Budget airline EasyJet (LON:EZJ) narrowed losses over the six months ended 31st March to £18 million, helped by rival operators’ reduced capacity and the Easter period being partially within the half-year. Passenger numbers were up by 3 million to 36.8 million, leading to a 19% increase in total revenues, which climbed to £2.18 billion. Part of…
Shares in a number of bookmakers have climbed after the US Supreme Court struck down federal law relating to sports bets.
The UK employment rate hit its highest level since records began in 1971 during the 1st quarter of 2018 according to the ONS, with 75.6% of the working age population having a job. The unemployment rate dropped to 4.2%, which was 40 basis points lower than the year earlier. However, this expansion in employment coupled…
A few weeks ago I was contacted by a reader who asked why I was so confident that Clear Leisure (CLP) would go over 2p. I replied that I was not. I merely thought that the management know what they are doing and that patience may well pay off. Anyway, I kept buying, despite being…
Shares in office space provider IWG (LON:IWG) have continued to rise today following the company’s confirmation on Friday evening that it had recently received separate takeover approaches from three firms. Management said that shareholders would be updated about any further developments in due course. At this time, there is no guarantee that any offers will be…
The best way to assess the performance of an active fund is to look at its risk-adjusted return, which measures how much value the manager has added per unit of risk. Over the ten years to the end of December 2017 the top investment trust using this metric was BlackRock Smaller Companies (LON:BRSC), which was…
FTSE 100 power outfit Centrica (LON:CNA) benefited from increased energy demand during the recent cold weather. The weather also had negatives for the firm, however, with call-outs at record levels due to the cold, which will have a knock-on effect in operating costs and profits for the first half of the year. Additionally, poor oil…
Canadian small-cap miner Strongbow has announced that it intends to float on the AIM market in June of this year. The company will also maintain its Toronto listing in the immediate future. The decision was driven by the changing state of the tin market and the possibility that the South Crofty site in Cornwall, which…
Mothercare (LON:MTC) has responded to recent media speculation by announcing that it is finalising a restructuring and refinancing package. The details of the schemes will be announced later this week along with the company’s final results for the last year. The firm said that steps to be taken will include a new underwritten equity issue…
One big question mark hangs over the markets right now: What effect will the normalisation of monetary policy – by which we mean the gradual withdrawal of quantitative easing (QE) and an increase in interest rates – have on the global financial system and the economy? Many commentators, not least our very own Jim Mellon,…
