Halfords, Moneysupermarket.com and N Brown

“The FTSE100 opened in positive territory as open as investors keep an eye on proceedings at Davos and look ahead to tomorrow's inauguration of Donald Trump as the next US president,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Bike and car accessories group Halfords was an early riser after maintaining its profit forecasts and wooing investors with a special dividend of 10p. Halfords had strong sales during the important Christmas quarter. The group is seeing continued growth in its fitting services and has taken a minority stake in TyresOnTheDrive.com, the mobile tyre fitting company. Halfords was up by more than 6.9% in early trading.

“Price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com is on track to report strong full-year results. Group revenues for the three months to the end of December were up 20% rounded off another good year for the company. Full-year results are expected to show revenues up by 12% and adjusted operating profits up by around 8%. The group’s core money business, credit cards and unsecured personal loans, delivered good growth but interest rate cuts have weakened both savings and current account switching. Moneysupermarket’s shares were up by over 9.5%.

“Home shopping group N Brown’s shares jumped after a strong third quarter with Christmas trading driven by a record cyber fortnight. Online sales were up 12% and now account for 70% of group revenue. N Brown is operating in what continues to be a challenging period for the industry and it is still in the process of delivering some key elements of its transformation plan but it remains on track to meet full-year forecasts. N Brown’s shares were up by more than 9%.”

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