Samsung shares fall despite being on track for highest ever annual profits
Electronics giant Samsung saw shares sink on Tuesday morning, despite news that the group is on track for its highest ever annual profits.
Shares sunk as Samsung’s figure for the quarterly profits missed analysts’ high expectations, disappointing investors. The group recorded profits of 15.1 million won for the previous quarter, below the 15.9 expected by analysts.
News that the group was on track for record annual profits apparently did little to boost the mood, with full-year profits expected to be 53.6 trillion won.
Outlook for 2018 also looks uncertain, with the group seeing shares fall over 10 percent from November. The group continues to operate in a competitive market, with its smartphones facing competition from cheaper companies in China, made yet more difficult by Samsung’s embarrassing recall of its Note 7 smartphone in 2016.
Samsung shares are currently trading 3.11 percent (1141GMT).
Morrisons shares rise on bumper Christmas figures
Sales at Britain’s fourth largest supermarket, Morrisons, continued to grow over the Christmas period, sending shares up 4 percent at market open on Tuesday.
Sales of its premium products rose by 25 percent over the 10 weeks to the 7th January, with overall group like-for-like sales up 2.8 percent.
The group, who had been going through a difficult period and have implement a plan to better compete in the challenging supermarket environment, attributed this Christmas’ success to more tills, shorter queues and improved stock availability.
According to CEO David Potts, the group has “become more competitive, and despite the rising cost of many commodities the price of a basket of key Christmas items was the same as the previous year”.
“More and more customers found more things they wanted to buy at competitive prices at Morrisons this Christmas,” he concluded.
The latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel suggest all supermarkets had a better-than-expected Christmas period, with figures published on Tuesday showing that British shoppers spent £1 billion more in supermarkets over the last 12 weeks of last year than the year before.
Morrisons shares rose on the news at market open, before calming slightly to trade up 1.5 percent at 230.30 (1104GMT).
Coinsilium shares jump 12 percent on Indorse acquisition
Blockchain venture builder Coinsilium Group saw shares rise over 12 percent on Monday, after the group announced the acquisition of a further 3.5 percent of the share capital of Indorse Pte.
The company bought Indorse, an “ethereum-based decentralised network for professionals” through its wholly-owned subsidiary Seedcoin for an agreed price of 175,000 Singapore Dollars, approximately £97,000.
Coinsilium Chairman Malcolm Palle will become a Board Director of Indorse, as Seedcoin’s representative. Indorse Co-founder Gaurang Torvekar become Seedcoin’s CEO and the company’s Co-founder David Moskowitz will move to the position of Director.
Malcolm Palle said: “Indorse’s successful public beta launch with more than 2,600 sign ups on the platform since the July ‘proof-of-concept’ launch, has confirmed our trust in the capabilities of their development team led by Gaurang Torvekar.
“Indorse is proving to be a perfect match for our strategy of building value for our shareholders through identifying compelling early stage investment propositions lead by highly talented teams. I look forward to joining the Board of Indorse and to working closely with the team at this exciting stage in their journey.”
Coinsilium shares are currently trading up 12.45 percent at 0.28 USD.
US stocks hit refresh highs after Non-Farm Payrolls
US shares hit fresh highs on Friday driven by a jobs report that signalled pressure in the retail sector but expansion in construction.
The US created 148,000 jobs in December, missing estimates of 190,000.
While the number of jobs created missed estimates, average wages came inline with economists prediction at at annualised growth rate of 2.5%.
“A little bit of a disappointment when you only get 2,000 jobs out of the government and get retail at the absolute busiest time of the year losing 20,000 jobs. It just goes to show the true struggle that traditional brick and mortar is having now…Outside of that I actually thought it was a good report.” said JJ Kinahan, of TD Ameritrade.
US stocks took the release as enough reason to break to new highs with the S&P 500 trading above 2731 in early trade.
