Investors continue to celebrate the Conservative election victory as the FTSE 100 builds on last week's gains. Click here to read this morning's Market Outlook from Nicole Elliott.
IC TIP UPDATES:
In another tempo change to the Centamin (CEY) and Endeavour Mining (CAN:EDV) merger dance, the two companies have met and planned an investigation of the other’s assets. Under UK takeover rules, Endeavour has to make a firm offer by the end of the year. The Canadian company said it had asked Centamin – now down a chief executive after Andrew Pardey left last week – to request an extension from the Takeover Panel but said this had not yet happened. Buy.
Cineworld (CINE) is still dealing with the massive debt it brought on to acquire US cinema chain Regal, but this morning it has announced another c$2.8bn (£1.6bn) deal to acquire Canadian chain Cineplex. The shares are down 2 per cent on the news, which reflects our feelings, too. Sell.
KEY STORIES:
Shares in Sports Direct (SPD) are up 17 per cent this morning following the group’s half-year results. After the chaos surrounding its last year results, athe half-year performance was reassuringly solid, with UK sports retail sales up 7.2 per cent, and the group gross margin up 230 basis points to 43.8 per cent. Perhaps more significantly, management said the “green shoots of recovery” were starting to appear at House of Fraser, chief executive Mike Ashley’s big bet on department stores that, until now, looked to have turned out disastrously.
OTHER COMPANY NEWS:
Chemring (CHG) said that its full-year performance sat “slightly ahead of our initial expectations”, which was driven by a good year for its Sensors & Information segment, where revenues grew by 51 per cent to £131.9m. Chemring’s other segment, Countermeasures & Energetics, experienced a revenue decline of 3 per cent to £203.3m.
