Korea’s largest electronics and memory chip producer, Samsung, released on Wednesday that third-quarter profit dropped by a smaller-than-expected 78%.

The company further stated that its consolidated Q3 sales are at approximately 67 trillion Korean won, while its consolidated operating profit is expected to be approximately 2.4 trillion Korean won. Samsung generated 60 trillion Korean won in revenue in Q2.

The consolidated operating shows sign of a minor upward trend with 2.4 trillion Korean won estimated for Q3. Operating profits were 640 billion won in Q1 and 670 billion won during Q2.

Samsung has been facing a wider slowdown in chip sales and softening demand for consumer electronics.

Samsung shares rose 3.15 percent in Korean trade on Wednesday and are currently worth 68,200 KRW.

In a press release on Tuesday, the Danish company stated that, due to significant early signs of efficacy, they will stop the trial of Ozempic, a type 2 diabetes treatment, a year early.

Novo Nordisk´s shares are up 3.1% at the time of writing and are currently worth 670 DKK in Copenhagen.

The press release further states that the decision to halt one of the trial´s stages early, which will result in the whole process being done a year faster than expected, was based on a recommendation from the Independent Monitoring Committee (DMC).

According to the DMC, results from an interim analysis met a pre-specified criteria that allows Novo to stop the trial stage early.

Novo Nordisk is well-known for Wegony, a weight-loss drug that was found to have significant cardiovascular benefits in August. Since then, the company has seen its shares rise by almost 17%.

In August, the Danish government stated that Novo Nordisk alone had lifted the country’s economic growth forecast by 0.6%.

Novo Nordisk is now Europe’s highest valued listed company and is worth around €385 billion.

Tekcapital creates exciting technology businesses with the potential to help the lives of a great number of people from scratch with the core aim of Tekcapital shareholder value creation.

As CEO Dr Clifford Gross explains, each one of their portfolio companies was founded by Tekcapital and taken from a concept on a piece of paper to businesses with substantial market opportunities.

Belluscura – a company founded by Tekcapital and later listed on AIM – has recently announced a potential $85m worth of orders and royalties.

Tekcapital is now set to list its next success story in London this month. MicroSalt is targeting a £10m-£15m AIM listing to secure growth capital to fund the expansion of their low sodium salt technology business.

MicroSalt has already secured distribution agreements with US supermarket giant Kroger and has said they are in talks with major players in the snack food industry.

Sodium overconsumption plays a part in millions of premature deaths per year and MicroSalt is tackling this head-on with a technology that reduces sodium in their table salt by 50%.

Tekcapital shareholder value

Tekcapital valued MicroSalt at $17m as a privately held company on its balance sheet as of the end of June 2023.

The transition from a privately held company to a listed entity represents a major milestone for both MicroSalt and Tekcapital and provides the opportunity for Tekcapital to crystallise shareholder value.

In addition, the market should give more weight to Tekcapital’s net asset value going forward as a large proportion will now be valued by the public market as opposed to private market methods. Tekcapital’s holding will be readily realisable and the risk premium associated with privately held companies should diminish.

We are yet to learn of the specific valuation attached to MicroSalt on IPO and investors will eagerly await the value of Tekcapital’s holding post-IPO.

With a market cap of just £20m, Tekcapital could quickly start to look very good value as soon as the particulars of the MicroSalt IPO are made public.

The FTSE 100 surged on Tuesday as the gloom around US interest rates reversed, and China was reportedly considering unleashing a wave of stimulus.

The FTSE 100 rallied 1.6% to trade at 7,611 at the time of writing. The rally was broad, with 98 of the FTSE 100’s constituents trading positively.

“Investors regained their appetite for risk after a troublesome start to the trading week linked to concerns about conflict in the Middle East and how the associated hike in commodity prices could feed through to inflation and interest rates staying higher for longer,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“Triggering the U-turn in the market mood were comments on Monday from Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson who implied the US central bank needed to ‘proceed carefully’ with any further rate hikes. This raised hopes in the market that the Fed might not need to lift rates any higher, particularly if higher bond yields were already threatening to act as an anchor on economic activity.”

Already improving sentiment on the back of US rates hopes received an additional boost from reports China was mulling actions to help stimulate the economy.

Bloomberg reported China was exploring the issuance of 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) in government debt to be spent on major infrastructure projects.

The prospect of significant construction projects in China fired up the FTSE 100’s natural resources, with miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto enjoying solid gains. Prudential jumped 3.9% on hopes of better trading conditions in China.

The risk-on sentiment in equities was reflected in a 6% rally for Ocado, the FTSE 100’s top riser.

Spirax-Sarco was the top faller after JP Morgan analysts cut their price target to 11,100p from 11,500p.