Real estate investor LondonMetric Property (LMP) continues to have a good crisis as it said it would increase its quarterly dividend off the back of strong rent collection in the period. The shares were up 2.1% to 216.2p. The company, which is focused on logistics properties, said it will increase its first quarterly dividend for the financial year ending 31 March 2021. The dividend will be ...

UK stocks were softer on Thursday on worries that a spike in coronavirus cases in the US and China could presage a second wave of infections. In line with European indices, the FTSE 100 slipped 0.3% to 6,232 points with housebuilders and travel stocks racking up losses while defensive stocks like supermarkets limited the downside. Oil prices were steady with Brent crude futures trading up ...

I’ve seen several companies let retail investors take part in their fundraising but all the new shares are gone by the time I found out. Shouldn’t my ISA provider give me plenty of notice about these opportunities? Malcolm, Kent Senior reporter Ian Conway replies: Shares has received numerous messages from readers regarding the flurry of new issues and the fact that retail ...

Shares in grocery delivery firm Ocado (OCDO) shed 6% to £19.57 after it announced the placing of £657m of new shares at £19.60 and a £350m convertible bond due in 2027 with a coupon or yield of 0.75% to finance its continued expansion plans. The share placing, a small part of which was made available to retail investors via the PrimaryBid share dealing service, amounted to 33.5m new ...

London’s FTSE opened lower on Thursday as the UK government prepared to lift the two metre distancing rule in a bid to boost the economy. The blue chip benchmark’s jittery start followed the US Federal Reserve’s June FOMC meeting yesterday, where chairman Jerome Powell announced the FOMC expects there to be no rate increases until 2022 and forecast that the US economy will contract by ...

The coronavirus pandemic has forced businesses around the world and across the industrial divide to pull emergency levers to conserve cash. As most private investors will be acutely aware, a hefty toll has fallen on company dividends, with billions of pounds worth of planned payouts from UK stocks now taken off the table and out of investor’s pockets. James Dow of Scottish American ...

The coronavirus will have a long-lasting impact on the economic landscape and alter the competitive positions across numerous industries. There will be a benefit for the strongest companies which will emerge stronger and with superior growth opportunities. Larger companies tend to be the ones that are the most liquid and they can readily tap the equity markets for funding. This means they are ...

Fund manager Peter Lynch once observed he wouldn’t invest in anything that he wasn’t able to illustrate with a crayon and a sheet of paper. What he really meant is that you shouldn’t put money into a business you don’t understand. We can all take this into our own investing by allocating cash to firms whose products we recognise, understand and can easily research. You shouldn’t ...

UK stocks edged higher on Tuesday after US markets eked out small gains overnight. Investor sentiment has been dampened by threats by President Trump to use force to end days of protests and the imposition of curfews in US cities including NY and Washington. Asian markets extended their rally after their best day in two months yesterday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index leading the gains up ...

Investors are once again being warned to carefully vet potential company share purchases for balance sheet strength. A new study has shown that the average position on borrowings for FTSE 100 companies is worse now than during the credit crunch a decade ago. The financial health check report, conducted by Bowmore Asset Management, has found that companies in the UK’s blue chip index would ...

Shares in clothing and food retailer Marks & Spencer (MKS) were marked up 4% to 89.2p on Wednesday as the British high street institution accelerated its ‘Never the Same Again’ turnaround plan to cope with the fallout from the coronavirus crisis. Optimists peered past a 21.2% fall in annual profit, after clothing sales were crimped in the latter part of the financial year to March ...

There are flickers of light at the end of a very long tunnel. Doctors are learning more about Covid-19 every day; how it spreads, which treatments are showing promise, and how to create effective testing methods. Inevitably, after being cooped up during many weeks of lockdown, restrictions are slowly being lifted and consumers and businesses are focusing on how they can transition back to ...

OCADO (OCDO) £19.00 Gain to date: 60% Original entry point: Buy at £11.87, 25 July 2019 Shares in online grocery supplier Ocado (OCDO) continue to confound the sceptics, hitting a new all-time high this week after reporting a surge in customer orders this quarter. Having already seen retail revenues climb 10% in the first quarter thanks to an ‘almost overnight’ spike in ...

UK markets have been largely on the front foot as investors embraced the Government’s first moves to ease the pandemic lockdown and restart business and the economy. Boris Johnson’s tentative measures will see many people who were unable to work from home and previously furloughed return to their jobs in key industries. This includes construction and some retail including DIY stores and ...

Shares in ‘Big Four’ grocery chain Morrisons (MRW) gained 3% to 195p after the firm posted a 5.7% increase in group like for like sales excluding fuel in the three months to 10 May. Retail sales contributed 5.1% to the increase, while wholesale revenues contributed the remaining 0.6%. Fuel sales were down 39% on a like for like basis during the quarter, and down roughly 70% since the ...

UK stocks inched higher on Tuesday in anticipation of the government setting out details on how to make workplaces ‘Covid secure’ and restart the economy. The FTSE 100 index of leading stocks added 28 points or 0.5% to 5,968 led by telecoms and retailers, while travel stocks and property companies limited the gains. Mobile operator Vodafone (VOD) helped support the index, rising 3.7% to ...

Shares in online grocery provider Ocado (OCDO) gained a further 3% to a new lifetime high of £17.32 after the firm reported a significant increase in order volumes for the quarter to date. After 10.3% growth in retail revenues in the first quarter, growth in the second quarter topped 40% as demand spiked ‘almost overnight’ and shoppers flocked to the firm’s website to place ...

UK stocks pushed slightly higher in early trade on Wednesday as investors continued to weigh the risk of a further surge of COVID-19 cases as lockdowns are eased in disease hotspots. The FTSE 100 was up 8.9 points to 5,858.31 early on. In corporate news, online food delivery firm Ocado (OCDO) ripened up 2.4% to an all-time high of £17.20 on news sales at its retail joint venture with Marks ...

Struggling retailer Marks & Spencer (MKS) has taken further major steps to shore up its finances for the next 18 months as it plans for a slow return to shopping amid the coronavirus crisis. Today’s liquidity update includes news of a formal agreement with its banking syndicate on forthcoming revolving credit facility (RCF) covenant tests, confirmation of eligibility to the COVID ...

According to data from consultants Nielsen, shoppers made almost 80 million extra trips to supermarkets in the four weeks to 21 March before the government introduced its ‘lockdown’. As a result, consumers spent an additional £1.9bn on groceries, driving a 20% increase in overall supermarket sales. In the week ending 21 March, sales were up a record 43% according to Nielsen. Over the ...