MARKET REPORT: Balfour Beatty climbs on £100m buyback plans

Construction group Balfour Beatty has soared following a string of strong results as it plans to return £100m to investors.

The FTSE 250 company, which develops and finances public and private infrastructure projects in the UK, US and Hong Kong, said orders improved late last year as interest rates stabilised.

Group revenue rose 7 per cent to £9.6 billion, while profits fell 15 per cent to £244 million.

Balfour Beatty wants to buy back £100m worth of shares from investors, meaning it will have returned more than £750m to them since 2021.

The shares gained 9.5 per cent, or 32.2 pence, to 372 pence, amid hopes it can cash in on the UK’s green energy transition alongside its ambitions to strengthen the UK’s electricity grids. country.

The FTSE 100 rose 0.3 per cent, or 24.36 points, to 7,772.17 and the FTSE 250 fell 0.01 per cent, or 1.29 points, to 19,563.92, as figures showed The UK returned to growth as GDP rose 0.2 percent between December and January.

Anglo American remained optimistic about the industry’s recovery this year.

Its subsidiary De Beers, which mines in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa, estimated it sold £336m worth of diamonds from late January to mid-March.

That would be more than the £292 million it earned during the previous sales cycle.

Its shares rose 4.6 per cent, or 85.8 pence, to 1,937 pence, but fellow mining company Ferrexpo has delayed publishing its annual results, saying it needed more time to finalize its accounts following talks with its auditors and a legal case weighing on a business in Ukraine.

The decision comes less than a month after Ferrexpo scrapped its interim dividend proposal due to the court case. The shares fell 4.1 per cent, or 2.25 pence, to 52.75 pence.

Rolls-Royce nearly closed at an all-time high.

Shares in the jet engine maker hit a high of 396.5p in January 2014 and rose 0.5 per cent, or 2p, to 393.8p yesterday.

Musicmagpie’s sales plummeted as the electronics reseller’s customers switched from purchasing DVDs to streaming content online.

Group revenue fell 6 per cent to £136.6m in the 12 months to the end of November, while losses rose to £6.8m from £1.5m. That led to the shares falling 5.6 per cent, or 0.5p, to 8.5p.

Medical data analytics company Ixico suffered even bigger losses – falling 14.7 per cent, or 1.25p, to 7.25p – after warning that contract delays from biotech sponsors will hit income in the next two years.

And flooring company Victoria said its annual sales and profits will be lower than expected due to weak consumer demand in Europe. It sank 9 per cent, or 22p, to 222p.

The Gym Group went in the opposite direction, rising 4.9 per cent, or 5.4p, to 115p, after it said its members were exercising more.

It said it had reduced losses to £8.3m in 2023, down from £19.4m a year earlier, while revenue rose 18 per cent to £204m.

And he added that sales in the first two months of 2024 increased 16 percent year-on-year.