Shares in the US have had a solid start to the year as investors price in the potential benefits of Trump’s much anticipated tax reforms.
Crawshaw shares slump after slow festive sales
Crawshaw, the UK’s leading value butcher, suffered meaty fall in it’s share price after annoucing its Christmas trading figures.
Shares in the group were down over 7% on Friday after the group revealed like-for-like sales were down 6.1% in the 15 week period to 24th December.
The group blamed lower footfall and weak consumer sentiment for the drop in sales.
CEO, Noel Collett, said of the results:
“On balance, this was a solid core Christmas trading performance against what remains a very tough high street environment. Our biggest ever Christmas week and the record number of meat hampers sold clearly demonstrates the trust our customers place in us for their most important meat spend of the year. This gives us a solid platform to improve trading momentum going into 2018.
CEO, Noel Collett, said of the results:
“On balance, this was a solid core Christmas trading performance against what remains a very tough high street environment. Our biggest ever Christmas week and the record number of meat hampers sold clearly demonstrates the trust our customers place in us for their most important meat spend of the year. This gives us a solid platform to improve trading momentum going into 2018.
“We continue to focus on strengthening Crawshaws’ position as the country’s best value butcher. We are excited by the performance of our factory shops and by the progress of our 2Sisters supply agreement and, while there is much to do, we remain confident that this combination will be transformational for the long-term growth of the company.”
Crawshaw results add to the mixed picture of consumer health during the Christmas period following the release of results from Next and Debenhams.
Next shares jump on positive Christmas update
Shares in UK retailing group Next soared on Wednesday morning following their Christmas trading statement.
Next sales figures for the 54 day period to 24th December revealed the company had successfully offset weaker retail sales with a bumper online sales increase.
Online sales rose 13.6% offsetting a disappointing 6.1% drop on sales in the retail unit.
Investors cheered the results sending Next shares as much as 9% higher in early trade on Wednesday.
Next predicted that profit would slow slightly in the coming year to £705m as operating cost rose at a faster pace than sales which were expected to rise 1%.
The results were not only good news for Next, but the wider retail space; shares in Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s rose 1% and 1.2% respectively.
Next predicted that profit would slow slightly in the coming year to £705m as operating cost rose at a faster pace than sales which were expected to rise 1%.
The results were not only good news for Next, but the wider retail space; shares in Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s rose 1% and 1.2% respectively. UK shares start 2018 in the red
The FTSE 100 fell on Tuesday, kicking off the new year with losses following a record close on the last day of 2017.
The losses were broad with 44 constituents of the FTSE 100 in negative territory. The biggest losers were Land Securities, Standard Life and Johnson Matthey, down between 1%-1.1%.
The biggest riser was easyJet, up 3% following an announcement from rival IAG saying it was to acquire NIKI assets of air Berlin.
Next was also weaker following a note from Deutsche Bank that called Next and peer group retailers Marks & Spencer’s and Debenhams ‘value traps’.
A value trap is traditionally the name given to a share that appears cheap but could have underlying problems.
The biggest riser was easyJet, up 3% following an announcement from rival IAG saying it was to acquire NIKI assets of air Berlin.
Next was also weaker following a note from Deutsche Bank that called Next and peer group retailers Marks & Spencer’s and Debenhams ‘value traps’.
A value trap is traditionally the name given to a share that appears cheap but could have underlying problems. FTSE 100 closes the year at record high; this year’s winners and losers
The FTSE 100 closed on Friday at 7687 as London-listed stocks added to gains throughout the festive period enjoyed in a so-called ‘Santa’s Rally’.
The FTSE 100 closed 2017 up around 7% in a year that was characterised by extremely low volatility throughout a persistent backdrop of political uncertainty and high equity valuations.
The best performer in the FTSE 100 this year was NMC Healthcare, the middle eastern healthcare company who joined the index in Q$ 2017. The stock enjoyed an impressive 80% gain in 2017 following strong growth in their hospital business based in Abu Dhabi.
