Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS) have said that their performance has improved over the third quarter in an update on Thursday.

Shares of Marks and Spencer sunk 8.87% on the announcement and trade at 199p. 9/1/20 10:44BST.

The FTSE 250 listed firm said that performance has seen improvements on a like for like basis, however total sales declined in its Clothing and Home sector.

Notably, the period mentioned includes the festive holidays however British supermarkets seemed to have lost ground.

In the 13 weeks period which ended December 28 the firm said that its total UK sales dipped 0.6% year on year to £2.77 billion, however on a like for like basis this was a 0.2% rise.

Total sales were 0.7% lower at £3.02 billion, and this includes its international unit which saw a 2.3% fall in sales to £251 million.

The British supermarket mainly attributed its growth in UK trading to food unit, where sales climbed 1.5% year on year to £1.7 billion. Notably in the food unit, the firm saw a 1.4% rise on a like for like time scale.

The clothes unit, which contributed heavily to a slump back in November saw sales fall again by 3.7% to £1.06 billion and on a like for like basis sales fell 1.7%.

M&S said: “Revenue was adversely impacted by competitor discounting in December and lower furniture dispatches at the start of the quarter. We generated an improved run rate in traffic and orders, started to implement improvements to search and personalisation in the period and launched an instalment payment option.”

Marks and Spencer have left their full year guidance unchanged, which is something that shareholders can hold onto however they warned that gross margins will be at the lower end of expected guidance.

Chief Executive remains optimistic

Chief Executive Steve Rowe said: “The Food business continued to outperform the market and Clothing and Home had a strong start to the quarter, albeit this was followed by a challenging trading environment in the lead up to Christmas.”

“As we drive a faster pace of change, disappointing one-off issues – notably waste and supply chain in the Food business, the shape of buy in Menswear and performance in our Gifting categories – held us back from delivering a stronger result. However, the changes we made earlier in the year in Clothing have arrested the worst of the issues of the first six months and we are progressively building a much stronger team for the future,” he added.

Marks and Spencer going through a tricky period

Despite the firm just under a year ago agreeing a £750 million delivery deal with Ocado (LON:OCDO) the firm has seen a tricky few months across 2019.

In November, the firm saw its profits plunge which alerted an internal crisis.

Chief Executive Steve Rowe alluded to several factors which had caused the slump including blamed the 5.5% decline in like-for-like clothing sales in the first six months of its financial year on supply chain problems and buying errors that meant popular sizes quickly sold out in store and online.

Food sales returned to growth over the period, with like-for-like sales up 0.9%.

The retailer has cut the price of hundreds of everyday products and introduced new ranges in a bid to be seen as a supermarket rather than a convenience chain.

However Marks and Spencer did seem to be proactive as the firm did name Richard Price as the new managing new managing director of its Clothing & Home unit.

Price joined from rival F&F Clothing, Tesco PLC’s (LON:TSCO) fashion arm, and Marks may see the longer term benefits once strategy has been firmly affixed.

Tesco PLC (LON: TSCO) have seen their shares jump on Thursday morning after the firm gave shareholders an interesting update.

Tesco UK and Ireland saw its sales rise over the festive period, however total group sales fell following slumps in Central Europe.

The British supermarket is currently undergoing a review and restructuring program in Central Europe, and this may be the likely cause for the slip.

In Central Europe, the company is pursuing an “ongoing significant transformation”, which in turn, subdued sales. The company said it is simplifying its business in Poland. It is also making changes in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, in a bid to improve its “relevance”.

Additionally, the FTSE 100 listed firm said that its banking unit had halted mortgage lending. Tesco Personal Finance PLC will cease new mortgage lending as it looks to sell on its mortgage portfolio.

Without the mortgage freeze, Tesco Bank saw a 0.1% growth in the third quarter, and 1.6% in the festive period.

In the six week period which ended on January 4, the UK & Republic of Ireland sales increased by 0.2% and rose 0.4% on a like-for-like basis, excluding fuel.

Total group sales fell by 1.7%, however, and by 0.8% on a like-for-like basis, however shareholders have not seem to phased.

In the third quarter, the firm saw its grocerty sales fall 0.9% compared to a year ago whilst total sales dropped 1.4%.

Across the Christmas period, total sales over the 19 weeks period were down 1.5% year on year to £21.03 billion.

Turning to Asia, the firm saw total sales be equal over the 19 weeks period at £1.93 billion, however sales fell 1.6% on a like for like bass.

The company said on Thursday: “No decisions concerning the future of Tesco Thailand or Malaysia have been taken, and there can be no assurance that any transaction will be concluded.”

Chief Executive Dave Lewis said: “In a subdued UK market we performed well, delivering our fifth consecutive Christmas of growth. In our Centenary year, our customer proposition was compelling, our product offering very competitive and thanks to the outstanding contribution of our colleagues, our operational performance was the best of the last six years. As a result, this Christmas we had the biggest ever day of UK food sales in our history.”

