Buyers were out in force for international private healthcare group Mediclinic (MDC) on Friday after the company flagged a ‘material recovery’ in profit margins. First half revenues also moved ahead of pre-pandemic levels, the company added, revealing a 12% increase in revenues, news that saw the share price jump 7.5% to 331.8p, close to their 2021 highs of 344.6p struck in ...

Shares in The Mercantile Investment Trust (MRC) were marked up 1% to 264p on Friday after the small and mid cap-focused fund announced a benchmark-beating first half performance. Fund managers Guy Anderson and Anthony Lynch insisted they are sticking with their positive outlook too, though they anticipate the pace of economic growth will moderate. Income investors welcomed the news ...

UK stocks started Friday’s session on a positive note with the FTSE 100 index trading up as much as 35 points or 0.5% to a new high for the year of 7,242 points. 'Anyone with an interest in charts should note the FTSE 100 has seen a breakout and is now trading at a higher level than at any of its closing prices year to date', observed AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould. The strong ...

Surging commodity prices pushed the FTSE 100 to a two-month high at the close. The boom for metals and energy saw miners dominating the top of the FTSE 100 leader board, with three-month futures contracts for aluminium, copper, nickel, palladium and more rising sharply on Thursday and seeing the likes of Anglo American (AAL), Glencore (GLEN), Antofagasta (ANTO) and Rio Tinto (RIO) all catching ...

Surging commodity prices continued to drive UK stock higher in early afternoon trading, with miners dominating the top of the FTSE 100 leader board. Three-month futures contracts for aluminium, copper, nickel, palladium and more rose sharply on Thursday with Anglo American (AAL), Glencore (GLEN), Antofagasta (ANTO) and Rio Tinto (RIO) all catching the uplift. Elsewhere, Darktrace ...

Made in Britain cyber security tech business Darktrace (DARK) has seen a boom in investors buying the stock, sparking a 15%-plus two-day surge in the share price to a 967.5p record. Driving this new bout of enthusiasm for the Cambridge-based company is an increasing feeling within the investment community that Darktrace is a genuine long-run growth business with significant capacity for ...

Directors at Minds + Machines Group (MMX:AIM) and Zegona Communications (ZEG:AIM) have both used recent share price strength to offload shares. Earlier this week, non-executive chairman Guy Elliott and non-executive director Henry Turcan sold shares in Minds + Machines with a combined total value of over £10 million. On 11 October, Turcan sold 94,773,245 shares at a price of 10p ...

Shares in recruitment specialist Hays (HAS) jumped 4% to 169p after the firm posted a 41% rise in net fee income for the first quarter to September. The surge came as demand for permanent workers soared as the global economic boom gathers pace. The results mark the second consecutive quarter of 40% or so like for like growth in overall net fees and another increase of more than 60% in like for ...

Homewares retailer Dunelm (DNLM) has reported continued strong growth and market share gains for the first quarter ended 25 September 2021 in the face of demanding comparatives, sending the shares 1.2% higher to £13.15 on Thursday. Impressively, the curtains, quilts and kitchenware seller’s total sales grew 8.3% to £388.8 million against a tough quarterly comparator from last year, when ...

Shares in defence and security company QinetiQ (QQ.) plummeted 9.5% to 297.8p after flagging supply chain disruption challenges which could result in a significant downgrade to short-term guidance. The issue relates to a large complex multi-year programme and the company said it is working closely with the customer and ‘making progress, jointly with our supply chain, towards recovery of ...