London’s blue-chip FTSE 100 opens 24.7 points higher at 7,382 on Wednesday with housebuilders and retailers in focus.
Housebuilder Persimmon’s (PSN) strong run continues, the shares marked up 4.5% to £23.93 on news of an ‘excellent’ first half to 30 June. CEO Jeff Fairburn flags growth in legal completions and average selling prices and an improved operating margin. Moreover, he says Persimmon has ‘strong momentum’ moving into the second half of the year with consumer confidence remaining resilient.
Also in demand is urban regeneration and strategic land specialist MJ Gleeson (GLE), which gains 29p (4.6%) to trade at 655p on a bullish year-end trading update.
MJ Gleeson says it expects results to be at the top end of market forecasts and its Gleeson Homes has begun the new financial year in its strongest ever position, with queues forming at site openings and reservations at record levels. Gleeson has achieved its target of building 1,000 homes per year and has now set a new target of doubling that number within five years.
Also marked higher is building products distributor SIG (SHI), which ticks up 3.7% to 151.3p on a half year trading update. While the first half performance will be down on a tough prior year comparative, new CEO Meinie Oldersma says like-for-like sales growth picked up in the half and SIG is making encouraging progress in paying down debt.
Online grocer Ocado’s (OCDO) half year results reveal 12.5% growth in retail revenue to £659.6m, reflecting further market share gains. Yet the share price reaction, up 5p to 294.6p, is subdued. Investors are instead focusing on the decline in average Ocado.com basket sizes, a drop in pre-tax profits and Ocado’s net debt pile, which continues to grow due to significant capital expenditure.
Elsewhere in retail, Topps Tiles (TPT) sheds a penny to trade at a lowly 82p on a disappointing third quarter trading update. Like-for-like sales decreased by 4.7% in the 13 weeks to 1 July, reflecting weaker macro-economic conditions and tougher comparatives resulting from April 2016’s changes to Stamp Duty.
Food wholesaler Booker (BOK), whose merger with Tesco (TSCO) is being pored over by the competition authorities, firms 3% to 189.6p on news of a good first quarter. Like-for-like sales grew 4.2% in the 12 weeks to 16 June with a boost from favourable weather and the late Easter.
Wealth manager-to-employee benefits play Mattioli Woods (MTW:AIM) is bid up 7.5p to 795p on a strong full year trading update. CEO Ian Mattioli discloses that total revenues will top £50m for the year to May, a continued inflow of organic new business and continued demand for advice from clients.
Mobile advertising platform Taptica (TAP:AIM) tacks on another 6p at 367.5p. Buoyed by a strong first half and the rapid growth it is experiencing in the Asia-Pacific region, Taptica expects full year earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to exceed market expectations.
Fibre network builder CityFibre Infrastructure (CITY:AIM) softens 2.5p to 58p as it says it is raising fresh capital to fund its growth in the UK.
