Elegant Hotels, Ashmore & Diamondcorp

“The FTSE was up 40 points at 7,018 in early trading on Friday as the pound edges lower once more,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“We may grumble about an attempted 10% hike in the price of a jar of Marmite, but I’d bet most of us would inevitably hand over the cash. The same cannot be said about luxury holidays in the Caribbean, hence why Elegant Hotels is looking a bit windswept in its latest trading update. The Barbados-focused hotelier is blaming the Brexit vote for a drop in bookings which prompts analysts to slash earnings forecasts. You may think that sounds like an excuse, given its presidential suites are nearly 7,000km away, but 70% of its customers come from the UK. If they are worrying about a few extra pence for their favourite toast topping, it could be a resounding ‘no’ to an expensive Caribbean holiday. The pound has weakened 17% against the Bajan dollar since the EU referendum – making it much more expensive to fund your rum cocktail on the beach experience."

“FTSE 250 fund manager Ashmore is struggling to attract new money into its funds despite enjoying a $2bn rise in assets under management in the three months to 30 September 2016. The rise in value of assets was solely down to positive investment performance. Emerging markets have rallied this year, so Ashmore’s underlying assets in its portfolio of funds will have enjoyed a boost. Equally important to the future of the group is seeing a net increase in the flow of customer money. Sadly this remained flat in the three month period.

“You’d presume Diamondcorp would be a runaway success as it has an operating mine packed with shiny diamonds and Tiffany’s has signed up as a major customer. Sadly brittle finances are threatening to destabilise the miner with its shares down 75% since the start of last month. There’s a new twist to its plans to find more cash to support the business with a convertible debt provider ending talks over new finance. Diamondcorp has now gone cap in hand to shareholders but warns failure to get new money could force it to down tools forever.”

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