“Tesco said they outperformed UK rivals with the biggest ever day of UK food sales in it’s history, but despite this, they still only managed to eak out a 0.1% rise in underlying sales in it’s home market during what it said was a “subdued” Christmas for consumer spending,” said John Woolfitt, Director of Trading at Atlantic Capital Markets.

He continued “this just goes to show that with all the hard work and price cutting, how hard an environment it is for the UK’s retailers.”

Slower trading for British Supermarkets

Only a few days ago, Morrisons (LON:MRW) reported that their sales have fallen in their update dating to January 5.

The firm said that challenging trading conditions coupled with consumer uncertainty were the largest contributors to the slump in sales.

Morrison’s said that said like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, were down 1.7% year-on-year.

Additionally the decline was further accelerated by a fall in retail sales, as a like for like performance in the wholesale unit remained flat.

Notably, fuel sales declined 2.8% year on year across the 22 weeks period, and total sales dipped 2.9% but the figure totaled 1.8% without fuel sale considerations.

The company said: “We managed costs well throughout the period, offsetting some of the impact on like-for-like sales of the challenging trading conditions and continued uncertainty amongst customers.”

Additionally, Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) have seen their shares dip as the firm reported a fall in quarterly sales, however shareholders got a pleasing result when the firm struck a deal with Coles (ASX:COL) in a wholesale agreement.

In the 15 weeks to January 4, total retail sales, excluding fuel, were down 0.7% from last year. Including fuel, sales were down 0.9%, which has seemed to edge shareholders.

Compared to 2018, on a like for like basis sales excluding fuel also were 0.7% lower year-on-year, but the like for like decline dropped further to 1.1% when including fuel sales.

Growth outside the big four

Kantar published data on January 7 which showed the rise of Lidl and Aldi in the British supermarket sector.

Aldi saw their market share rise to 7.8% during the period, as Lidl also grew to 5.9% from their previous 5.3% showing significant gain for the German firms.

A notable performance came from Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO) who showed the fastest sales rise along with the German firms.

Ocado saw a rise of 13% in year on year sales from £345 million to £389 million, as it increased its market share to 1.3% compared to the 1.2% figure last year.

Certainly the rise of German counterparts and the growth of smaller supermarkets has left Tesco and the other British supermarkets with ground to make up, and shareholders will be keen to see a response in the New Year.

Shares of Tesco trade at 256p (+1.99%). 9/1/20 10:37BST.

Intelligent Ultrasound Group PLC (LON:MED) have given shareholders an update entailing progress on Wednesday.

The firm said that the ultrasound software and simulation company said that 2019 revenue is expected to be between the £5.7 million and £5.9 million ball park.

Shareholders will be pleased with this figure as it shows a 10% growth from a year ago.

Intelligent Ultrasound said it expects a recently-signed deal with Fujifilm (TYO:4901) SonoSite Inc to help increase future sales in the Simulation division’s point-of-care ultrasound training market.

When looking at the Clinical Artificial Intelligence division, the firm said it had a “very successful” year, with the firm meeting all its commercial and development milestones.

The firm said that it expects to report loss before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of between £3.3 million and £3.4 million, widened compared to an Ebitda loss of £2.7 million in 2018.

The company had previously explained that it had invested heavily into research and development of its Clinical Artificial Intelligence division.

Stuart Gall, Group CEO, commented: “This has been a strong year for the Group. The Clinical Artificial Intelligence Division has performed particularly well, signing its first licensing agreement with a major OEM and progressing commercial discussions for its second AI software product. The reception the Company received at the annual Radiological Society of North America meeting (RSNA) in Chicago was also particularly encouraging. The Simulation Division has worked hard to continue growing revenue and we are confident of continuing the Group’s revenue growth in 2020.”

Progress for Intelligent Ultrasound

At the end of July, the firm saw increased sales and testing of its new AI based offerings within its IU Simulation Division and IU Clinical AI Division during the first half of 2019.

As the first half ended, the Company signed its first long-term licence and co-development agreement for their AI software with a leading ultrasound equipment manufacturer.

The Intelligent Ultrasound Group also formed an alliance with Mediscan Systems to use AI and simulation to improve patient care in India and develop the Group’s ultrasound scan image library.

It seems that the development for Intelligent Ultrasound has paid off following today’s update which has seem positive revenue growth.

Where do Medical Tech rivals stand?

Consort Medical (LON:CSRT) who also operate in the medical tech sector have seen a slower period of trading. Consort said that interim profit was bruised due to an incident at its Aesica Cramlington manufacturing facility.

Consort’s pretax profit for the six months ended October 31 was £1.2 million, far less than the £9.6 million profit posted the year before as revenue fell 4.3% to £146.0 million from £152.5 million.

