The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers among London Main Market small-caps on Tuesday.
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SMALL-CAP - WINNERS
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Asos PLC, up 4.6% at 1,609.00 pence, 12-month range 1,554.00p-5,426.00p. The online fashion giant expects to take a £14 million hit from its decision to stop selling clothes in Russia, in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The prediction comes as the retailer said it sank to a pretax loss for the six months to the end of February, spending heavily on an overhaul to win over more customers longer term. Bosses said they saw a marked slowdown in sales during the period as the benefits from the Covid-19 pandemic eased with shoppers able to head back to high streets. Sales still rose by 1% to £2.00 billion in the six-month period, but Asos posted a £15.8 million pretax loss, swinging from a £106.4 million profit a year before. Broker Shore Capital says: ‘While this should be read as an encouraging statement from Asos, it comes with low expectations; the business is still looking for its next CEO – who is expected to join and embrace the strategy presented to the markets in November; until then, it is challenging to have confidence in how the company will navigate the current environment.’
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Nanoco Group PLC up 4.7% at 30.25 pence, 12-month range 17.20p-30.25p. Pretax loss in six months to January 31 narrows to £2.3 million from £2.7 million in same period year prior. Revenue rises to £1.1 million from £1.0 million. Chief Executive Brian Tenner says: ‘Good progress has continued on a number of fronts throughout the Period, with extremely encouraging progress on manufacturing scale-up which has the potential to lead to our first commercial production orders.’ Decides to consolidate all its activities onto Runcorn production site as it progresses towards commercialisation.
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SMALL-CAP - LOSERS
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Deliveroo PLC, down 2.5% at 106.75 pence, 12-month range 100.95p-396.80p. Food delivery platform boosted sales in the first three months of the year, despite facing tough comparisons from a year earlier when restaurants were shut due to the pandemic. More customers placed orders during the first three months of the year, although the amount spent per order fell. Fewer, larger orders are more profitable for Deliveroo because its largest cost is its workforce of gig-economy riders. Across all markets Deliveroo operates in, gross transaction value hit £1.8 billion in the period – up 11% on the same three months a year ago. This included an 18% rise in orders to 82.4 million, although the amount spent per order fell 7% to £21.70 on average. In the UK and Ireland GTV was up 12% to £956 million, with orders up 20% to 40.7 million but, again, the average spend per order was down 7% to £23.50.
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