FTSE 250 movers: Poor sales give Premier indigestion

27th Apr 2010 12:33

Shares in Premier Foods have taken a big hit after the company behind Hovis bread, Branston pickle and Sharwood's sauces, reported a 5.1% drop in first quarter sales and said it remains cautious about the consumer and trading environment for 2010.Also in the red is homewares retailer Dunelm, which has seen a sharp slowdown in sales growth over the past four months and cautioned it faces tough comparisons over the rest of the year.Connaught is going great guns after the support services group said it was benefiting from its ability to help customers cut costs as it reported a pre-tax profit of £13.5m for the half year. Electrical component maker Laird is also wanted after it said interim pre-tax profit was ahead of the same time last year as its markets continue to emerge from the depressed conditions of 2009.Hargreaves Lansdown, which has announced that Peter Hargreaves, the co-founder of the fund manager, will step down as chief executive in the autumn of 2010, is another riser.So is internet and catalogue home shopping company N Brown, which reported a 12.6% rise in annual pre-tax profit and issued a confident outlook for 2010.FTSE 250 - RisersConnaught (CNT) 304.70p +10.00%Regus (RGU) 124.50p +5.06%Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 262.80p +4.12%Mcbride (MCB) 215.00p +2.77%Chemring Group (CHG) 3,710.00p +2.40%Laird (LRD) 127.50p +2.08%Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 1,545.00p +1.98%Game Group (GMG) 98.60p +1.44%TR Property Inv Trust Sigma Shares (TRYS) 73.25p +1.38%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 378.20p +1.31%FTSE 250 - FallersPremier Foods (PFD) 26.90p -10.78%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 408.50p -5.46%Gartmore Group (GRT) 145.20p -5.10%GKN (GKN) 145.80p -4.46%Bodycote (BOY) 230.80p -4.43%Senior (SNR) 118.80p -4.12%TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 125.50p -3.83%DS Smith (SMDS) 135.20p -3.64%Trinity Mirror (TNI) 164.30p -3.41%Hunting (HTG) 579.50p -3.26%