Furniture-to-flooring retailer ScS (SCS) rallied 9% to 174.25p after reporting a massive rebound in customer orders after reopening stores on 23 May. News of a strong balance sheet and liquidity position provided investors with additional comfort on Thursday. STRONG RECOVERY In a trading update for the year ended 25 July, Sunderland-headquartered ScS flagged an exceptionally strong ...

UK markets were dragged lower in early trading on Thursday as gloomy results from banks and other companies gave investors reasons to pull money out of stocks despite drugs maker AstraZeneca (AZN) rising after topping analysts’ expectations on the back of strong drug sales during coronavirus-driven lockdowns. The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 0.8% at 6,084.50 at 8.50am. Lloyds Banking ...

If investors in Barclays (BARC) felt hard done by yesterday after their shares fell 6%, they might spare a thought for the luckless holders of shares in Lloyds Bank (LLOY) which slumped more than 9% to a new eight-year low of 25.8p after its first half trading update. Like Barclays, Lloyds increased its charges for bad loans using the new IFRS 9 accounting standard which requires banks to model ...

Indecision gripped the FTSE on Wednesday, which closed almost flat ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s vote on interest rates this evening. No new policy announcements are expected from the meeting, with it widely believed the central bank is still trying to figure out its next step, and that the meeting in September will be the next point of action. But investors will still on the lookout ...

The FTSE 100 moved into positive territory by lunchtime after beginning the day in the red as investors wait for the latest update on US monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, due later in the day. The Fed’s chair Jay Powell has already made clear the US central bank isn’t in a rush to raise interest rates from their record low of 0.25%, but equally has stated that he doesn’t want to ...

Investors were distinctly unimpressed by the latest trading update from housebuilder Taylor Wimpey (TW.), sending the shares down 9.7% to a three-month low of 120p. For the six months to 28 June the firm reported a 56% drop in revenues to £754.6 million and an operating loss of £16.1 million compared with profits of £311.9 million a year earlier. COSTS THROUGH THE ROOF The operating ...

Global smaller companies investment trust Smithson (SSON) smashed its benchmark in the first half of this year, outperforming  by a wide margin despite market turmoil due to the coronavirus pandemic. In its financial report for the six months to 30 June, the trust says its net asset value (NAV) per share total return was +15.3% compared to a 4.7% decline in the benchmark MSCI World Small- and ...

Industrial engineering software firm Aveva (AVV) saw first quarter revenue slide 3.5% as the Cambridge-based company put up a robust showing during the teeth of the Covid-19 pandemic. What was particularly interesting is that the virus outbreak appears to be hastening clients’ switch to cloud-based subscriptions rather than traditional licence and maintenance contracts, a transition that ...

High street lender Barclays (BARC) failed to recreate the enthusiasm around its first quarter earnings, with second quarter results sending investors scurrying for the exit and the share price down 4.2% to 107p. Thanks to another strong performance from the investment bank, which racked up a 31% increase in first half revenues to £6.9 billion on higher trading activity and increased issuance ...

Retail bellwether Next (NXT) rallied 9.2% to £57.46 on Wednesday after the clothing-to-homewares seller upgraded annual profit guidance and reported a second quarter sales fall that was far better than projections. For the second quarter to 25 July, Next’s full price sales fell 28% compared to the same period of 2019. While that was a significant slump, it was less than half the decline of ...