FTSE 250 Movers: Barratt rises on reservations jump

16th Nov 2011 14:38

Leading the risers north, house builder Barratt Developments has seen reservations jump 25.9% in the period between July and the middle of November, compared to the same period of 2010.The average price it is achieving on sales has increased by 7% on 2010 and now stands at £207,000. Meanwhile, Home Retail was the biggest faller among FTSE 250 stocks, hit by news that Christmas sales will do little to boost profits and that this will be the first festive season that won't see growth since 2008. Planet Retail has cited Home Retail and Dixons Retail as two of the stocks most likely to be hit by the bad news. Afren continued to rise higher follow yesterday's announcement that it expects to hits production target of 50,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of 2011. Similarly, broadband provider TalkTalk was also cruising higher on Tuesday's news that it saw a rise in pre-tax profits despite a fall in revenue for the half year ended 30 September. Following close behind, student accommodation manager Unite Group enjoyed a very strong sales performance for 2011/12 with 99% of rooms sold compared to 97% for the year before.Bristol based Unite said like-for-like net operating income grew 3.1% from 1 July 2011 to 15 November 2011 and recurring profit for the full year is likely to beat management expectations. Joining the fallers, infrastructure investor HICL saw its net asset value per share (NAV) nudge up in the six months to the end of September.NAV rose to 111.5p at the end of September from 109.7p at the end of March. The value of HICL's portfolio over the period rose 6.9% to £719.3m from £673.1m at the end of March.Most of today's fall is due to the stock going ex-dividend.Carillion was heading lower after Peel Hunt downgraded it from buy to hold and cut its target from 415p to 350p. FTSE 250 - RisersBarratt Developments (BDEV) 96.15p +7.19%Michael Page International (MPI) 389.00p +6.81%Perform Group (PER) 199.00p +4.74%Afren (AFR) 96.10p +4.46%Allied Gold Mining (ALD) 152.00p +3.83%Unite Group (UTG) 168.80p +2.99%Lamprell (LAM) 261.80p +2.99%Hunting (HTG) 691.00p +2.90%TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 132.50p +2.71%Kier Group (KIE) 1,423.00p +2.60%FTSE 250 - FallersHome Retail Group (HOME) 72.20p -8.14%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 84.15p -5.08%HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd. (HICL) 114.60p -3.21%Supergroup (SGP) 636.50p -3.12%Debenhams (DEB) 62.85p -2.78%Invensys (ISYS) 205.10p -2.61%Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 309.40p -2.52%Carillion (CLLN) 308.30p -2.47%Soco International (SIA) 306.90p -2.35%BTG (BGC) 289.30p -2.33%NR