MARKET REPORT: After six years of misfortune… another Aston Martin car crash

Six years ago today, a fleet of beautiful Aston Martins parked outside the London Stock Exchange to mark the first day of trading in the company’s shares.

But, as investors who got caught up in the glamor and hype know, it’s been a car crash ever since.

The shares fell another 7.4 per cent, or 8.7 pence, to 108.5 pence yesterday, after analysts at Bernstein cut their rating just days after the luxury car maker cut its production targets and earnings.

The stock has now lost 32 percent of its value this week alone and 52 percent this year. Having been listed as worth £4.3bn in 2018, it is now worth less than £900m.

The FTSE 100 rose 0.2 per cent, or 14.21 points, to 8,290.86 and the FTSE 250 fell 0.6 per cent, or 130.92 points, to 20,783.78. Property developer British Land returned to the FTSE 100 as the City warned that the recovery of the entire industry will take time.

Analysts at Deutsche Numis said the commercial property market has bottomed and they expect with “cautious optimism” that the UK will begin cutting interest rates.

But the recovery of the sector, which is trading at a steep discount, will be more U-shaped than V-shaped.

British Land’s rating rose from “hold” to “buy” but fell 0.6 per cent, or 2.4 pence, to 437.8 pence.

Other owners Land Securities (down 2.3 per cent, or 15p, to 638p), Shaftesbury (down 2.6 per cent, or 3.9p, to 144.4p) and London Metric (down 1.4 per cent, or 2.8p, to 205.2p) also improved. , while forecasts for Derwent London, which fell 3.4 per cent, or 82p, to 2,348p, and Segro, which fell 1.7 per cent, or 14.6p, to 862p, were lowered .

British Land was kicked out of the FTSE 100 in June last year, returning in place of cybersecurity firm Darktrace following its £4.2bn takeover by private equity.

Oil and gas producer Energean, whose main operations are off Israel, slumped 8%, or 73p, to 836p as the conflict in the Middle East escalated.

And despite carrying 5.76m passengers in September, up 3.9% on the previous year, Wizz Air sank 6.7%, or 91p, to 1,276p on concerns around international travel .

Simon Jacobs, who joined Close Brothers as chief operating officer in August last year, sold more than £100,000 worth of shares in the merchant bank.

The stock fell 7.7 per cent, or 30.8p, to 371.8p. Pinewood Technologies, formerly Pendragon, posted a 13 per cent drop in first-half profits as the car dealership-turned-software company continued to rebrand the business and sank 11 per cent, or 39.5p, to 321 pence.

Newspaper and magazine distributor Smiths News said football’s Euro 2024 boosted sales. The shares rose 1.4 per cent, or 0.8p, to 58p.

Cereal seed and fertilizer supplier Wynnstay warned its annual results will be worse than expected and fell 6.3 per cent, or 20p, to 300p.

Insulation and construction specialist SIG pointed to green shoots of recovery led by its businesses in the UK and France, lifting it 0.9 per cent, or 0.18p, to 19.74p.

But Topps Tiles fell 2.2 per cent or 0.95p to 43p as sales in the year to September 28 fell 5.7 per cent.

Stock Watch

Inspiration Healthcare fell 11.6 per cent, or 2.5p, to 19p yesterday following a drop in first-half sales.

The West Sussex company, which makes medical products such as ventilators for newborn babies, said revenue fell 17 per cent to £17 million in the six months to the end of July, driven by weaker sales of neonatal products due to delays in orders and a delay in replacing older products. fans. The group’s losses rose from £140,000 to £3.7m.