Has Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group run out of things to buy for now?
Instead of taking more stakes in other struggling retailers, the owner of House of Fraser and Sports Direct plans to buy back a further £80m of its own shares.
A share buyback of similar size, launched in February this year, ended on April 28.
Buybacks reduce the company’s equity capital, thus increasing the stock price. The company carried out several buybacks over the past year.
Frasers has spent much of the early months of this year increasing its stakes in companies such as AO World (up 0.8 per cent, or 0.8p, to 106.8p), Boohoo (up 0.6 per cent cent, or 0.22 pence, to 33.98 pence). ) and N Brown (down 1.6 per cent, or 0.23p, to 13.98p), but their own shares appear to offer better investment value.
Buyback: Instead of taking more stakes in other struggling retailers, House of Fraser and Sports Direct owner Frasers Group plan to buy back a further £80m of their own shares.
Frasers’ share price, which has fallen more than 10 per cent since the start of 2024, rose 3.1 per cent, or 24.5 pence, to 820.5 pence.
The FTSE 100 index extended its record run, rising 0.1 per cent, or 7.2 points, to 8,147.03, having hit a record high of 8,189.14 in early trading.
The FTSE 250 index remained equally buoyant, up 1.3 per cent, or 260.63 points, to 20,084.79.
Insurer Prudential was another FTSE 100 winner, up 2.4 per cent to 17.6p and 741.4p, boosted by a cross-read of Asia Pacific insurer AIA Group’s strong results in Hong Kong. Kong.
Lloyds of London insurer Beazley also gained 3.1 per cent, or 19.5 pence to 657.5 pence, after reporting a 7 per cent rise in premiums written in its first quarter.
Stock Monitoring – Zenova Group
The Zenova Group has received a boost with the news that it will supply 200,000 liters of its firefighting paint to Drips & Sparks.
The two-year deal is worth £2.4m.
Drips & Sparks, which specializes in electrical accessories and services, will use Zenova’s coating product on Gracewood Construction project sites in the UK. The shares rose 21.2 per cent, or 0.4p, to 2.3p.
Zenova listed on AIM in July 2021 at 19p a share and has been on the decline.
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which rose 0.3 per cent, or 36p, to 12,024p, was boosted by two updates on breast cancer treatments.
A combination of its drugs Truqap and Faslodex has been recommended in the EU for advanced ER-positive breast cancer, reducing the risk of disease progression by 50 percent.
Its drug Enhertu has shown in a trial a significant improvement in progression-free survival in metastatic breast cancer.
Equipment rental company Ashtead fell 2.1 per cent, or 130 pence, to 5,974 pence, as it forecast its rental income growth for this financial year would be at the lower end of its 11 percent guidance range. percent to 13 percent in a capital markets day presentation.
NatWest lost 1.6 per cent, or 4.9 pence, to 302.5 pence, as analysts at broker KBW said the lender is the least favorite of the three UK banking giants, which included Barclays ( which fell 0.3 per cent, or 0.7 pence, to 203.65 pence) and Lloyds (down 0.8 per cent, or 0.42 pence, to 51.88 pence), as reported last week .
High Street retailer JD Sports fell 3 per cent, or 3.55p, to 116.6p after analysts at Barclays downgraded its rating to equal weight from overweight, with the price target cut to 140p from 165p. pennies.
Petrofac slumped 34.1 per cent, or 7.6 pence, to 14.7 pence after announcing that its shares are likely to be suspended from tomorrow as it missed this week’s deadline to publish results. full year results. They are not expected until the end of May.
The delay comes as talks are ongoing with lenders about a debt restructuring, and bond payments due on May 15 are not expected to be met. The petroleum engineer’s net debt stood at around £465m at the end of December.