Shares News

Shares in online musical retailer Gear4music Holdings (G4M) sounded a flat note today, retreating 8% to 222.5p as the company reported a strong recovery in first half gross profit but downgraded its revenue expectations for the full-year. Revenues for the period ended 30 September were 16% ahead at £49.4m, driven by strong growth of 33% in international sales while the UK market contributed ...

Shares in B&M European Value Retail (BME) cheapened 7.7% to 349p on Tuesday after the variety goods value retailer’s first half results came in shy of expectations due to poor trading in its German chain, Jawoll. The German business has been placed under review, while a flat half-time dividend of 2.7p from the cash-generative B&M may appear grudging to some income-hungry ...

Shares in FTSE 250 industrial and electronics supplier Electrocomponents (ECM) tumbled 13% to 610p, erasing all of October’s gains, after the firm delivered another disappointing trading update. For the six months to the end of September, operating profits on a like-for-like basis were 2.1% lower at £104m while revenues grew by just 4.5% on a like-for-like basis to £978.7m. In July ...

Free-to-air broadcaster ITV (ITV) gains 0.9% to 137.1p as England’s run to the final of the Rugby World Cup and the continued success of Love Island helps underpin a solid third quarter set of numbers. Total advertising revenue was up 1% in the third quarter, at the top end of guidance, with the company expecting fourth quarter revenue to be flat to up 1%. Non-advertising revenue was flat at ...

The FTSE 100 got off to a good start on this morning as investors await the latest UK jobs data to be published today with cautious optimism. It follows yesterday’s data on the UK economy, which showed the country avoided a recession as it recorded 0.3% growth in gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter of the year. The UK’s benchmark index rose 21.44 points, or 0.29%, to ...

Shares in food-on-the-go retailer Greggs (GRG) jumped 16.5% to £20.64 on Monday after management upgraded full year profit guidance. Weak footfall may be a problem for other high street retailers, as demonstrated by October’s BRC-Springboard footfall survey, yet Greggs continues to lure hungry consumers into its stores with new, competitively priced products and extended opening ...

In its first major update since its bombshell decision to cancel previous funding plans, potash miner Sirius Minerals (SXX) said it has found a new way to get its project going which requires a lot less upfront cash. The former FTSE 250 miner has fallen a long way since announcing it was cancelling plans to raise $500m through a bond sale, which in turn led to a further $2.5bn funding agreement ...

The UK may have avoided a technical recession, with a return to growth in the third quarter after a period of contraction in the second quarter, but there wasn’t much else to cheer in today’s GDP update. This was reflected in the performance of the pound which slipped back, albeit modestly, against the dollar in the immediate aftermath of the release. UK GDP grew by 0.3% in the third ...

The British Retail Consortium released an uninspiring update on the state of the high street today, saying that the number of shoppers visiting non-food retail stores fell 3.2% in October compared with a year ago. Chief executive Helen Dickinson said, ‘high streets were hit hardest in October, with the wet and wintery weather putting off many consumers from venturing out to the ...

UK stocks started the week lower after Asian markets sank as protests in Hong Kong and ongoing uncertainty over a US-China trade deal cast a shadow over trading. China’s Shanghai Composite index fell 0.5% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.6%. At 8.30am the FTSE 100 was down by 0.5% to 7,319 with banks, industrials, metals, mining and oil equipment holding the index back while the ...