FTSE 250 movers: Home Retail leaps on profit outlook

13th Mar 2014 15:51

Home Retail, the owner of UK retail chains Argos and Homebase, rose strongly after it forecast annual profits above expectations after good trading in the last couple of months.It said it expects group benchmark pre-tax profit in the year to March 1st to be slightly ahead of the top end of market expectations of between £107m and £111m.bwin.party Digital Entertainment said that its revenues were down 19% year-on-year at €652.4m and operating profits fell 35% to €108m, but rose strongly with the help of Canaccord Genuity, which reiterated its 'buy' recommendation for the online gambling stock, saying it was "on the turn". Meanwhile, the number of UK vehicles on hire continued to increased at Northgate in the third quarter, but Spain saw numbers decline, prompting a sharp fall in the share price. The commercial vehicle hire group lifted vehicles on hire 2.4% in the UK, but saw a slight fall in Spain, while vehicle utilisation dropped a percentage point in the UK but added two in Spain.Ocado extended yesterday's losses, which came after disappointing results, on the back of a poor set of full-year figures from partner Morrison. The shares were also the object of quite a negative article in today's Tempus column.FTSE 250 - RisersHome Retail Group (HOME) 217.50p +6.05%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 127.40p +4.34%Man Group (EMG) 105.60p +3.12%Pace (PIC) 482.50p +2.66%Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 596.00p +2.14%Bodycote (BOY) 779.00p +1.96%Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 154.80p +1.84%IP Group (IPO) 211.00p +1.54%Halma (HLMA) 594.00p +1.54%Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,501.00p +1.54%FTSE 250 - FallersNorthgate (NTG) 545.50p -6.43%Ocado Group (OCDO) 513.50p -4.73%Genus (GNS) 1,096.00p -4.03%Vedanta Resources (VED) 800.00p -4.02%RPS Group (RPS) 316.70p -3.77%Fenner (FENR) 398.40p -3.63%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 270.30p -3.43%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 139.90p -2.98%Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,291.00p -2.93%Victrex plc (VCT) 1,834.00p -2.71%NR