LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - London's second-tier index was trading firmly higher on Wednesday afternoon, outperforming peers on the Continent by a wide margin.

Pacing gains were an assortment of travel-related issues, including PPHE Hotel Group, TUI and WH Smith.

Boosting the former was news that it had clinched a £180m syndicated facility agreement arranged by Bank Hapoalim to fund the development of Art'otel London Hoxton.

Events outfit Hyve Group was also near the top of the leaderboard after it pulled plans to pay a dividend and outlined various cash conservation measures, including a 20% pay cut for its top executives.

Homebuilders McCarthy&Stone and Crest Nicholson also found a bid.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank cut their target prices for the two companies' shares from 170.0p to 90.0p and from 386.0p to 202.0p, but kept a 'buy' recommendation on the former's while upgrading the latter's from 'sell' to 'hold'.

"Forget earnings downgrades, ignore sensitivity analysis, none of it matters. The housing market has stopped in its tracks. Consider Persimmon, sector bellwether that most (ourselves included) view as better financed than most," they said.

"Prior to the pandemic, it was on track to deliver 2020E pre-tax profit of c£1bn. If it doesn't sell a single additional unit between now and year end, it might break even. The truth (we hope) lies somewhere in between and, in the absence of clarity on the duration of all of this, we cannot forecast earnings accurately."

Among shares going the other way, stock in Dixons Carphone was in the spotlight after it emerged that on Monday he reduced his stake in the company from 6.9% to 1.2%, in a transaction worth roughly £50m in the process.

Over the past two years, Dunstone had been shifting out of Dixons Carphone and into TalkTalk, the firm that was spun off from Carphone baxk in 2010.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 5,655.91 -0.85%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 15,824.70 1.64%
techMARK (TASX) 3,353.43 0.99%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Whitbread (WTB) 2,900.00p 9.27%
ITV (ITV) 69.70p 6.25%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 631.60p 5.58%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,457.50p 4.97%
Evraz (EVR) 260.40p 4.87%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,593.00p 4.51%
SSE (SSE) 1,208.00p 4.41%
British Land Company (BLND) 383.00p 3.51%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,024.00p 3.48%
Informa (INF) 446.80p 3.38%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Aviva (AV.) 250.90p -5.92%
Fresnillo (FRES) 654.60p -5.76%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 381.20p -5.48%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 194.35p -4.59%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 110.72p -4.29%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 321.90p -4.11%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 197.80p -3.98%
Glencore (GLEN) 135.94p -3.92%
Prudential (PRU) 1,043.50p -3.60%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,279.40p -3.56%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Rank Group (RNK) 176.80p 27.38%
Hyve Group (HYVE) 21.05p 20.98%
McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 79.70p 12.73%
Just Group (JUST) 54.85p 12.21%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 420.00p 11.73%
PPHE Hotel Group Ltd (PPH) 1,340.00p 11.67%
Coats Group (COA) 42.65p 11.65%
Playtech (PTEC) 196.80p 11.25%
Capita (CPI) 32.77p 11.24%
IP Group (IPO) 54.40p 10.57%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 72.55p -14.85%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 269.90p -7.38%
Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 69.50p -7.33%
Ascential (ASCL) 195.40p -6.86%
Homeserve (HSV) 1,080.00p -6.33%
Trainline (TRN) 328.80p -5.95%
UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company (UDG) 600.00p -4.23%
Renishaw (RSW) 3,094.00p -3.25%
Apax Global Alpha Limited (APAX) 133.00p -3.20%
BBGI SICAV S.A. (DI) (BBGI) 165.20p -2.82%

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