Early out of the blocks with a Christmas retail trading update is sometime sector bellwether Next (NXT), with festive good news for investors.
There’s also an investigation being launched into troubled building services firm Carillion (CLLN), while spreadbetting firm Plus500 (PLUS:AIM) has positive news.
A STRONGER UK HIGH STREET
British clothing retailer Next upped its full year profit forecast on Wednesday after beating expectations for sales in the run-up to the holidays, helped by colder weather.
The update has investors piling into the FTSE 100 stock, chasing the share price roughly 9% higher in early trade on Wednesday to £48.92, heading the blue-chip leader board by a distance.
How much the market will read across into the rest of the UK’s retail scene remains to be seen, although Marks & Spencer (MKS) rallies 3.5% in support, while plus-sized outfitter N Brown (BWNG) is up 6.5%.
WATCHDOG PROBES CARILLION
UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has notified Carillion that it has begun an investigation into the company, the struggling British builder says on Wednesday.
Details remain thin on the ground at this stage but the UK regulator is taking a particular interest in announcements made by the company to the stock market between 7 December 2016 and 10 July 2017. Carillion says it is cooperating fully with the FCA investigation.
Carillion has been hit hard by several troubling trading updates through the past year, warning on profits, announcing huge asset write-offs, breaching banking agreements and replacing its chief executive Richard Howson in September.
Shares in the group have lost around 90% of their value during the past year, and are down more than 5% on Wednesday at 17p. The stock traded at 235p at the beginning of 2017.
SPREADBETTER PLUS BEATS
Spreadbetting company Plus500 expects to report full year profit and revenue ahead of market expectations after rising customer numbers and strong trading helped offset challenges from a sector-wide regulatory clampdown.
Shares in the £1bn company jump 15% to £10.14 on Wednesday.
Analysts had been anticipating a strong performance already, with high teens revenue growth to around £386m expected, from which £225m of pre-tax profit had been expected. Those numbers will rise today.
Budget airline Ryanair (RYA) posts a 3% rise in passenger volumes during December and forecasts lower airfares in 2018. Passenger numbers rose to 9.3m in December, up from 9m in November. The company's load factor, a key measure of profitability, rose by 1% to 95%.
Shares in Europe’s largest airline are lifted 1.6% to €15.24.
STAFFLINE’S HIT, AND MISS
The latest news from little staffing business Staffline (STAF:AIM) is less positive on Wednesday. In a somewhat confusing update the £280m company first says it ‘expects to deliver full year results in line with market expectations,’ before adding that revenues will be likely below its £1bn target.
The rest of the update is more or less upbeat, which also announces that full year results will be reported on 24 January 2018. Investors largely shrug-off the update, the share price nudging 2% lower to 990p.
Analysts at broker Liberum Capital are getting more optimistic about the value of housebuilder Bellway (BWY). The City number crunchers reaffirm their buy rating on the stock after hiking their target price from £33.36 to £39.30.
Shares in Bellway remain largely flat at £36.09 on Wednesday.
