UK stocks opened higher on Tuesday after European leaders agreed to a massive regional stimulus deal, sending the FTSE 100 up 0.45% to 6,289.75.
Mining titan BHP (BHP) fell 1.2% to £17.76 despite meeting full year production guidance for iron ore, metallurgical coal and copper, as petroleum production fell marginally below guidance following the impact of COVID-19 in the June 2020 quarter.
Fashion retailer Ted Baker (TED) rallied 8.4% to 76.5p as new chief executive Rachel Osborne flagged early progress under her revamped strategy and highlighted a ‘resilient’ performance over the 11 weeks to 18 July.
Though group sales slumped 55% amid pandemic-driven store closures, a 79% slump in retail store revenue was partially offset by 34% growth in online sales and net cash of £56.7 million as of 11 July was ahead of management expectations.
Coral and Ladbrokes owner GVC (GVC) cheapened 8.4% to 799.2p after it revealed that HMRC is widening the scope of an investigation into the betting behemoth’s former Turkish facing online gambling business and is now probing ‘potential corporate offending’ by ‘an entity (or entities) within the GVC group which HMRC has not yet identified’.
Broadband operator TalkTalk Telecom (TALK) softened 3.2% to 77p on news of a 7.5% drop in revenue for the first quarter, although the company also upgraded full year earnings guidance after trading recovered from the impact of the lockdown in June and July.
Book publisher Bloomsbury Publishing (BMY) jumped 10.7% to 221.5p after its revenue climbed 18% in the first four months of its financial year, beating its expectations, as folks kept reading during lockdown.
Defence contractor TP (TPG:AIM) ticked up 3.5% to 7.45p on the news subsidiary Sapienza Consulting has secured additional orders from the European Space Agency, worth more than €9 million.
RPS (RPS) reversed 3.5% to 51.25p as the professional services firm posted a drop in second quarter revenue. However, the company insisted its healthy exposure to government or quasi-government organisations is ‘providing some resilience’ to the impact of COVID-19 and appeared confident of returning to sustainable growth in 2021.
Ergomed (ERGO:AIM), which provides specialist services to the pharmaceutical industry, advanced 10% to 595p after it reported 14.8% first-half sales growth and promised that full-year earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation will be ‘materially ahead’ of market expectations.
