Is today a turning point for Marks & Spencer’s share price? November 5, 2014 Marks & Spencer's share price has soared 8.3 per cent this morning, suggesting that investors were pleasantly surprised by its better-than-expected results. Although it marked its 13th quarter of declines, the 3.4 per cent drop in clothing was lower than consensus. Analysts this morning are suggesting this could be, if not the beginning of [...]
WANdisco share price falls as investment costs lead to higher losses at online tech firm September 18, 2014 WANdisco, the Sheffield-based firm that specialises in big data products for businesses, saw its shares tumble 5.1 per cent yesterday after reporting its losses had more than doubled during the first half of the year. While revenues rose 43 per cent to $5m (£3m), losses increased from $7.5m to $18.5m as the firm invested $4.2m [...]
London Report: Scotland and MPC minutes the main focus for the City September 14, 2014 ALL EYES will be on the result of Thursday’s Scottish referendum, with market watchers keen to know whether or not the 300-year-old union will continue. As far as more normal risk events are concerned, the main one will be Wednesday’s release of the latest set of MPC meeting minutes. That will be complemented by the [...]
Best of the Brokers for 28 August 2014 August 27, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com JAMES FISHER Investec has maintained its “buy” rating, wile increasing the target price to 1,500p from 1,450p. The broker believes the company has continued to deliver strong results, with a good long-term strategy driving growth forward, highlighted by recent contract wins and select [...]
Analyst Views: What did you think of Supergroup’s recent trading performance? September 4, 2014 KATE CALVERT | INVESTEC SuperGroup’s slightly better-than-expected first quarter performance should reassure that the UK is solid and the long-term growth story intact. Encouragingly like-for-likes are positive in the second quarter to date…we believe the company is on the right trajectory to achieve our forecasts. JOHN STEVENSON | PEEL HUNT Like-for-like sales were in line [...]
Retail investors are worth courting – Editor’s Letter October 5, 2014 London’s been having a pretty good time of things as far as raising money for newly listed companies is concerned. So far this year 99 floats on the London Stock Exchange and the junior Alternative Investment Market have raised a total of £10.4bn, up from £8.7bn last year and only £2.5bn in 2012 when the [...]
Fever-Tree IPO: Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow are cracking open the bubbly for a market debut November 4, 2014 When boom turns to bust, it can be best to keep your head down, get back to work and wait for a better time to dive into choppy waters. Plenty of other firms have had second thoughts about their flotations in recent week, as the frenzy of earlier months gave way to a market slump. [...]
FTSE dragged down by HSBC and utilities – London Report November 3, 2014 BRITAIN’S top equity index broke a four-day rise yesterday as a drop in major utility stocks and in global banking group HSBC dragged the UK stock market lower. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed down by 0.9 per cent at 6,487.97 points. Last week, it had extended a rebound off 15-month lows reached in October. [...]
Smiths takes a tumble after 11pc profit fall September 17, 2014 MULTINATIONAL engineering firm Smiths Group saw its shares fall the most of all companies on the FTSE 100 yesterday, as it revealed its pre-tax profits had plummeted 11 per cent in the last year to £445m. Smiths Group shares fell six per cent yesterday to finish on 1,268p, as the engineering firm said the strength [...]
City Moves for 16 October 2014 | Who’s switching jobs October 15, 2014 Investec Specialist Bank Christian Hess has been appointed head of the bank’s newly created financial sponsor transaction group within its investment banking business. He was previously a partner at Compass Partners International, founded Hess & Co Capital Advisors, and has also held senior roles at UBS. Mobius Life The life insurance and institutional investment platform [...]