FTSE 250 movers: Chemring slips; Domino's out of flavour

(Sharecast News) - FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,184.32 -0.41% Chemring has kept hold of guidance but said that annual results will now be increasingly weighted to the second half after severe winter conditions interrupted manufacturing operations at the start of the financial year.

The aerospace and defence firm said that the current environment heightened geopolitical uncertainty continues to position it well for growth as it reported an order book of £991m at 30 January, up 51% on the same point a year ago.

Chemring started the financial year on 1 November with order cover of 79%, which has now risen to 87%.

The company reported solid levels of demand and strong order intake across its Sensors & Information businesses, and Countermeasures & Energetics divisions.

However, it noted that adverse weather across a number of northern hemisphere Countermeasures & Energetics sites affected manufacturing and resulted in delays to some deliveries scheduled in the first quarter; though things are expected to recover in the second half of the year.

"The current financial year continues broadly to plan despite severe weather impacting operations at some of our manufacturing sites which has increased our H2 weighting," said chief executive Michael Ord.

Nevertheless, the board said its "expectations for FY24 performance are unchanged".

"Our order book momentum has been maintained with the receipt of several significant orders, demonstrating continued customer confidence in Chemring's market leading products and services."

Barclays has cut its rating for the UK-listed shares of American pizza chain Domino's from 'overweight' to 'equal weight', citing concerns about a slowdown in takeaway app downloads.

The bank said that data from competitive intelligence platform Apptopia suggests that Domino's app downloads have fallen in recent months. So, with the company set to meet some tough comparatives with last year, like-for-like sales momentum may begin to ease.

"App penetration rate was an impressive 79% in Q3 23 so the upside from here is less significant," Barclays said in a research note on Friday.

Domino's said in a third-quarter trading update in November that the app now accounts for 45.7% of system sales, an increase of 3.7 percentage points compared with the same period last year, with active app customers having risen 5% over the past six months to 5.6m.

"Upside risks are bullish long-term targets from new CEO at FY23 results on March 12th," Barclays said.

Harbour Energy and Diversified Energy were both lower as crude prices fell, with Brent down 1.88% and West Texas Intermediate off 2%.

"The oil price has held steady, ending the week at around $83 for a barrel of Brent crude. While there have been fluctuations throughout the week, as the market assessed supply and demand dynamics brought about by higher-for-longer interest rate expectations and ongoing tension in the Middle East, the net effect is one of relative calm in the price," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Sophie Lund-Yates.

PureTech Health powered ahead but with no obvious reason for the move.

Market Movers

FTSE 250 - Risers

PureTech Health (PRTC) 207.00p 8.15% TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 3,050.00p 3.04% Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 97.00p 1.89% Hochschild Mining (HOC) 91.35p 1.73% Breedon Group (BREE) 374.00p 1.49% Indivior (INDV) 1,684.00p 1.45% Genus (GNS) 1,992.00p 1.32% Moonpig Group (MOON) 171.30p 1.18% Hilton Food Group (HFG) 805.00p 1.13% LondonMetric Property (LMP) 188.30p 1.07%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 349.80p -4.74% TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 565.00p -3.83% Harbour Energy (HBR) 249.30p -3.48% Ibstock (IBST) 162.70p -3.15% Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 427.40p -2.95% Ithaca Energy (ITH) 132.80p -2.92% Me Group International (MEGP) 155.00p -2.76% Diversified Energy Company (DEC) 958.50p -2.54% IWG (IWG) 196.20p -2.49% Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 169.40p -2.42%