FTSE 250 has 20,000 in sight

Isn't the FTSE 100 doing well? Less than three weeks ago the blue-chip index was trading near February lows and nerves were frayed. Now, buyers are back and it's close to a one-month high. But, scroll down to the mid-cap index, away from the fancy multi-nationals, and there's a more interesting story.

London's FTSE 250 index just made another all-time best at 19,827, only weeks after stringing together a run of record highs, ended only by Theresa May's election announcement on 18 April.

Since then, the index - full of companies dependent more on domestic growth - is up over 2.5%, driven by precision engineering star Renishaw, biotech BTG and IT provider Computacenter, further supported by Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French presidential election and 3% surge in the value of sterling against the dollar.

On Tuesday, the 250 hit a fresh high at 19,827, and moves within striking distance of the magic 20,000 mark.  Below 15,000 briefly after the EU referendum for the first time since 2014, the index is now up a third since, and there's enough in the tank to hit the magic number soon.

Renowned City commentator, Panmure Gordon's David Buik, talked to us recently about the FTSE 250, correctly tipping the index to keep hitting new highs in the run up to the general election. He was right, and you can hear what else he has to say about the markets in this video.

Despite iron ore prices fall to lowest level since October, Ukraine-based miner Ferrexpo is up almost 5% Tuesday, extending its advance since 18 April. Another favourite during the past few weeks – doorstep lender Paragon Group of Companies – is bid higher, too.

Paysafe, the £2.3 billion digital payments outfit, has had a good AGM. Boss Joel Leonoff has told those who turned up in the Isle of Man that Paysafe has had a "strong start to 2017" and that all its divisions are "performing as expected".

Told to keep looking for low double-digit organic revenue growth in 2017 and for the company to "at least maintain" a 30.1% adjusted cash profit margin, investors chased the shares almost 4% higher.

Anglo-Australian asset manager Henderson is in play after UBS analyst Kieren Chidgey upgraded the shares from 'neutral' to 'buy' and beefed up his price target from 240p to 275p, implying upside of 18%.

Ahead of the firm's "transformational" merger with American fund manager Janus this month, Chidgey says the shares currently trade at a discount to the merged entity's historical PE of 14, despite cost savings and a potential recovery in performance fees supporting strong profit growth.

While lagging the others here, bookie William Hill did enough to meet City expectations Tuesday. It's been a "positive" start to the financial year, chief Philip Bowcock told investors, and the shares promptly edged up to a 2017 high.

Of course, proof that the recovery remains on track is good news, although it will have to maintain strong growth at the online business - 16% during the 17 weeks to 25April - to make up for a slowdown at the core high street betting shops.

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