Weir Group was felled by a downgrade out of analysts at Deutsche Bank from ‘buy’ to ‘hold’.
Having hived off its oil and gas arm, it was now increasingly seen as a mining pure play and was in fact “well placed” to benefit from several tailwinds for the sector.
But its second half 2020 order figures and decision not to pay out a dividend had disappointed Deutsche, who added that the valuation was not “compelling” and that there was better value to be had elsewhere.
Stock in Vesuvius was also lower, even after the engineer posted better-than-expected full year earnings, which resulted in a bigger-than-anticipated final dividend of 14.3p for a full-year total of 17.4p.
Going the other way, Rathbone Partners could be seen near the top of the leaderboard after the fund manager posted an 8.5% increase in its funds under management and administration to £54.7bn.
Market Movers
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,306.40 -0.61%
FTSE 250 – Risers
Aggreko (AGK) 885.00p 7.53%
Rank Group (RNK) 191.80p 6.56%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,662.00p 5.32%
Computacenter (CCC) 2,228.00p 5.29%
Vistry Group (VTY) 951.00p 4.39%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,026.00p 3.43%
Capita (CPI) 49.46p 3.30%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 514.60p 3.27%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 893.00p 3.19%
Greencore Group (GNC) 157.70p 3.14%
FTSE 250 – Fallers
Vesuvius (VSVS) 509.50p -7.53%
Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust (USA) 312.00p -6.87%
Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust (EWI) 343.50p -6.15%
Synthomer (SYNT) 448.40p -5.92%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,821.50p -5.23%
Renishaw (RSW) 5,985.00p -4.70%
Coats Group (COA) 61.30p -4.07%
Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 1,270.00p -3.86%
Energean (ENOG) 885.00p -3.38%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 333.40p -3.31%
