MARKET REPORT: St James’s Place soars 25% on cost-cutting plan

When you want to rebuild investor confidence, it helps to see a big rally in your stock price following news.

St James’s Place delivered on its promise, with its shares up 24.8 per cent, or 138.5p, to 697p after the wealth manager revealed plans to cut tens of millions of pounds in costs while celebrating a strong business performance for the first half of 2024.

Confidence in the FTSE 250-listed firm took a hit last year following news of scrutiny of its fund fees.

The firm was forced to cut its fund exit fees following regulatory pressure.

But this has not had a negative impact on its funds under management, which reached a record £181.9bn as of June 30, up 8.1 per cent from the end of December.

St James’s Place recorded gross inflows in the six-month period of £8.5bn, up £0.5bn, while net inflows fell to £1.9bn, which was better than markets had expected.

The company’s first-half pre-tax profits rose 50 per cent to £577m, and the firm predicts its cost-cutting plans will deliver total net savings of around £500m by 2030.

After proving resilient in the previous session, the FTSE 100 was down 0.22 percent, or 17.94 points, at 8,274.41.

But the FTSE 250 recovered, gaining 0.85 percent, or 180.44 points, to 21,432.51 after a sell-off on Monday.

Weaker miners were a drag on blue-chip companies: Glencore fell 2.5 percent, or 10.85 pence, to 416.6 pence after a disappointing half-year production report.

Glencore boss Gary Nagle said the company expected 2024 to be a year of two halves, with its year-to-date output shortfall compared with forecasts likely to be recovered during the second half of the year.

Precious metals miner Fresnillo added 0.4 per cent, or 2p, to 574p after its half-year results showed revenue and gross profit rose on the back of higher silver, zinc and lead prices and volumes, although gold volumes fell.

Among other commodity issues, small-cap North Sea oil producer Jersey Oil & Gas fell 19.5 percent, or 17 pence, to 70 pence, the biggest drop on the market, hit by news that UK energy profits tax will rise to 38 percent from early November.

This will raise the main tax rate on upstream oil and gas activities to 78 percent.

However, the focus was generally on the large number of corporate results, to which there were mixed reactions.

Financial software group Sage fell 1.4 percent, or 15.5 pence, to 1,071 pence after warning about the broader industry outlook, while keeping its full-year guidance unchanged after reporting in-line third-quarter results.

Brickmaker Forterra fell 5.4 percent, or 9.8 pence, to 172.4 pence after facing challenging trading conditions in the first half.

Pre-tax profit for the half-year fell by 29 percent, prompting the company to cut its interim dividend by 58 percent.

And industrial inkjet maker Xaar fell 7.7 percent, or 11.5 pence, to 137 pence after reporting a 16 percent decline in half-year revenue.

Shares in AG Barr rose 2.2 percent, or 14 pence, to 644 pence after the Irn-Bru soft drink maker reported a rise in first-half sales.