Persimmon, Rank and JRP Group

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“Equities made a positive start as investors look ahead to UK manufacturing data and a raft of eurozone purchasing managers' indices,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“House-builder Persimmon has shrugged off concerns over a Brexit slowdown with its reservation rates rising since the start of July. Customer interest since the referendum has been robust with visitor numbers to the group’s sites 20% up on a year ago. Current forward sales are up 2% and with the traditionally slower summer weeks coming to an end, a good autumn sales season is anticipated. Persimmon topped the blue-chip board in early trading, up by more than 4%.

“Casino and bingo group Rank saw like-for-like growth across all its brands in the year to the end of June and trading since then has been in line with forecasts. The Brexit vote will have little or no impact on the group’s performance as Rank is predominantly a UK facing business with limited exposure to non-sterling costs and earnings. 

JRP Group led the FTSE250 Index after a bullish update. The group, which was formed from the merger of Just Retirement and Partnership Assurance in April, is targeting cost savings of at least £40m. Trading is on track in defined benefit de-risking, individual guaranteed income for life solutions and lifetime mortgages and the merger continues to progress in line with expectations.”

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