LONDON (ShareCast) - Energy companies rebounded on to the risers list on Tuesday after dropping substantially in the fallout from OPEC's decision to maintain the rate of oil production last week, which caused the price of crude to drop to its lowest in more than four and a half years.
Afren rose after declining on Monday while Premier Oil and Soco International also advanced. Enquest, however, bucked the trend as the shares dropped.

Northgate was the highest riser of the day after announcing a pre-tax profit increase of 70% year-on-year to £46.7m in the six months to 31 October. Peel Hunt analyst Andrew Nussey claimed interim result showed "good progress across the group", and raised his profit estimates for the current financial year ending April 2015 to £75m.

St Modwen Properties gained after it claimed its full-year profits would reach the top-end of market expectations following a boost in property valuations.

Merlin Entertainment also rose after announcing that it expects operating profits to increase as much as 5.3% in 2014 with continued revenue growth in all three of its main divisions.

Kier Group increased after holding discussions about a potential £40m deal to buy road repair and outsourcing firm Mouchel.



FTSE 250 - Risers
Northgate (NTG) 532.00p +9.15%
Afren (AFR) 49.71p +8.87%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,220.00p +6.09%
Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 108.50p +5.14%
Premier Oil (PMO) 195.70p +4.82%
Soco International (SIA) 284.00p +4.37%
Man Group (EMG) 146.00p +4.06%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 618.50p +3.69%
Supergroup (SGP) 897.50p +3.46%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 125.00p +3.31%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
EnQuest (ENQ) 43.06p -4.54%
Savills (SVS) 637.00p -3.41%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 328.00p -2.61%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 86.70p -2.58%
Saga (SAGA) 152.90p -2.55%
Evraz (EVR) 141.90p -2.27%
Stock Spirits Group (STCK) 246.00p -2.07%
Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 408.10p -1.97%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 131.40p -1.94%
Aveva Group (AVV) 1,376.00p -1.92%

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