Local high streets and out-of-town retail parks could see a resurgence as the public opts to either stay near to their homes for shopping and leisure activities, or to go somewhere with ample car parking space so they don’t mix with others in close proximity on public transport. There are already signs that commercial city centres including London are suffering as working and travel habits ...

UK stocks erased their early gains to end lower on Wednesday as investors awaited an update from the US Federal Reserve due after the market close regarding the outlook for the US economy. At 4.35pm the benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 7 points at 6,078, led lower by supermarket groups Sainsbury (SBRY) and Tesco (TSCO) and engineers Melrose (MRO) and Roll-Royce (RR.). The FTSE 250 mid-cap ...

Shares in neighbourhood café/bar restaurant group Loungers (LGRS:AIM) soared 18% to 180p after reporting 30% growth in like-for-like revenues since re-opening and record trading during August. Like many in the hospitality sector Loungers benefited from the Eat Out to Help Out scheme but even excluding the resulting uplift, like-for-like sales were positive for the nine weeks from 13 July to 13 ...

UK stocks tracked sideways in early trading on Wednesday as investors awaited an update from the Federal Reserve about the outlook for the US economy. At 8.39, the FTSE 100 was ever so slightly lower, off 0.15% at 6,096.30 points. E-commerce company The Hut (THG), the Manchester-based owner of the Lookfantastic website, surged 27% higher to 635p, having priced its IPO at 500p, as conditional ...

Last week saw the much-awaited reopening of ‘non-essential’ retailers, after 12 weeks of lockdown restrictions, with images of crowds milling around at retail parks and lengthy queues outside high-street stores. Research group Springboard says that while consumers have started to return to shops, footfall in the first week of non-essential retail reopening in England was only half the level ...

The FTSE 100 dipped 0.4% to 6,368 points on Thursday, dragged down by oil shares after Brent Crude prices fell 13% to $36.4 per barrel on heightened worries over a large build-up in US distillate inventories. Going in the other direction were pharma and beverage shares with AstraZeneca (AZN) up 1.7% to £87.4 and Diageo (DGE) 0.85% higher at £29.2. Asian shares rose to two-month highs with ...

Café cum bars operator Loungers (LGRS:AIM) continued its expansion push in the first half with the doors flung open on 10 new sites (eight Loungers and two Cosy Clubs). This leaves the ambitious company on track for 25 new sites by the time the full year closes at the end of April 2020. Loungers operates a unique all-day trading model that means combining the feel of a coffee shop, pub and ...

Investors will be coming to equity markets on Wednesday hoping for some sort of recovery from the sea of red in yesterday’s huge sell-off in UK stocks. The FTSE 100 benchmark slumped 1.75% to 7,158.76 in trading on Tuesday after President Trump again spooked investors, but the early signs in London are not hugely promising. The UK’s leading index is off another 15 points in early deals to ...

UK small cap companies are dead cheap, claim managers of the popular Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Investment Trust (IPU). ‘Equity valuations within the smaller companies sector are well below their 20 year average and we believe there is potential to make money even in this highly uncertain environment’, insisted Jonathan Brown and Robin West, joint fund managers of the Invesco ...

UK stocks get off to a weak start on Wednesday with the FTSE 100 index down 0.4% at 7,063 after US markets reversed their gains towards the end of yesterday’s trading session. The Oil sector is one of the few bright spots as crude prices continue their recovery. As Brent futures nudge back above $60 shares in BP (BP.) add 1.3% to 495p while Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) shares hold firm at ...

In our view there are two key things which stand-out about newly-listed casual dining outfit Loungers (LGRS:AIM) which make it an interesting investment proposition. First, because each Lounge is a hybrid format, it doesn’t compete directly with restaurants, coffee shops and bars in a local area, so it has no direct competitor. This means that Loungers is uniquely positioned to benefit ...