European markets are rebounding following a week of turbulence, the FTSE 100 opening 76.4 points higher at 7,168.9 and the FTSE 250 skipping 196.5 points ahead to 19,414 early on.
In corporate news, one of Monday’s eye-catching movers is video games retailer GAME Digital (GMD), bid up 13.2% to 43p after inking an exciting collaboration agreement with Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct (SPD) to build an increased presence in the esports market through its BELONG brand.
The deal, which includes plans for GAME to put concessions and gaming areas into some of the sportswear giant’s stores, is welcomed by Liberum Capital. The broker sees the announcement as ‘a clear positive overall’ and upgrades its GAME Digital recommendation from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’ on an unchanged 65p price target.
Consumer products distributor UP Global Sourcing (UPGS) slumps 34.4% lower to 40p on another damaging profit warning. Better known as Ultimate Products, the Oldham-based company warns full year underlying EBITDA will weigh in ‘within a range of £6m to £7m’, well below the £9.1m forecast by Shore Capital, amid continuing tough retail market conditions and the slippage of orders into the next financial year.
Elsewhere, over-50s insurer Saga (SAGA) improves 4.8p or 4.3% to 116.6p as investors applaud a new quota share deal with NewRe and German reinsurer Hannover Re to take on 80% of the motor underwriting risk of its in-house underwriter AICL.
In the resources sector, Acacia Mining (ACA) is marked down 7.1% to 159.75p as it says it will scrap its 2017 final dividend after earnings took a hit because of a ban on unprocessed mineral exports in Tanzania.
Storage space provider Lok’nStore (LOK:AIM) ticks up 6% to 395p on news of strong trading in the first half to 31 January, like-for-like sales up 6.9% in the core self-storage business, as well as a confident outlook statement from CEO Andrew Jacobs.
Online women’s fashion brand Sosandar (SOS:AIM) struts 11% higher to 17.5p on news seasonal trading smashed management expectations. Floated on AIM in November, Sosandar says it achieved ‘multiple sell-outs of a number of products, highlighting huge demand from both existing and newly acquired customers’, adding ‘demand was so high that we have generated large waiting lists that we have fulfilled with repeat orders.'
