A positive AGM statement from photonics company Gooch & Housego (LON: GHH) revealed a 18% increase in the order book to £168m. All divisions contributed, but aerospace and defence grew fastest. This suggests a stronger second half. Cavendish is maintaining its forecast for the time being, although it has added a 2026-27 forecast. This year a pre-tax profit of £16.2m is expected, rising to £19.3m next year. The share price gained 7.8% to 815p.

Blue Star Capital (LON: BLU) says there was a reduction of £347,000 in the value of investment in the year to September 2025. Because of cash raised during the year the NAV has risen from £937,000 to £2.87m. The stake in SatoshiPay was increased and is worth £1.53m. The share price increased 5.88% to 9p.

Armstrong Investments has acquired a 3.16% stake in Renalytix (LON: RENX). The share price rose 3.57% to 3.625p.

SRT Marine Systems (LON: SRT) has won a $20.5m follow-on contract with an unnamed sovereign customer. The share price improved 1.2% to 84p.

FALLERS

Last year, Karelian Diamond Resources (LON: KDR) used £114,000 of cash in operations and capitalised £107,000 of exploration spending. This was broadly covered by a fundraising during the year. Cash was £28,000 at the end of November 2025. A copper target has been identified in Northern Ireland. Diamond exploration continues in Finland, and the company is waiting for retail sentiment to improve. The share price fell by one-fifth to 0.4p.

Graphene technology developer Directa Plus (LON: DCTA) continues to discuss a non-dilutive €4m loan from major shareholder Nant Capital. Land held by Setcar may be sold for €500,000 and it is making annualised cost savings of €500,000. Corporate costs have been reduced by €150,000. Finance director Giorgio Bonfanti is leaving. The share price declined 5.56% to 12.75p.

Frontier Developments (LON: FDEV) founder David Braben has sold 15,000 shares at 401.61p. This is part of the video games developer’s share buyback. The share price dipped 2.87% to 397.75p.

Atome (LON: ATOM) says final investment decision for the $630m Villeta fertiliser project in Paraguay has been delayed until March. Management is in negotiations with potential funders and partners. A special purpose vehicle will be set up for the project. The share price slid 2.78% to 52.5p.

Senior shares soared on Friday after the company announced it is in discussions with multiple potential buyers following a series of all-cash takeover proposals.

Shares were 18% at the time of writing.

The engineering group first received a preliminary bid in January 2026, which the board unanimously rejected as fundamentally undervaluing the company. Two further offers from the same party followed in February, both also rejected.

The board subsequently appointed Lazard and Jefferies to approach other parties, resulting in two additional, superior all-cash proposals from separate bidders. Discussions remain ongoing.

Senior shares have performed well throughout 2025, making a potential deal all the more interesting because the company doesn’t trade at the low valuation typical of other recent takeover deals.

Indeed, Senior shares could be considered very fairly valued, if not slightly expensive. But the group is operating in an attractive area with contracts in the defence and aerospace sectors that are enjoying strong growth.

In light of the talks, Senior has postponed its planned £40 million share buyback programme, which had been due to start following publication of full-year results.

Reading through full-year results, one has to wonder why the market has been so concerned about the impact of AI on Rightmove. It almost seems a little unfair.

Rightmove remains the UK’s number 1 property portal and is producing steady revenue and profit growth amid the launch of new AI-powered services as part of a wider strategic push to open up more revenue channels.

The UK property market remains slow, so for Rightmove to produce the results it has this morning, it’s certainly doing something right and serves as a reminder as to why it has been the subject of takeover interest in recent years.

Rightmove has reported a solid set of full-year results for 2025, with revenue up 9% to £425.1m and underlying operating profit also rising 9% to £297.7m, maintaining its hefty 70% margin.

The UK’s dominant property portal saw growth driven largely by agents and developers upgrading to premium packages. Its top-tier “Optimiser Edge” product now counts 35% of independent estate agents as subscribers, up from 31% a year earlier, while a new “Ascend” package for housebuilders attracted 28% of developments within months of its May launch.