Other string gainers this year included Persimmon and Berkeley Group Holdings who were up 54% and 50% respectively. The housebuilders posted significant profit increases despite fears over a Brexit induced UK economic slowdown.
A major contributor to their success was the governments support for first-time buyers in the form of the Help to Buy Scheme which some have blamed for creating artificially high house prices.
Miners also posted respectable gains this year after commodity prices rallied, ending years of decline. Copper miner Antofagasta was up 49% while Glencore rose 41%.
Bottom of the FTSE 100 for 2017 was Centrica, down around 40%. Fears of a price cap for energy suppliers hit the entire sector with National Grid and SSE down between 15%-16%, but news that Centrica were shedding large numbers of customers led to investors dumping shares.
Other causalities of 2017 include WPP and ITV who felt the pain of slowing advertising revenues and failed to realign their businesses with digital content consumption trends.
BT Group shares also suffered after they failed to recover from and Italian accounting scandal and analysts questioned the investment in TV rights as opposed to their core broadband business.
The best performer in the FTSE 100 this year was NMC Healthcare, the middle eastern healthcare company who joined the index in Q$ 2017. The stock enjoyed an impressive 80% gain in 2017 following strong growth in their hospital business based in Abu Dhabi.
Other string gainers this year included Persimmon and Berkeley Group Holdings who were up 54% and 50% respectively. The housebuilders posted significant profit increases despite fears over a Brexit induced UK economic slowdown.
A major contributor to their success was the governments support for first-time buyers in the form of the Help to Buy Scheme which some have blamed for creating artificially high house prices.
Miners also posted respectable gains this year after commodity prices rallied, ending years of decline. Copper miner Antofagasta was up 49% while Glencore rose 41%.
Bottom of the FTSE 100 for 2017 was Centrica, down around 40%. Fears of a price cap for energy suppliers hit the entire sector with National Grid and SSE down between 15%-16%, but news that Centrica were shedding large numbers of customers led to investors dumping shares.
Other causalities of 2017 include WPP and ITV who felt the pain of slowing advertising revenues and failed to realign their businesses with digital content consumption trends.
BT Group shares also suffered after they failed to recover from and Italian accounting scandal and analysts questioned the investment in TV rights as opposed to their core broadband business.
Future of Toys R Us hangs in balance as creditors vote
The future of troubled toy retailer Toys R Us will be decided on Thursday, as creditors prepare to vote on whether to back the proposed rescue plan.
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) had already said it will vote against the plan, after Toys R Us failed to secure £9 million, but both parties have been in talks throughout the night to secure a deal. The pension scheme currently has a deficit of over £25 million, and an outline of the agreement between the two parties is said to include a ten-year commitment to wiping out the deficit.
If Toys R Us cannot secure the support of the PPF in the vote, the company will fall into administration and around 3,200 staff across its 105 stores. The talks are part of Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), a last minute step which could save the company but needs the backing of 75 percent of investors.
Earlier this week, Toys R Us told shoppers that “there will be no disruption for customers shopping through the Christmas and New Year period.”
Government borrowing falls but public debt soars
Government borrowing has fallen to its lowest November level since 2007, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Public borrowing for the year-to-date fell to £48.1 billion, £3.1 billion lower than the 2016 April – November period. A spokesperson for the ONS said:
“This is the best year-to-date borrowing in a decade, but there is still further to go to repair the public finances.
“We continue to build an economy fit for the future by taking a balanced approach, getting debt falling while investing in our vital public services and keeping taxes low.”
The figure puts chancellor Philip Hammond on track to meet the Office for Budget Responsibility’s expectation of £49.9 billion for full-year borrowing to the end of March 2018.
However the same set of figures showed an increase in public sector net debt, which has risen by £72.2 billion to £1.7 trillion. The total figure is equal to 84.6 percent of Britain’s gross domestic product.