Coral Products, Mortgage Advice Bureau and Beximco

“The FTSE100 was virtually flat in lunchtime trading ahead UK Theresa May’s meeting with US President Donald Trump. On an unusually busy corporate Friday, pharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca and Shire were among the biggest fallers,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Plastic container maker Coral Products’ shares plummeted after it warned that full-year profits are likely to be materially below forecasts. The problem has been a lacklustre performance from the group’s mouldings subsidiary and confidence has not been helped by the group announcing that chief executive Roberto Zandona and finance director Stephen Fletcher are stepping down for personal reasons. Remedial action has been taken to improve the performance of the mouldings’ arm and this should start to take effect from this month onwards. Coral’s shares were down by 37.5% in lunchtime trading.

“Mortgage Advice Bureau’s expects underlying pre-tax profit to be ahead of forecasts despite the impact of a lull in the housing and mortgage market surrounding the EU referendum. Average revenue per adviser was flat in 2016 due to this lull but growth is expected both this year and next.

“Beximco Pharmaceuticals was a double-digit riser following a 17.8% rise in first half after-tax profits. The fast-growing Bangladesh-based manufacturer of generic pharmaceutical products and active pharmaceutical ingredients continues to perform well in the domestic market and has been buoyed by approval for two more products from the US Food and Drug Administration. Beximco’s shares were up by 16.1% in lunchtime trading.”

These articles are for information purposes only and are not a personal recommendation or advice.