LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - London's second-tier index was edging higher in late afternoon trading with investor sentiment buoyed in the background by a bounce on Wall Street as the beaten down Nasdaq-100 technology gauge bounced off of a key short-term technical support level.


As of 1536 BST, the FTSE 250 had thus managed to shake-off earlier losses to trade up by 0.03% to 17,631.5 having earlier fallen as low as 17,496.45.

Avon Rubber was at the top of the leaderboard, and trading at record highs, buoyed by news that it was to acquire US-based Team Wendy for $130m.

Aston Martin was right behind, after analysts at Bernstein started coverage of the EU automobile sector with a 'positive' stance and shares of BMW, Daimler, Volvo, Renault and Aston Martin at 'overweight'.

"We believe these names offer the most earnings upside and have attractive individual equity stories.

Computacenter stock was also hitting record highs, buoyed by the IT services outfit's latest set of financials.

Going the other way were the likes of JD Wetherspoon, Cineworld, and First Group after the government decided to lower the limit on how many people could gather from 30 to 6.

"The fear is that this is just the top of the iceberg as the government begins to ramp up tightening measures first in a list of potential actions that could ultimately hit businesses," said Josh Mahony, senior market analyst at IG.

Travel-related stocks including TUI AG, Carnival and SSP Group were also getting knocked lower following news that AstraZeneca had put its phase III covid-19 vaccine trial on hold in order to review safety data following a "potentially unexplained illness" in one of the participants.

To take note of, as of 7 September, Cineworld and TUI AG were two of the UK stocks with the highest levels of short interest, according to GraniteShares, at 7.99% and 5.83%, respectively.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Avon Rubber (AVON) 3,970.00p 6.86%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 58.60p 5.59%
Investec (INVP) 148.10p 5.45%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 291.50p 4.63%
Computacenter (CCC) 2,280.00p 4.59%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 271.80p 3.74%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 3,332.00p 2.90%
Scottish Inv Trust (SCIN) 737.00p 2.65%
Future (FUTR) 1,760.00p 2.33%
Fidelity European Values (FEV) 269.50p 2.28%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 961.50p -8.08%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 53.02p -7.02%
Carnival (CCL) 1,092.00p -6.27%
FirstGroup (FGP) 43.36p -6.15%
SSP Group (SSPG) 238.20p -5.70%
Rank Group (RNK) 128.20p -5.04%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 315.50p -4.97%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 822.00p -4.42%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,136.00p -4.38%
Renishaw (RSW) 5,025.00p -4.38%

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