More than half of independent agents exceeded their package commitment on additional products — a clear sign that the platform is finding new ways to extract value from its existing customer base.

Average revenue per advertiser rose 6% to £1,621, with agency ARPA up £90 to £1,530 and New Homes ARPA climbing £148 to £2,135. Total membership edged up 1% to 19,272, helped by record levels of new agent formation as falling mortgage rates encouraged fresh entrants into the market.

“Operationally, Rightmove remains an enviable machine. A 70% underlying margin, 89% share of time spent, and traffic that is overwhelmingly direct and organic give Rightmove a moat that most digital businesses can only dream of,” said Mark Crouch, market analyst for eToro.

“Revenue up 9%, profits up double digits, and strategic growth areas expanding 25% underline that agents are still paying for premium positioning.”

The company’s strategic growth bets are starting to pay off. Mortgages revenue surged 46% to £6.8m, Rental Services jumped 35% to £7.1m, and Commercial Property grew 13% to £15.3m. Combined, these three areas delivered £29.1m, up 25% on last year, though they still represent a relatively small slice of group revenue. It will be interesting to see how these areas progress over the coming year.

Earnings per share rose 15% to 28.1p, and the company announced a £90m share buyback alongside a final dividend of roughly £50m. Total cash returned to shareholders hit £219.7m, up 21% year on year.

On the consumer side, Rightmove’s grip on the market looks as firm as ever, with 89% share of time on Comscore at year-end and over 85% of traffic arriving directly or organically. The platform clocked 16.8 billion minutes of usage across the year.

AI featured prominently throughout the results, with 31 live AI initiatives now running across the business. Its new AI-powered Online Agent Valuation tool has seen the fastest product uptake in the company’s history. Rightmove has also struck a multi-year deal with Google Cloud to accelerate its data and AI capabilities.

Looking ahead, management flagged that 2026 will see stepped-up investment in consumer and partner innovation, AI-driven operations, and new growth areas.

International Airlines Group delivered its strongest-ever financial performance in 2025, with operating profit surging 13.1% to over €5 billion as robust demand for air travel and an ongoing transformation programme continued to bear fruit.

Revenue at the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Vueling rose 3.5% to €33.2 billion, while adjusted earnings per share jumped 22.4% to 69.5 euro cents. The group’s operating margin widened by 1.3 percentage points to 15.1%.

Iberia was the standout performer, posting a 16.2% margin, with British Airways close behind at 15.2%. Both airlines benefited from improving punctuality and rising customer satisfaction scores, with group on-time performance up 4.6 points to 82.4%.

IAG pointed to a combination of strong demand for travel and constrained industry supply, with aircraft delivery delays from manufacturers limiting competitor growth. The group grew its own capacity by 2.4% in the year, deploying new A321XLR aircraft on transatlantic routes from both Dublin and Madrid.

Luis Gallego, IAG Chief Executive Officer, said “Execution of our strategy and transformation programme is creating value for shareholders, with adjusted EPS growth of 22.4% and, in line with our disciplined capital allocation framework, we have grown the dividend per share by 8.9% and are announcing today a further return of excess cash of €1.5 billion.”

“We are confident as we look to the future, with compelling market dynamics, long-term secular growth and a clear plan to leverage our business model and deliver our strategy.”

Trading was generally firm across all markets, with Asia Pacific performing particularly well, though there was some softness in the US leisure segment during the third quarter.

The North Atlantic remains an area of strength for IAG, with its joint business partners holding 49% market share. Though the real growth story is Latin America, where Iberia expanded frequencies and launched new routes to Brazil.

IAG proposed a final dividend of €228 million, bringing the full-year payout to €448 million — an 8.9% increase per share. On top of that, it announced a fresh €1.5 billion return of excess cash, starting with a €500 million share buyback, up from the €1 billion programme launched in February.