Shares in aquaculture company Benchmark Holdings (BMK:AIM) sank 5% to 54p on Friday after reporting a 15% fall in full year revenues to £105.6 million, resulting in a 51% drop in operating profits to £7.9 million. TRANSFORMATION ACHIEVED Benchmark has successfully restructured the business over the last year, exiting loss-making activities and divesting of non-core activities. The company ...

People have continued to spend on the health and wellbeing of their pets during the pandemic, implying that retailers and service providers in this area should be fairly resilient. While the UK pet population has been broadly stable for the past decade, spending on pets has grown by 7% annually over the same period according to investment bank Liberum. Spend on vet services has also seen ...

A 9.4% discount to net asset value at Odyssean Investment Trust (OIT) looks attractive for investors keen to pocket a ready-made portfolio of small caps with significant performance improvement potential. The trust looks to generate attractive total returns, principally through long-term capital growth, by backing often under-researched and undervalued smaller companies. Besides the ...

UK stocks see-sawed throughout Friday due to a dearth of company updates and following the news that Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would resign for health reasons. Markets are closed on Monday for a bank holiday. The benchmark FTSE 100 index ended drifting off 36 points or 0.6% to finish at 5,963, back below the psychologically significant 6,000 level. Gains in Miners ...

UK stocks edged higher on a quiet Friday for company news following an earlier setback on news that Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would resign for health reasons. Markets are closed on Monday for a bank holiday. At midday the benchmark FTSE 100 index added 4 points or 0.1% to take it back above the 6,000 level to 6,004 points. Miners Anglo American (AAL), Fresnillo ...

FTSE opened 0.3% weaker at 5,992 points on Friday as investors digested Fed chairman Powell’s speech where he signalled the central bank would allow inflation to run higher and unemployment to run lower. Also impacting markets and foreign exchange today was news that Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was stepping down for health reasons, ending his run as the country's longest-serving ...

Well-regarded stock-picker Stuart Widdowson says there is now ‘obvious value’ in UK markets, a domain being shunned by international investors, for the first time in four years. His comments accompany maiden half year results from his new vehicle, Odyssean Investment Trust (OIT), where his first seven portfolio picks are revealed. Odyssean Investment Trust listed on the Main Market in May ...

As the FTSE 100 index rises by 56.2 points to 7,440 ahead of UK unemployment figures and following uninspiring performances on Wall Street overnight and in Asia this morning, insurer Admiral (ADM) sinks 6.75% to £20.31. Despite reporting marginal growth in first half profits and a boost in customer numbers and turnover, CEO David Stevens concedes some extra costs of large injury claims ...

What sort of world will the infants of today experience when they reach adulthood? Will we be flying to work, holidaying on Mars, wearing super-sensory foil suits? Probably not, but we may well be desalinating huge quantities of sea water for drinking, eating more biologically enhanced super foods grown in urban farms, speeding through the city streets in self-driving cars, and wearing gadgets ...

London's FTSE 100 pushes higher in early dealings, extending a 'Super Thursday' surge following the Bank of England's stimulus boost. One of the day's biggest corporate stories involves Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which reports a widening of interim losses from £179 million to £2 billion due to rising insurance mis-selling compensation demands and other litigation costs. The UK-focused lender ...

Food and farming supplier Benchmark (BMK:AIM) nets a new contract for one of the world’s top salmon producers Lerøy, triggering a 8% rise to 54p. A subsidiary of Benchmark’s Breeding & Genetics division, SalmoBreed, has signed a ten-year agreement with Lerøy Aakvik Roe and Stamfisk for the supply of genetically modified salmon eggs. The agreement allows Lerøy to start breeding ...

Mid caps continue to take the lead following yesterday’s rally. The FTSE 250 index rises 1% to 16,866 as the market warms to news that Theresa May will become Prime Minister. She is seen as a safe pair of hands to guide the country through difficult times.   Online clothing retailer ASOS (ASC:AIM) jumps 4.7% to £45.04 on an impressive trading update. Total retail sales were up ...

Agriculture and sustainable fish farming specialist Benchmark (BMK:AIM) can put 2015’s profit warning behind it and enter a period of sustained growth. The global population is expected to hit 8.5 billion by 2030 leading to increasing demand for fish protein. This could be at the centre of a new phase of growth at the supplier of products and services that increase productivity and ...

Animal breeding and genetics expert Benchmark (BMK:AIM) falls 3.6% to 66.5p as pre-tax losses in the year to 30 September 2015 rocket more than 700% higher to £11.4 million in 12 months. This came despite revenue growing 25% to £44.2 million during the year with higher scientific R&D spend blamed for its widening losses, although this was only £2.4 million greater than it spent in ...

London shares tumble lower in early deals on Tuesday as falls among big-ticket resources and financials outweigh a few slim gains among retail and leisure issues. This after a mixed turn on Wall Street overnight and softer Asian markets this morning. Europe is moderately lower. The FTSE 100 index slumps nearly 90 points, or about 1.5%, to 5,970, with small cpas similraly lower, although midcaps ...

With a rise of 19.9%, the best performing UK equity market during 2015 was the FTSE AIM 50 Index, which is comprised of the 50 largest UK companies quoted on the AIM market. London Stock Exchange (LSE) launched AIM in 1995 as a platform for small growth companies to gain access to capital. A number of those early fledgling companies have grown up over the last two decades, so today the FTSE AIM ...

UK shares are largely flat despite a swathe of corporate announcements on Monday. The FTSE 100 slips a barely noticeable 10 points lower to 6,570, although midcaps again suffer more harsh treatment from investors. The FTSE 250 index slumps more than 1090 points, or 0.6%, to 17,392. Theme park operator Merlin Entertainments (MERL) tumbles 4.6% to 403.8p after warning the high profile rollercoaster ...

Animal-focused biotech Benchmark (BMK:AIM) is one of London’s largest fallers on Wednesday after warning that sales and profits will be significantly lower than expected this year. The shares have plummeted 28.7% to 79p Rising generic competition is hitting its sea lice treatment, Salmosan, in Chile during a peak time in the seasonal sales cycle. The cost of launching a new formulation of ...

London’s index of blue chip stocks is trading largely flat at 7,030 despite a number of upbeat comments from Britain's high streets. Fashion giant Next (NXT) nudges 3.2% higher to £73.95 on a better-than-expected first quarter trading update, including news the clothing titan will pay a further special dividend of 60p in August. We outlined Next's 'Perfect Share' characteristics in a recent ...

It is said that actions speak louder than words. So when a fund manager who has returned 2,382% between 1988 and 2014 while the FTSE All-Share managed only 848% buys a stock the market takes note. It’s safe to say that Neil Woodford is the one fund manager in everyone’s sights. To help you keep abreast of the latest deals made by Woodford, we’ve scanned the market to spot his team’s ...