The incident also dampened the performance of its active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished dose manufacturing unit, Aesica who saw revenues fall from £90.9 million to £81.1 million an 11% slump.

Additionally, AorTech (LON:AOR) have followed in the same footsteps as Consort in giving a modest update to shareholders in November.

The firm said in an update to shareholders said that it had widened its interim loss on costs. However, shareholders did get some consolidation with the fact that revenues had rose.

For the six months to the end of September, the biomaterials and medical devices firm said its pretax loss widened to £239,000 from £225,000 the year before. This was due to administrative expenses rising by 29% to £451,000 from £350,000, as a result of research & development activities.

However revenue, which comes from the licensing of AorTech’s polymer technology, grew by 27% to £299,000 from £236,000 the prior year.

Looking ahead, AorTech said progress over the period has been “very positive”, as the polymer business performs well and plans to developer it further come into place.

The medical technology sector is becoming more and more competitive, however shareholders of Intelligent Ultrasound can be pleased with the update provided today.

There will be optimism that the firm can carry forward strong trading across 2020 and deliver respectable figures across the year.

Shares of Intelligent Ultrasound Group trade at 10p (-7.27%). 8/1/20 15:04BST.

Trans-Siberian Gold plc (LON: TSG) have seen their shares fall on Wednesday afternoon after the firm gave an update about its Asacha gold mine.

TSG is focused on low cost, high grade mining operations and stable gold production from its 100% owned Asacha Gold Mine in Far East Russia.

The Group also holds the licence for the development and exploration of the Rodnikova deposit, one of the largest gold fields in South Kamchatka.

Today, the firm said that analysis showed the resource at the Asacha gold mine had been overestimated.

Initially, shareholders would have been excited about the performance of Trans-Siberian over the last few months, however this will be a little disappointing.

The total measured, indicated, and inferred mineral resource for the Kamchatka-located mine has fallen to 313,000 ounces of gold and 675,000 ounces of silver as at the start of December 2019.

The estimate before the results were published was 553,000 ounces of gold and 1.3 million ounces of silver which showed a 43% and 93% drop respectively.

The Asacha mineral resource covers two zones, and the current mining operation is exploring the Main Zone.

The East Zone is yet to be mined, however shareholders will remain optimistic that Trans-Siberian can pull off some good results.

As Trans-Siberian Gold reported in September and October, preliminary internal estimates of Asacha “indicated the existing in-situ resource may have been overestimated”.

Trans-SIberian explained that the decrease was due to the collapse of older workings on the main zone.

Further drilling and interpretation, tied in with changes to estimation parameters also contributed to the over estimation. The update also mentioned future plans for the firm.

The Group will be conducting both underground and surface drilling campaigns during 2020. A total of approximately 22,000m of surface drilling will target the lateral extents of the Main zone and QV25. A further 2,000m of underground drilling will be conducted on the Main zone at depth.

Chief Executive Alexander Dorogov said: “I am pleased with the work the team at Asacha has done to update the mineral resource estimate. We have invested heavily in improving our understanding of the ore body through a significant drilling campaign which confirms our expectations and provides the basis for better mine planning out to 2024.

“The resource will be supplemented by additional ounces targeted in an accelerated exploration programme as well as existing stockpiles. A new drilling campaign of approximately 8,000 metres around Vein 25 in the East zone is already underway. We are confident we have the time, capital and skills to upgrade the mineral resource at Asacha. Formal guidance for 2020 will follow shortly, but at this stage we anticipate annual gold production to be in line with recent years.”

Fellow Russian Miner – Eurasia Mining

Another firm which operates in Russia, in the form of Eurasia Mining (LON:EUA) has seen its shares become volatile over the last few months.

At the start of December, the firm saw its shares surge as it gave shareholders a confident update on its Russian operations.

Research in Russia found that the whole of Monchetundra, which includes areas where Eurasia does not currently have a licence for, has a potential 40 million ounces of platinum group metals.

Eurasia added – “This data has not been independently verified by Eurasia and other than the area covered by the company’s existing licence, the company does not yet have any other licences in the area. The company would need to verify the data in the Russian Cadastre through additional work and drilling.”

Certainly, shareholders will be keen to see whether TSG can make up lost ground from their previous estimates, and further drilling estimates will be eagerly anticipated.

Shares in Trans-Siberian Gold trade at 61p (-26.51%). 8/1/20 14:23BST.

Over the last few days Finablr (LON:FIN) have seen their shares in free fall following a vicious cyber attack on Travelex.

Today, the firm has tried to reassure shareholders about the potency on the attack saying that it had been contained and that no consumer data has been stolen.

Travelex who was the victim of the vicious cyber attack has a presence in more than 70 countries, and holds a portfolio over 1,200 branches and 1,000 ATM’s worldwide.

