LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - The FTSE 250 index joined the rest of the markets in an up-day on Tuesday, rising 0.93% to just shy of 17,700 by late afternoon led by rises in Rotork, BGEO and Mitie.
Leading the rise was actuator maker Rotork as it let markets know that it expected full year sales will be towards the top end of expectations due to a currency tailwind and a good performance from its acquisitions.

Order intake has been flat at the underlying level and activity levels also remain flat, which analysts at Numis said was encouraging in a business which is around 50% oil and gas orientated.

BGEO Group, the Georgian banking and investment group that was hosting an investor day in Tbilisi on Tuesday, was lifted by positive broker comment the day after its third quarter results. Jefferies for one remained bullish on the numbers, reiterating its 'buy' rating and target price of 4000p. The balance sheet growth led by retail banking is consistent with analysts' forecasts, while the announcement of a share buyback that represents 5% of market cap has done the shares no harm.

New Mitie boss Phil Bentley, who takes over from Ruby McGregor-Smith next month, splashed the cash to lift the embattled facilities management group towards the top of the leaderboard. Bentley, who led turnarounds at Cable & Wireless and British Gas, bought £3.6m worth of shares in a ballsy display of confidence in the company.

Further strengthening of metals prices, particularly copper, helped the likes of Vedanta.

Evraz also benefitted from a kind word from Credit Suisse, which said the London-listed company was one of its preferred stocks withing the Russian steel universe, reiterating its 'outperform' rating and target price of 286.7p.

Inmarsat got a boost as Deutsche Bank initiated coverage of the satellite company at 'buy' rating and a 1,030p price target on the scope for the company to unlock value given the size of its market. "We have carried out bottom-up analysis of the market potential for in-flight communication and about 40% of our target relates to the European aviation opportunity. Given ISAT has underperformed the telco sector by 16% year-to-date, we see current levels as a good entry to gain exposure to strong growth."

Heading the fallers, Peppa Pig rights owner Entertainment One reported first-half growth across all divisions in the first half but revealed lower profits and its finance director had decided to step down with immediate effect. Management cited the timing of investment in its strong first-half film slate for the lower profits and guided to a strong second half performance that meant it was on track to deliver full-year numbers in line with expectations.

Broker Canaccord said while the first half has seen encouraging operational progress, most TV content will be delivered in the second half, while the recovery in the film division is taking time to flow through to the bottom line. "In our view management will now need to deliver a strong profit performance in order to meet full-year consensus estimates, with little room for error, which raises the risk profile of the investment. We remain cautious."

Pub group Mitchells & Butlers was lower after swerving up a a short measure of pre-tax profit for the 52 weeks ended 24 September as like-for-like sales fell and total revenue declined. Pre-tax profit fell to £94m from £126m the year before on total revenue of £2.09bn, down from £2.1bn. Meanwhile, like-for-like sales were down 0.8%, although trading in the most recent eight weeks has picked up, with LFL sales up 0.5%.

In its first annual results as an independent public company, CYBG, the holding company of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, reported lower annual income than expected but managed to lift profits strongly higher. However, a large tax charge relating to a change in accounting treatment of its deferred tax assets resulted in a net loss after tax of £164m, which analysts calculated would reduce the level of tangible net asset value per share.

Essentra was lower after Numis downgraded its stance on the company to 'add' from 'buy' and cut the price target to 470p following the profit warning on Monday. The brokerage said the profit warning - the second this year - indicates the scale of the challenges facing new chief executive officer Paul Forman.



FTSE 250 - Risers

Rotork (ROR) 223.20p 11.38%
BGEO Group (BGEO) 3,105.00p 10.93%
Mitie Group (MTO) 204.30p 7.53%
Evraz (EVR) 258.20p 7.36%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 858.00p 6.78%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 740.00p 5.56%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 208.70p 3.88%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 154.60p 3.76%
Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 358.90p 3.70%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 339.40p 3.70%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 222.10p -9.64%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 410.50p -7.32%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 260.70p -4.68%
CYBG (CYBG) 284.10p -3.60%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 165.00p -3.51%
Halma (HLMA) 977.00p -2.79%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 223.80p -2.74%
Essentra (ESNT) 383.60p -2.47%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 133.50p -2.20%
Greene King (GNK) 740.50p -1.66%

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