FTSE 250 movers: Halfords boosted by Numis note; Ultra Electronics tanks on warning
London’s FTSE 250 was down 1.2% in afternoon trade on Monday to 19,783.01 amid concerns about political uncertainty.
Halfords was boosted by an upgrade to ‘add’ from ‘hold’ at Numis following the company’s first-half numbers last week.
“While we continue to believe that Halfords is a mature retailer with fairly limited growth opportunities, the inflationary benefits in Cycling, scope for margin recovery in FY19 (and beyond) and, crucially, the low rating (10x cal-18 PE), leave us seeing some upside opportunity.”
Numis noted the shares have fallen 15% over the last six months.
Temporary power provider Aggreko gained ground as it announced the appointment of Heath Drewett as its chief financial officer, replacing Carole Cran. The stock also benefited from an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ at Jefferies.
“With Power Solutions Industrial demonstrating strong on-going momentum, the swing factors on group earnings will be the Utility business within Power Solutions and the Rental Solutions business. In both areas, we find reasons to be more optimistic,” the bank said.
Going the other way, Ultra Electronics was under pressure as it said it expects a tougher second half and announced that Rakesh Sharma has stepped down as chief executive with immediate effect.
Pointing to mounting pressures in the funding of UK defence programmes which have resulted in the UK Ministry of Defence pausing, cancelling or delaying a number of programmes, the group said it now expects full year total revenue to be around £770m, down from £785m last year, and for organic revenue to drop by around 4%. It expects profit for the full year of approximately £120m versus Bloomberg consensus of £128m.
Funeral services provider Dignity was also in the red. The company reported a small increase in revenue and profit in the third quarter as the number of deaths was broadly flat. In the 39 week period to 29 September, operating profit rose 5% to £79.4m on revenue of £243.9m, up from £229.3m, as the number of deaths ticked up just 1% to 440,000.
John Laing slipped despite reporting underlying growth in its portfolio value for the nine months to 30 September of 5.5% to £1.23bn, on a rebased value of £1.16bn.
Risers
Vietnam Enterprise Investments (DI) (VEIL) 413.40p 2.58%
Halfords Group (HFD) 340.80p 2.40%
Greencore Group (GNC) 197.00p 1.76%
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 2,539.00p 1.56%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 571.00p 1.51%
Aggreko (AGK) 962.00p 1.21%
Temple Bar Inv Trust (TMPL) 1,304.00p 0.93%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 1,030.00p 0.88%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 229.90p 0.88%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,245.00p 0.81%
Fallers
Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 1,225.00p -19.78%
Dignity (DTY) 2,255.00p -8.22%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 213.70p -6.60%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 328.00p -5.83%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 247.60p -3.99%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 146.20p -3.82%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 781.50p -3.82%
BGEO Group (BGEO) 3,430.00p -3.57%
John Laing Infrastructure Fund Ltd (JLIF) 118.20p -3.51%
Marston's (MARS) 107.00p -3.43%