Immedia, Fox Marble and IOG

“The FTSE 100 was marginally down on a quiet day for corporate news with weakness among insurers and asset managers acting as a drag on the index,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Former Radio 1 DJ Bruno Brookes’s Immedia Group proved a hit with investors following a significantly higher-than-expected take-up of the Subway Radio station by the fast-food group’s franchisees. This is set to accelerate into the next financial year as the service is rolled out across existing stores and new franchises are opened. Immedia’s contract with Arcadia will expire at the end of the year but it a deal with a major retailer is expected to be confirmed in the near future. Its shares were up by nearly 9% in lunchtime trading. 

“Fox Marble has been hit by the fall in sterling since the Brexit vote. The group’s order book currently stands at €4.1m which is €0.5m lower than the end of June and is due to currency fluctuations on sterling orders post the EU referendum and a revised order from a customer. The group, though, is making positive progress on quarry operations and its factory in Kosovo is nearing completion. Installation of the polishing and resin line will remove its reliance on processing in Carrara and enable the company to benefit from improved margins. 

“Independent Oil and Gas was a double-digit faller after an appraisal well on the Skipper project drew a blank. The well will now be plugged and abandoned. IOG had already announced that the well achieved its primary objective of retrieving good quality reservoir condition oil samples in order to optimise the Skipper field development plan. The well's secondary objective was to drill two mapped reservoir structures beneath the Skipper oil field in the Lower Dornoch and Maureen formations. This is now complete but no hydrocarbons were found. IOG’s shares were down by over 14% in lunchtime trading.”

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