LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Shares of Marstons and Mitchells and Butlers were savaged, as the UK government asked Britons to avoid attending crowded venues including pubs and cinemas, although the steepest decline was seen in First Group.
Restaurant Group shares were right behind, caught in a vicious sell-off as more countries imposed lock-downs in response to the coronavirus crisis, including the US which curtailed travel from the UK and Ireland at the weekend.

Despite that, analysts at Cannacord Genuity reiterated their 'buy' recommendation for shares of Restaurant Group, telling clients that it remained cash generative and could still pay down its debt.

So while they cut their target price for the stock to reflect the impact of the virus on the company's concessions business, from 185.0p to 100.0p, they were relatively confident on the outlook.

"It's undoubtedly going to be tough but a savage shake-out of the competition could leave RTN well-placed to enjoy a recovery," they said.

Going the other way, Ninety One topped gainers on the second tier index after completing its demerger from South Africa's Investec.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Royal Mail (RMG)143.25p6.39%

G4S (GFS)97.44p4.91%

Centamin (DI) (CEY)100.40p2.28%

Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG)152.20p2.22%

Premier Oil (PMO)16.35p2.12%

IG Group Holdings (IGG)601.40p1.08%

Hunting (HTG)180.50p0.84%

Ferrexpo (FXPO)107.90p0.79%

Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET)5,935.00p0.59%

Victrex plc (VCT)1,847.00p0.49%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

FirstGroup (FGP)40.00p-47.81%

Restaurant Group (RTN)26.58p-46.45%

Marston's (MARS)28.42p-45.19%

Rank Group (RNK)111.00p-36.03%

IWG (IWG)146.25p-34.33%

Mitchells & Butlers (MAB)153.00p-32.45%

Go-Ahead Group (GOG)709.00p-30.22%

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML)144.95p-30.17%

Greencore Group (GNC)104.45p-25.66%

William Hill (WMH)65.94p-25.54%

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