Amid the noise of the UK government’s ongoing attempts to avoid a Brexit carcrash and the fallout of Donald Trump’s whistlestop tour of Europe, the UK equity markets have had a surprisingly steady week although corporate news has been varied and in many cases intriguing.
Being within or without Europe probably won’t make much of a difference to budget airlines such as EasyJet – many of their problems emanate from Europe as it stands. This was illustrated this week as the company expressed its frustration over the seemingly annual summer air traffic controller industrial action in France although thankfully for our tip, management remains confident in meeting full year expectations. Anglo-Dutch operation Unilever has attracted plenty of column inches since it said it was shifting its dual-listed structure into a primary listing in Holland, handily keeping it in the bosom of the EU. But this week news of how troubles in Brazil have affected performance was of more interest to investors.
Meanwhile EU regulations, the bugbear of many a Brexiteer, are also hampering conglomerate Smiths Group’s medical division even though the offending regulations are not coming into play until 2020. Read how Smiths’ is being affected. Closer to home, Royal Mail updated on trading this week with Julia Faurschou asking just how much damage the dreaded EU GDPR regulations may have on the postal service’s letter volumes in the months and years to come.
Away from the EU, this week’s News Spotlight looked at the damage caused to highly valued shares in online retailer Asos this week when it issued cautious guidance on its full year performance. Elsewhere, patent issues in the US continue have weighed on drug maker Indivior’s share price for some time and news of a legal relief this week failed to lift investor spirits, while communications specialist Huntsworth is expanding in the US through acquisition and Moneysupermarket reported more details of the turnaround in its performance.
Meanwhile away from corporate newsflow, this week we published a special podcast recorded on location at the AGM of Marks & Spencer asking its shareholders what they make of its latest turnaround plan.
