A quiet morning for UK shares belies the action and outrage in the football world, and thousands of investors will be closely watching Wall Street’s opening bell to see how Manchester United’s New York-listed stock trades after the ructions of its decision to join a breakaway European Super League.
Shares in Italian club Juventus, also one of the breakaway dozen, saw its stock jump 14% on Monday.
Leading UK stocks remained untroubled by the potentially seismic shifts in the ‘beautiful game’. Investors continued to bet on a global economic recovery, reopening trades and vaccine rollouts, seeing the benchmark FTSE 100 consolidate above 7,000, up 0.12% at 7,027.63 at midday.
The mid-cap FTSE 250 continued its run to record highs, adding 0.4% to 22,615.21 points.
US futures were a little lower after the S&P 500 and Dow Jones closed at record highs on Friday, with both indices advancing more than 1% last week.
MELROSE SELLS NORTEK
In company news, manufacturing company turnaround specialist Melrose Industries (MRO) reversed earlier gains to fall almost 2% to 175.5p after agreeing to sell its Nortek Air Management business to Chicago-based Madison Industries for £2.62 billion.
Chemicals company Johnson Matthey (JMAT) edged up 1.5% to £32.34 on news it has entered into a partnership with Finnish Minerals to establish a second battery materials plant in Finland and secured raw materials supply from Nornickle and SQM.
According to the company, these developments represent ‘important milestones on our journey towards developing a sustainable battery materials ecosystem and further demonstrate the progress we are making on the commercialisation of our business’.
Building insulation group Kingspan (KGP) climbed 2.5% to €76.16 after it reported a 24% rise in first quarter sales, led by strength in mainland Europe, and said its outlook for the second quarter was positive.
Gas company Energean (ENOG) fell 5% to 818.81p after reporting wider annual losses as revenue fell on lower energy prices.
Specialist wealth manager Mattioli Woods (MTW:AIM) rallied 5% to 766.5p on announcing the acquisition of Caledonia Asset Management for up to £1.6 million.
ELSEWHERE ON THE MARKET
Support services group Christie (CTG:AIM) declined 4% to 106p after posting pandemic-impacted full year results showing a 46% slump in sales to £42.2 million and a lurch into loss.
Data solutions provider D4t4 Solutions (D4T4:AIM) jumped 10% to 350p after the company lifted its outlook on profit after reporting strong performance in the second half of the year.
Billing and customer relationship management software provider Cerillion (CER:AIM) made 5% gains to 542.6p on news it expects to report a 25% rise in revenue for the first half to March 2021, having enjoyed its ‘strongest ever’ six month trading period.
‘This excellent performance reflects three major factors; on-going work on new customer implementation projects, strong demand from existing customers, and two major contract wins totalling £18.4 million, which were secured in March 2021,’ said the company, adding that its ‘sales pipeline remains strong, and prospects for the remainder of the financial year are very positive’.
And Genedrive (GDR:AIM) jumped nearly 10% to 73.3p after the diagnostics company said it had won a tender from the Public Health England to potentially supply diagnostic equipment and services.
