of a joint venture. Also on Monday the company announced that it has beefed up its cabal of advisors, appointing EY with immediate effect to support the strategic review launched after its profit warning a week ago.
Meanwhile, Balfour Beatty gained as it won two contracts worth £2.5bn with JV partner Vinci.
Weir Group traded higher after saying its updated outlook for the group's full-year performance is now for strong constant currency revenue and profit growth, with revenues and operating profits in the oil & gas division set to be above the upper end of analysts' estimates as upstream North American markets have recovered more strongly than anticipated.
Mitie got a boost as Investec upped the stock to 'buy' from 'sell' and lifted the target price to 330p. The brokerage said the market has yet to appreciate the full extent of the potential turnaround at Mitie under new leadership.
"While execution risks remain, we see considerable upside to profitability on even a conservative assessment of possible cost savings and operating efficiencies. In a relatively short period, management has largely drawn a line under balance sheet risk and plotted a realistic path back to operating margins above 5%."
TalkTalk was weaker as Macquarie cut its stance on the stock to 'underperform'.
Risers
Carillion (CLLN) 67.70p 20.57%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,974.00p 8.22%
Electra Private Equity (ELTA) 1,692.00p 4.44%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 452.90p 2.91%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 270.50p 2.89%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 101.20p 2.74%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 1,709.00p 2.70%
Rotork (ROR) 248.30p 2.69%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 237.50p 2.68%
Mitie Group (MTO) 280.90p 2.63%
Fallers
Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 582.50p -3.64%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 183.30p -2.60%
CYBG (CYBG) 272.40p -2.26%
Savills (SVS) 869.00p -2.08%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,112.00p -1.94%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 3,519.00p -1.81%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 6,345.00p -1.63%
PayPoint (PAY) 855.50p -1.50%
Essentra (ESNT) 544.00p -1.45%
Capita (CPI) 651.50p -1.36%