Cavendish Financial PLC shares soared on Tuesday as the company said its half-year loss narrowed, and that its deputy chair has decided to step down.

Shares in Cavendish Financial were trading 20% higher at 10.23 pence on Tuesday at midday in London.

The London-based stockbroker, established on September 8 via the merger of finnCap Group PLC and Cenkos Securities PLC, reported a £2.4 million pretax loss for the six months that ended on September 30. This followed its £2.6 million loss the year before.

The company’s loss per share, meanwhile, narrowed to 0.7 pence from 1.8p.

Cavendish said revenue fell by 18% to £13.4 million from £16.4 million. It said this reflected lower activity, in the enterprise content management and private mergers & acquisitions arenas, ‘during the summer months across the UK markets’.

Cavendish also reported a £2.2 million gain on non-recurring items, compared with a £1.4 million loss the prior year.

Cavendish did not declare an interim dividend, but said: ‘If we can build on our strong post-merger performance we will consider dividend payments with the full year results.’

Looking ahead, Cavendish believes that the interest rate cycle shows signs of nearing completion, but that reduced inflationary pressures remain a risk factor while inflation continues to be a ‘drag on market demand’ for UK growth equity.

‘Post-merger enhancements in winning and executing business allied to a tentative pick up of the markets in the last three months has enabled us to get off to a good start in the second half,’ Cavendish said.

Cavendish added that it looks forward to building on this current strong momentum, citing its ‘good’ pipeline.

Also on Tuesday, Cavendish announced that Deputy Chair Robert Lister intends to step down from the board on December 31.

‘Robert - as chairman - successfully led finnCap through a period of complex strategic and leadership change and was a tremendous partner in the creation of the new combined group,’ commented current Chair Lisa Gordon.

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