Provident sinks AGAIN as brokers cut its rating

TODAY marks the 25th birthday of the FTSE 250, and the UK mid-cap index celebrated in style, reaching a record high of 20,167.78.

One business which may not still be on the mid-market for its next birthday, however, is Provident

Financial. With shares having halved since a second profit warning in August, the latest blow to the lender came as a downgrade from analysts at Barclays.

The bank is cautious about the lack of confidence in a turnaround of the business and concerned about the unquantifiable size of potential redress which could be imposed by the regulator.

This week Provident’s subsidiary Vanquis was also fined £75,000 for sending emails and texts to promote its credit cards.

With all that in mind, Barclays is worried Provident won’t meet a debt obligation due on October 19. Yesterday, shares fell a further 4.3pc, or 36p, to 800.5p. A profit warning sent shares in

Mondi tumbling. The paper and packaging group blamed rising costs and a weaker dollar as it warned full- year performance would be ‘modestly below market expectations’.

Mill closures are also set to cost the group £81m. but there was an 8pc rise in operating profit to £219m in its third-quarter figures. Shares dropped 7.8pc, or 163p, to 1926p, making it the greatest faller on the FTSE 100, which was down 4.46 points, or 0.06pc, at 7533.81.

While hundreds of thousands of Equifax users were still reeling, investment bank Macquarie pointed out the investment opportunity created by the firm’s data breach. This is a chance for rival

Experian to gain market share. Shares at the credit-scoring business have dipped on its competitor’s woes but Macquarie says it’s a short-term fall and a buying opportunity.

The investment bank said Experian should see higher demand for its ID monitoring services in light of the Equifax breach, which is believed to have affected more than 145m records – and analysts estimate it could affect revenue by as much as 15pc.

Equifax shares have already plunged more than 20pc since the breach was revealed and yesterday fell a further 1pc as the US stock market opened.

Macquarie has a target price on Experian shares of 1900p and yesterday they climbed 0.1pc, or 1p, to 1551p.

The promise of ‘ exceptionally exciting products’ could not keep

Character Group shares in the black. The Aim-listed toy maker has had success with successful brand licences, including Peppa Pig, Minecraft and Ben & Holly.

But it said markets were challenging and, while domestic sales were holding up, overseas business had not been so successful.

The group has also been hit by the recent bankruptcy of Toys R Us and performance for the year to August 2018 is expected to be significantly below expectation. Shares fell 13pc, or 57.5p, to 388p.

Analysts slashed their target prices for Vertu Motors despite the company revealing record pretax profits.

The autos retailer recorded pretax profit of £24.2m in the six months to August 31, up 29.4pc on a year ago.

Revenues were steady at £1.45bn and the group’s margin fell 10 basis points to 11pc.

Vertu said used car values were strengthening because of reduced supply and added that full-year profits should be in line with expectation.

Yet Liberum cut its target price on the stock to 60p from 90p, and Canaccord Genuity reduced its from 75p to 67p.

Shareholders will see their dividend hiked 10pc to 0.55p. Shares finished flat at 47p.