LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - With only three and a half days of trading this week, investors were optimistic and grabbing a few pre-Christmas bargains with the FTSE 250 up 85.45 points (0.50%) to 17,191.32 by mid-afternoon Monday.
It was also the first day Morrisons was traded on the second tier market, after being dumped in a reshuffle of the index, along with G4S and Meggitt. Assura, Hastings Group Holdings, Ibstock and Renewables Infrastructure Group were also promoted to the second tier market, while Foxtons Group, Hunting, Kaz Minerals, Petra Diamonds and Premier Oil were dropped. As a result, Hastings was one of the market's biggest risers.

Bodycote continued to rise after N+1 Singer upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'hold' on Friday, saying sentiment was likely to warm next year. The broker cut its estimates to reflect the more challenging trading environment which was confirmed in the group's third quarter update. It downgraded its pre-tax profit and earnings per share forecasts by 10% for 2015 and 16% for 2016, saying this assumes a further weakening in the last months of this year and a 2.7% organic sales decline next year due to subdued end markets. However, Singer expects sentiment to become more positive in the year ahead.

Drax also saw a big rise on the day after Deutsche Bank upped its stake in the power generator. The investment bank bought just under 1.3m shares to give it a 3.06% stake in the company. However it now holds voting rights of 6.05%.

International Personal Finance was the market's biggest faller on the start of a relatively quiet week. The company announced on Friday that after more than eight years as a director of the company, Nicholas Page has retired from the board, as well as a minor committee reshuffle.

Ted Baker and Jimmy Choo also saw a dip in its share prices after the Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) latest monthly Distributive Trades Survey showed high street sales growth accelerated in the year to December, but growth was a little weaker than expected. The retail sales balance rose to +19 from +7 the previous month, compared with estimates of +21. It also found growth in retail sales volumes is expected to slow somewhat in January. Growth in orders placed upon suppliers recovered in the twelve months to December, after falling in the previous month, but is expected to be flat in the year to January.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Bodycote (BOY) 575.50p 4.64%
Drax Group (DRX) 230.80p 4.62%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 303.50p 4.12%
Investec (INVP) 479.00p 3.66%
Circassia Pharmaceuticals (CIR) 304.60p 3.43%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 61.90p 3.43%
Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) 171.20p 3.29%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 353.00p 3.25%
Allied Minds (ALM) 395.00p 2.84%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 163.90p 2.76%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

International Personal Finance (IPF) 294.40p -3.63%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,785.00p -2.99%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,072.00p -2.63%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 951.00p -2.46%
Ted Baker (TED) 3,237.00p -2.26%
Just Retirement Group (JRG) 165.60p -2.13%
National Express Group (NEX) 325.00p -2.02%
Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 123.00p -1.99%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 287.70p -1.64%
Synthomer (SYNT) 324.60p -1.52%

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