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(Sharecast News) - The FTSE 250 was trading broadly flat by Thursday afternoon, with strong gains from Halfords and a host of tech stocks offset by weakness in the recruitment and industrial sectors.
Halfords shares surged nearly 12% after the motoring and cycling products retailer lifted its profit outlook for the year, having been boosted in part by unusually warm weather.
Based on a "strong" performance in the year to date, the company now expects FY27 underlying pre-tax profit of between £55m and £65m, ahead of current consensus of £52.6m and a range of range of £48.9m to £55.1m.
Meanwhile, tech stocks were enjoying a boost from blockbuster results from chip giant Nvidia released the previous evening, as the American firm smashed quarterly sales estimates and pointed to much better-than-expected sales growth over the year ahead.
FTSE 250 names such as Gamma Communications, Raspbery Pi, GB Group and Softcat were all putting in solid gains.
Partners Group Private Equity was also on the rise despite reporting a wider pre-tax loss for the first half following a "poor" NAV performance.
Leading the downside were recruiters Hays and Michael Page. Hays in particular was falling for the second straight day after hitting its highest in over a year earlier this week.
PPHE Hotel Group was in the red despite reporting a rise in first-half profit and revenue as it hailed a strong performance from its UK properties.
Meanwhile, industrial names were also weaker, including RHI Magnesita, Genuit and Elementis.
FTSE 250 - Risers
Halfords Group (HFD) 269.00p 11.62%
Gamma Communications (GAMA) 1,168.00p 3.73%
Raspberry PI Holdings (RPI) 594.75p 3.00%
Partners Group Private Equity Limited. (EUR) (PEY) 7.70p 2.69%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,848.00p 2.55%
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) 187.00p 2.31%
Keller Group (KLR) 3,042.00p 2.15%
GB Group (GBG) 158.20p 2.07%
Softcat (SCT) 2,086.00p 2.05%
Pan African Resources (PAF) 138.40p 2.05%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hays (HAS) 71.55p -5.85%
Zigup (ZIG) 434.50p -5.85%
PPHE Hotel Group Ltd (PPH) 1,554.00p -5.24%
Michael Page (PAGE) 214.00p -4.04%
Dr. Martens (DOCS) 78.10p -3.23%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 869.00p -2.75%
RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) 2,775.00p -2.63%
Genuit Group (GEN) 284.20p -2.54%
SDCL Efficiency Income Trust (SEIT) 35.30p -2.49%
Elementis (ELM) 175.80p -2.33%
