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Wm Morrison Supermarkets surged after it boosted its interim dividend and said it would pay a special dividend following a surge in profit in the first half of the year.
Reflecting our growth opportunities, sustained profit and cash flow progress, and future expectations, we are today announcing a further special dividend of 2.00p per share, the company said.
The company also increased its interim ordinary dividend by 4.3% to 1.93p.
For the six months ended 30 June 2019, statutory pre-tax was up 48.5% to £202m and otal revenue up 0.4% to £8.83b, with group like-for-like sales excluding fuel and VAT were up 0.2%.
The modest uptick in revenue was blamed on strong comparatives, as last years results were boosted by very favourable summer weather and events such as the World Cup and royal wedding.
But this year's summer weather was largely unfavourable and there were no similar events to boost sales, the company said.
Looking ahead, the company said it sees meaningful and sustainable growth opportunities ahead, and announced extensions of its wholesale supply partnerships with Amazon and Rontec, and two new partnerships, with Harvest Energy in the UK, and LuLu in the Middle East.
We remain on track for our medium-term target of £75m to £125m incremental profit from wholesale, services, interest and online, the company said.
At 9:34am: (LON:MRW) Morrison Wm Supermarkets PLC share price was +6.5p at 200.5p