Equities look to be ending a miserable week with a further wobble today. Click here for the trader Nicole Elliott’s view of the markets.
IC TIP UPDATES:
Banzai, a last-ditch military charge associated with the Japanese military, has been chosen by Plant Impact (PIM) as the name for its latest crop enhancer, which improves cocoa yields under stressful growing conditions. The product was launched jointly with Arysta LifeScience, which will market the product in the cocoa heartlands of west Africa, from Cameroon to the Ivory Coast. Plant Impact’s shares flourished on the news. Buy.
Housing regeneration and land trading company MJ Gleeson saw its share price turn red today after a trading update (GLE) that confirmed its June year-end numbers should be better than predicted last month. If that seems odd, it is because the company had already guided the market on Monday, in the announcement of a sale of an 18-acre site in Staffordshire. On the home-selling side, MJ Gleeson sold 751 homes in the year, up a third on the previous year, and with a solid pipeline to boot. Buy.
EE has been fined £1m by Ofcom for failing to follow its rules for handling customer complaints. The company did not provide some customers with adequate details of an independent dispute resolution scheme. Our buy tip BT (BT.A) is working with regulators to agree its purchase of the company. We retain our buy recommendation on the latter.
KEY STORIES:
Performance has wandered a little off the expected track for location services provider Ubisense (UBI), and its shares fell a whopping 15 per cent today after it announced the signing of two major contracts had slipped into the second half of the year, meaning revenue in this division will be “some way short” of that achieved in 2014. Furthermore, this shortfall is unlikely to be recovered in the second half. The board has decided to restructure the company’s operations to improve its operational profitability.
ECO Animal Health Group (EAH) has had a stellar 2015 on the stock markets, and its shares pushed further higher today after its results for the year to March revealed pre-tax profits up 38 per cent to £5.1m. This was off the back of a 22 per cent bump in turnover to £39m for the company, which develops pharmaceuticals for the treatment of animals. These figures were driven by global demand, particularly in the growth market of North America, for a medicine which treats pigs and poultry.
Eckoh (ECK) has decided not to proceed with its acquisition of Netcall after an unnamed major shareholder refused to support the acquisition. The boards of both companies bemoaned the outcome.
British Polythene Industries (BPI) is keeping up its momentum. In May, it said trading for the first four months of 2015 were up year-on-year, today it has guided the market that first-half performance will be slightly ahead of the same period in 2015. Things could have been even better – volumes were up, and its North American business was recovering, but margins have been hit by increased materials costs.
Ferrexpo (FXPO) produced a record amount of iron ore pellets in the second quarter, with total production from the first half up 8.3 per cent at 5.8 megatonnes. The company is one of the largest supplier of pellets to the global steel industry.
Central Asia Metals (CAML) saw its shares up against this morning’s weak market after updating the market that its Kazakhstan processing plant had produced 5,444 tonnes of copper, up 6.9 per cent on the comparable period last year. An incident at the plant last month, where one of the plates in its solvent mixer had fallen out of place, meaning a loss of its organic material, should impact full-year cathode copper production to the tune of 1,000 tonnes.
OTHER COMPANY STORIES:
Pure Wafer (PUR) has concluded a consultation period over a decision not to reinstate its Swansea facility, which should mean a return of surplus funds to shareholders.
Stadium Group (SDM) has increased its working capital in the first half to maintain customer service while it relocates to a new facility in China. This should fall back in the second half of the year. Trading for the six months to June remain in line with expectations.
Optical Payments (OPAY) has said trading for the six months to the end of June remains in line with market expectations. Completion of its Skrill acquisition is expected by the end of the month, subject to Financial Conduct Authority approval.
