LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 250 index was 0.07% lower at 19,492.70 in afternoon trade on Friday, with Funding Circle leading the index lower.
The peer-to-peer lending marketplace was sharply down as it announced plans to close its listed Funding Circle SME Income Fund after shareholders accounting for more than two thirds of the register called for it to stop making new investments.

Transport operator Stagecoach was hit by a downgrade to 'underperform' at Jefferies, as analysts advised investors to focus on the remaining bus businesses as an indicator of medium and long term value and potential growth due to ongoing political uncertainty regarding the future of rail franchising in the UK.

"Focusing on Stagecoach's bus business, we cut our EBIT forecasts by 3% for regional bus and by 17% for London bus, to reflect our more cautious stance on; the sustainability of regional top line growth given regional positioning and volume declines, wage and fuel cost inflation headwinds and over capacity exacerbating the negative impact of its current defensive positioning in the London bus contract bidding cycle," said a note from the broker.

Countryside Properties inched lower as Peel Hunt analysts warned that they expected trading since January to have been impacted by the political backdrop weighing on sales rates for higher priced properties, particularly in the South East.

Meanwhile, Hammerson was dented by a downgrade from 'hold' to 'sell' at Stifel, where analysts said they do not think the company's strategy of disposing of more than £500m worth of assets this year this will be sufficient to arrest the decline in shares price due to drops in EPS falling as a result of disposals.

At the other end of the pitch, Amigo Holdings was the top riser and power generator Contour Global rallied as it posted a 19% jump in 2018 earnings, boosted by acquisitions, and announced the appointment of Stefan Schellinger - former finance director of plastic and fibre products supplier Essentra - as its new chief financial officer.

Commodity trading and mining company Ferrexpo climbed even as it reported that first quarter production fell to 2.53m tonnes from 2.58m a year earlier.

Analysts at Shore Capital said: "It should be borne in mind that Ferrexpo is guiding for full-year 2019 production of to be the same as 2018's 10.6Mt. From that perspective, we note that Q1 2019 production was essentially in-line with that of Q1 2018. We remind readers that Ferrexpo is currently conducting a large maintenance programme at its pelletising facilities. The programmes are expected to complete in 2020, at which point the company expects to be producing at 12Mtpa."

Finally, Woodford Patient Capital Trust edged higher after recording a 6.9% increase in net asset value to 97.61p through 2018, stating that the portfolio's success stories were steadily beginning to account for a larger proportion of assets.

Market Movers

FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,492.70 -0.07%


FTSE 250 - Risers

Amigo Holdings (AMGO) 209.00p 6.09%
Contour Global (GLO) 193.20p 5.92%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 214.00p 4.39%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 284.70p 3.72%
Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 124.80p 3.14%
Just Group (JUST) 63.95p 2.81%
Sirius Minerals (SXX) 21.01p 2.69%
Sabre Insurance Group (SBRE) 293.47p 2.61%
Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) 82.89p 2.33%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 199.30p 2.15%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Funding Circle Holdings (FCH) 315.50p -8.02%
Stagecoach Group (SGC) 136.20p -7.66%
Civitas Social Housing (CSH) 86.19p -6.72%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,906.27p -4.01%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 845.00p -3.81%
Royal Mail (RMG) 253.50p -3.72%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 522.40p -3.40%
Computacenter (CCC) 1,064.00p -3.27%
Countryside Properties (CSP) 320.60p -3.14%
Hammerson (HMSO) 337.60p -2.88%

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