Engineering and industrial software firm AVEVA (AVV) gained 6.7% to £37.96, topping the list of FTSE 100 gainers on a strong third quarter performance. The company said revenue increased about 1.5% in the nine months to 31 December 2020, underpinned by a contract renewals in the final quarter of the year. Organic constant currency revenue growth in the three months to 31 December 2020 was ...

Shares in N Brown (BWNG:AIM) cheapened 8.7% to 67.75p on Friday as the digital specialist fit fashion retailer reported a subdued third quarter performance with total product sales down 8.9% and financial services income falling 8.3%. Encouragingly however, the decline across its five strategic brands was far more modest. And the online retailer enters the new year with materially reduced ...

Engineering services firm and defence contractor Babcock (BAB) fell 17.3% to 218p as alongside a downbeat trading update the company announced a review of contract profitability and the balance sheet – expected to have negative impacts. Underlying profit fell by more than a third in nine months to date as performance in the third quarter was hurt by ongoing weakness in its civil aviation ...

UK stocks fell in early trade on Friday and look poised to close the week lower as fresh lockdowns and rising virus cases dampened hopes of a swift economic recovery. The British economy will take more than two years to recover to its pre-coronavirus levels, according to a poll by Reuters, with more than 70 economists saying it would contract 1.4% this quarter. The poll comes alongside figures ...

UK stocks rose sharply throughout morning trading on what has been dubbed ‘Super Thursday’ as a number of high-profile companies updated the market, with Christmas results revealing lockdown’s winners and losers. At around 12.15, the UK’s benchmark FTSE 100 gained 0.7% to 6,792.66 while the midcap FTSE 250 was up 0.84% to 20,789.48. CORPORATE NEWS Supermarket Tesco (TSCO) dipped ...

The past week has been a relatively quiet one when it comes to directors buying and selling shares in their companies with little of the volume usually seen, but there have been some notable deals. The biggest involves Vanessa Perrins, the wife Berkeley (BKG) chief executive Rob Perrins, who sold over 228,000 shares in the FTSE 100 housebuilder on Friday at £47.43 each, in a transaction worth ...

Shares in online musical instruments retailer Gear4Music (G4M:AIM) struck a positive note on Thursday, gaining 4% to 875p, a new all-time high, after saying it expected full-year results to be ahead of recently upgraded market expectations. FURTHER UPGRADES TO COME For the quarter to the end of December total revenues grew 30% to £52 million, with European and rest of the world sales ...

Online competitions operator Best of the Best (BOTB:AIM) saw its shares price surge on Thursday after it raised profit expectations. ‘Sales momentum since the period end has been encouraging, and we expect pre-tax profits for the full year to be materially ahead of management’s expectations’, said William Hindmarch, chief executive officer. The AIM-listed company saw revenue soar ...

Supermarket Tesco (TSCO) fell 1.5% to 238.5p as it reported a strong UK sales performance in its third quarter but was hit by rising coronavirus costs and struggles in its Booker wholesale and Tesco Bank divisions. Today’s statement revealed like-for-like growth of 6.7% to £14.7 billion in the 13 weeks to 28 November. The company said like-for-like sales in Christmas trading rose ...

Online fast fashion retailer Boohoo (BOO:AIM) upgraded annual revenue guidance after sales surged 40% to a better-than-expected £661 million in the four months to 31 December including Christmas with growth across all brands and geographies. However, shares in the Boohoo-to-PrettyLittleThing brands owner softened 0.5% to 367.4p, after a good recent run, as investors picked up on a slight ...