magazine archive
magazine archive
Story In Numbers
Kier’s 10% rally is not as impressive as some may think
Thursday 01 Feb 2018Construction company Kier’s ( KIE ) shares soared by 10.1% to £11.04 on 25 January as it made a reassuring statement to the market about the fallout from the collapse of Carillion ( CLLN ) . It is worth putting the share price jump in the context of previous share price movements. Kier’s shares had...
Vertu crashes after big slump in new car sales
Thursday 01 Feb 2018New car sales slumped by 13.2% on a like-for-like basis at Vertu Motors ( VTU:AIM ) in the four months to 31 December, triggering a profit warning from the company. Vertu has been hit by further declines in the new car market due to the depreciation of sterling and weaker consumer spending in the...
China’s rapid growth fed by mounting debt pile
Thursday 25 Jan 2018China’s latest official economic growth numbers are in, showing surprisingly strong economic growth through 2017 of 6.9%. That’s up from a 26-year low in 2016 of 6.7%, according to Bloomberg statistics, and beating the government’s own 6.5% target. Yet this brings the soaring debt mountain of the...
CVS surges on sales recovery
Thursday 25 Jan 2018Shares in veterinary services provider CVS ( CVSG:AIM ) rebounded by 23% to £12.68 after reporting (18 Jan) a recovery in like-for-like sales growth in November and December. This was a relief to investors who’d been stung by a disappointing trading update on 30 November 2017 which triggered a...
90% of Chemring's pre-tax profit wiped off by exceptionals
Thursday 25 Jan 2018Chemring’s ( CHG ) reported 30% increase in underlying pre-tax profit to £44.1m may sound like great news. However, one-off items or exceptionals take £40.1m off the figure or 90.9% of the total. This means that at a statutory level, pre-tax profit slumped by half, from £8m in 2016 to £4m last year...
December hurts for high streets and shopping centres
Thursday 18 Jan 2018According to the latest BRC-Springboard monthly data, UK Total Retail Footfall fell 3.5% in December, the worst result for any month since March 2013 reflecting a Monday Christmas, poor weather and the inexorable consumer migration online. Alarmingly, all three of the BRC-Springboard’s retail...
Oil back at $70 per barrel
Thursday 18 Jan 2018Oil prices have hit their highest levels in more than three years, hovering around the $70 per barrel mark. Tensions in Iran, OPEC curbs on production and a surprise drawdown in US crude inventories have all contributed to the rise. This is good news for major oil producers like BP ( BP. ) and...
RPC a solution for government’s plastics push
Thursday 18 Jan 2018Government plans to end avoidable plastic waste by 2042 may have positive implications for packaging giant RPC ( RPC ) . The FTSE 250 company is already one of Europe’s biggest plastics recyclers, processing an estimated 70,000 tonnes every year. With China having closed its doors to overseas...
How serious is Wressle setback for Edgon Resources?
Thursday 11 Jan 2018On 5 January it emerged that the Planning Inspectorate had unexpectedly upheld a decision to block the development of the Wressle oil discovery in North Lincolnshire. The operator of the field, Egdon Resources ( EDR:AIM ) and its partners Union Jack Oil ( UJO:AIM ) and Europa Oil & Gas ( EOG:...
Opportunity for property fund on Macau growth surge
Thursday 11 Jan 2018Macau Property Opportunities Fund ( MPO ) has laid out several reasons in its fourth quarter update as to why it could enjoy a prosperous year in 2018. Average rentals have grown by 6.4% quarter-on-quarter to HK$19.95 per square foot per month at The Waterside, one of the few waterfront living...