The FTSE 100 closed Monday’s trading session 0.4% lower at 7,203.83 points as US stocks slipped, energy prices continued to surge following weak Chinese data overnight and UK investors fretted over a potential November interest rate rise.
China’s gross domestic product grew at a relatively measly 4.9% in the September quarter amid supply bottlenecks and property developer Evergrande’s woes.
Travel companies were amongst the biggest fallers on the UK market as investors priced in the impact on the sector of rising fuel prices and a consumer that could soon feel the pinch from higher rates.
CORPORATE NEWS
In corporate news, e-commerce company THG (THG) rallied 20.5% to 348.8p as founder Matthew Moulding announced plans to give up his golden share, paving the way for the company to join FTSE indices. The shares fell sharply on a poorly received investor event last week.
Sydney based gaming machine maker Aristocrat Leisure is acquiring British gambling software manufacturer Playtech (PTEC) after making a £2.1 billion cash offer. This equates to a 680p a share, a 58% premium to Friday’s closing price. Shares were marked 58% higher to 678.5p.
Supermarket leviathan Tesco (TSCO) has started its £500 million share buyback that was initially announced on October 6th. The market responded positively to the news and the shares edged 0.6% higher to 269.5p.
Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca (AZN) recommended that shareholders of its American depositary shares reject a ‘mini-tender’ offer from TRC Capital Investment as the offer price was below the market price.
TRC Capital’s offer price of $57.88 per ADS in cash is 4.5% less than the closing price per share on October 8, 2021, the last trading day before the mini-tender offer commenced. The market was uninspired by the news, sending AstraZeneca’s shares 1.1% lower to £86.99.
Shares in bus and train business Stagecoach (SGC) fell 3.2% to 79.6p after revealing it had given rival National Express (NEX) more time to make a formal takeover bid following a £445 million proposal made last month.
Initially National Express was supposed to either make a firm offer or walk away by 19 October. The deadline has been extended to 5pm on 16 November.
Investment manager Schroders (SDR) drifted 0.6% lower to £35.76 despite announcing that its assets under management had risen 2.4% in the third quarter of 2021, compared to the second. Assets under management at 30 September were £716.9 billion, up from £700.4 billion at 30 June.
SMALL CAP WRAP
Shares in aquaculture firm Benchmark (BMK:AIM) jumped 11.4% to 63.5p on higher than average volume after the company said full year operating profits would be ‘significantly ahead’ of market expectations.
Following a strong third quarter, which saw sales up 25% driven by a rise in demand across all three divisions, the fourth quarter to the end of September saw continued strong momentum thanks to an ongoing recovery in the company’s end markets.
Fast-moving consumer products maker Supreme (SUP:AIM) improved 7.7% to 195p as investors applauded a positive first half trading update from the batteries, vaping and vitamins supplier.
Margins have proved ‘particularly strong’, enabling the Manchester-headquartered group to generate ‘significant’ year-on-year growth in profitability, while the in-house manufacture of key products has shielded Supreme from the supply chain problems impacting the world economy.
IT services and communications solutions group CloudCoCo (CLCO:AIM) said it expected revenue to ‘marginally exceed’ that of last year and core earnings to meet market expectations for the full year, sending the shares up 3.3% to 1.6p.
Shares in internet platform company CentralNic (CNIC:AIM) surged 7.9% higher to 123p after it upgraded its outlook on performance amid ongoing momentum during the nine months through September.