Customers of Travelex have said that they have been caught up with their money being left in the midst of a cyber attack.

One customer, Natalie Whiting from Stevenage, ordered £1,000 worth of euros online through Tesco (LON:TSCO).

“I haven’t been able to get a refund of my money, it just seems to be in limbo,” she told the BBC.

As far as public media is aware, the criminals behind the attack have said that are demanding a ransom of £4.6 million or the threat of leaking data and deletion of systems has been poised.

In response to the cyber-attack, which was first discovered on New Year’s Eve, Travelex took all computer systems offline, affecting thousands of sites in dozens of countries.

Cashiers have reportedly been using pen and paper to allow cash flows to continue but high street orders have been happened.

Business partners which rely on Travelex for currency services, like Sainsbury’s, (LON:SBRY) Tesco and Virgin Money (LON:VMUK) have also been affected.

“I ordered over £1,000 of euros from Tesco bank online for collection in my local Tesco store on 31 December, ready to be collected on 3 January,” Ms Whiting told the BBC.

“The money was taken from my account and an order confirmation was sent to me, but I went to Tesco to collect my euros last Friday to be told of the Travelex issue.

“I am now £1,000 out of pocket after saving up for so long and there’s no information or help.”

Are Finablr sorting out the crisis?

“Travelex been successful in containing the spread of the ransomware. Travelex has also confirmed whilst there has been some data encryption, there is no evidence structured personal customer data has been encrypted, and there is still no evidence any data has been exfiltrated,” said Finablr on Wednesday.

“Travelex is gradually restoring a number of internal systems and is working to resume normal operations as quickly as possible.”

“Finablr’s other six brands are not affected and are operating normally. Finablr does not currently anticipate any material financial impact for the group, continues to monitor the situation closely and will update the market as required,” the company continued.

However, a Travelex spokeswoman said on Tuesday night in a statement: “Whilst the investigation is still ongoing, Travelex has confirmed that the software virus is ransomware known as Sodinokibi, also commonly referred to as REvil.”

“Travelex has proactively taken steps to contain the spread of the ransomware, which has been successful. To date, the company can confirm that whilst there has been some data encryption, there is no evidence that structured personal customer data has been encrypted.

“Whist Travelex does not yet have a complete picture of all the data that has been encrypted, there is still no evidence to date that any data has been exfiltrated.”

Reports have suggests that a ransomware gang called Sodinokibi carried out the attack.

The gang have made claims that it first accessed the company’s computer network six months ago and since have downloaded 5GB of customer data, something which will worry the market and consumers.

Thor Mining (LON:THR) have given the market an impressive update on Wednesday afternoon.

The firm said that the final assay results from the Bonya deposits in Australia have confirmed “robust results which can add significantly” to the life of nearby proposed Molyhil project.

The Bonya project which Thor have mentioned is located in the Northern Territory of Australia. Notably, it is held in joint venture with Arafura Resources Ltd (ASX:ARU) who own 60% whilst Thor Mining hold the other 40%.

Thor acts as the project manager, and both the firms buy into the project as per their equity.

Thor said that a total of 11 holes were drilled at the White Violet Deposit, and a further eight at Samarkand to complete a total of 1,386 meters of drilling.

An independent resource geologist has been engaged with the objective of preparing mineral resource estimates for both deposits, Thor Mining said.

Thor comments

Mick Billing, executive chair, said: “The Bonya tungsten deposits are delivering robust results which, we believe can add significantly to the economic life and commercial outcomes of the nearby proposed Molyhil project.”

“The Bonya project hosts additional tungsten and copper deposits, and these will be tested in due course, however our initial focus is likely to remain with the White Violet tungsten deposit, the Samarkand tungsten/copper deposit, and the Bonya copper deposit,” Billing noted.

“It is hoped that these can extend the Molyhil project life of mine towards ten years,” Billing said.

Thor’s Share Placing

At the end of October, Thor announced that they would be conducting a share placing in order to raise £510,000.

The firm said that the raised funds would go towards funding activities in the companies tungsten and copper projects.

Thor issued 255 million shares at a price of 0.2 p each, and was undertaken by Hybridian LLP as lead broker, alongside SI Capital Ltd.

Of the shares raised, 113.3 million shares will be issued shortly, while the remaining 141.7 million shares are subject to shareholder approval at Thor’s annual general meeting on November 28th.

London listed firm Metal Tiger Plc (LON: MTR) said it had bought shares in Thor, buying 22.5 million shares valued at £45,000.

Certainly, the Bonya project has continued to give pleasing results for Thor and shareholders will be impressed about the update today and the update provided in November. Thor should hope that the success can continue across 2020.

Shares in Thor trade at 0.4p (+3.9%). 8/1/20 13:17BST.