Pennon Group shares decreased 0.6% to 1,045p in late afternoon trading on Tuesday, after the company reported that it was on target to deliver financial results in line with management expectations ahead of its financial results for 2021.

The water firm noted its largest environmental investment programme in 15 years worth £1.4 billion across South West Water and Bristol Water, along with its scheduled acceleration and additional spend of £150 million over the current regulatory period, which was funded by re-investment of RORE outperformance to date.

The programme is set to include wastewater investments of £330 million as part of the company’s WaterFit plans for 2022 to 2025 in a move to improve the quality of rivers and seas across the South West waters region.

“Pennon, and other water companies, have come under fire for pollution incidents linked to their sewage operations so news of a £330m investment into their waste water operations will be welcomed by many,” said Hargreaves Lansdown select fund manager Steve Clayton.

The company highlighted its CMA clearance for its Bristol Water and South West Water merger, with the integration process in motion and synergies targeting £20 million per year identified across the company by 2024 to 2025.

Pennon also announced that it had delivered £200 million of its share buyback programme, with fresh phases scheduled to commence subject to its review of potential growth opportunities.

The Group also drew attention to its bill cut for 2022 to 2023, and said that bills were currently lower than they were 10 years ago for South West Water customers.

“Pennon are performing well, with good plans to drive growth in the years ahead,” said Clayton.

“All in all it is a robust performance. With cost pressures emerging, Pennon will be glad to have the opportunity to create offsetting synergies from the Bristol Water integration which should allow them to have a more resilient financial performance than many UK companies will manage in the next few years.”

“Critically, Pennon are targeting real terms increases in their dividends to shareholders.”

Caledonia Mining shares spiked 6.3% to 1,186p in early afternoon trading on Tuesday after the company reported a record quarterly gold production of 18,515 ounces from its Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe.

The mining firm noted a 40% increase in quarterly production on its result of 13,197 ounces produced in Q1 2021, along with an expected reiterated gold production between 73,000 to 80,000 ounces for 2022.

Caledonia Mining highlighted that its gold production had exceeded management expectations, reflecting the increased capacity at its Blanket Mine Central Shaft.

“I am delighted that during this quarter we have set a new first quarter production record,” said Caledonia Mining CEO Steve Curtis.

“The ramp-up in production towards our quarterly target of 20,000 ounces means that we are on track to meet our annual production target.”

Curtis also remembered 35 year old Andrew Clydon Phiri, a Caledonia employee who tragically passed away in an accident at the Blanket Mine Project over the past quarter.

“As previously announced, very sadly during the quarter a fatal accident resulted in the death of a Blanket employee.”  

“We always take the safety of our employees very seriously and I join my colleagues in expressing our sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased.”

The FTSE 100 was down 0.4% to 7,582.9 on Tuesday on investor concerns over inflation and rising bond yields.

Defensive stocks such as utilities and insurers suffered the heaviest falls, with companies across the board in the red as the market trudged into a dismal day of trading.

Risk-off sentiment flared up across Europe, with Deutsche Bank decreasing 10% and Commerzbank spiralling almost 9% after reports that a major investor had sold a substantial chunk of their shares in both firms.

“Another day, another decline for key equity indices. European stocks were in the doldrums as investors fretted about inflation, politics, consumer spending and more,” said AJ Bell financial analyst Danni Hewson.

“Corporate news flow is picking up which is giving investors a reason to want to trade the markets, but mixed messages from these businesses is making it hard to call which way equities will move next.”

Commodities prices increased and sent mining stocks on the rise, including a 1.3% increase to 16,860 in Antofagasta, a 1.3% uptick to 527.2p for Glencore shares and a 1% rise for Rio Tinto to 61,400p and Endeavour Mining to 20,050p.

BP soared to the top of the FTSE 100 with a 2.7% rise to 397.5p after the price of Brent Crude increased 3.5% to $102 per barrel.

Electrocomponents enjoyed a 1.4% rise to 10,225p on the back of shining projections of a 26% like-for-like revenue growth for 2021, alongside an adjusted operating profit margin at the high end of its management consensus range.

Shell shares rose 1.1% to 21,602p as it also rode the oil price uptick higher.

The Rolls Royce Group fell 5% to 90.2p after negative broker comments from JP Morgan toppled investor confidence in the company.

The London Stock Exchange hit the list of fallers as it suffered a 4.1% decrease to 80,590p in light of additional poor recommendations from brokers.

The Ocado Group dropped 2.9% to 12,017p as the struggling online retailer saw its star continue to fall in the new era of post-Covid retail, with the company struggling to adapt to survive its rapidly approaching obsolescence.

ASOS shares were down 5.3% to 1,620.5p in late morning trading on Tuesday after the fast fashion company reported a pre-tax profit fall from £112.9 million to £14.8 million in its interim results, marking yet another blow for the struggling retail sector.

The online fashion retailer also said it expected a £14 million loss in pre-tax profit due to its suspension of business dealings in Russia.

The group highlighted a 4% revenue growth to £2 billion, with the UK bringing in an 8% sales growth alongside an 11% increase from the US.

ASOS reported a continued triple-digit growth in Topshop brands with a 193% year-on-year rise, highlighting especially strong growth across the UK, US and Germany.

The company also noted an increase in its active customer base to 26.7 million, representing a 300,000 consumer increase over the last six months.

However, the fast fashion firm suffered a slowdown in growth as a result of cycling a term of exceptional customer acquisition in the previous year when the high street was closed.

ASOS forward guidance remained unaltered, however the company cautioned that the impact of inflation has not yet hit its consumer base.

“The broader online retail sector finds itself in somewhat of a sticky spot, with inflation at levels not seen for years the squeeze on finances will slowly start to feed into changing buying habits,” said Hargreaves Lansdown equity analyst Matt Britzman.

“When you add on the resurgence of High Street shopping and higher return rates, the goldilocks conditions seen last year are well and truly over.”

“That’s a pretty sombre backdrop and means the outlook from here is a tricky one to be confident about.”

ASOS reported an adjusted EBITDA of £26.2 million, representing a dramatic 77% fall compared to its £116.2 million result over the same period in 2021.

The company’s adjusted PBT of £14.8 million reflected the unwinding of Covid-19-related benefits from H1 FY21, alongside scheduled investment in marketing and significant cost inflation, particularly across warehouse labour and freight.

“ASOS has delivered an encouraging trading performance, against the continuing backdrop of significant volatility and disruption,” said ASOS COO and CFO Mat Dunn.

“The team has acted with determination and pace and is making good early progress on the strategic plan for the next phase of growth, as set out at our CMD last year.”

“We remain mindful of the potential impact on demand from the growing pressures on consumer spend and will continue to be responsive to any changes in market conditions as we progress the work started in the first half to deliver on our ambitions.”

EasyJet shares were down 1.8% to 532.6p in early morning trading on Tuesday following the travel company’s release of an estimated £535 to £565 million pre-tax loss in its interim trading update for HY1 2022.

The budget airline reported a reduction in losses year-on-year, along with an increase in capacity to 80% of FY2019 in March.

The group’s total revenue and headline costs for the period were projected at £1.5 million, with an anticipated £2 million in headline costs.

The company’s passenger numbers increased to 11.5 million in Q2 compared to 1.2 million in Q2 FY2021.

EasyJet noted that its summer bookings for the last six weeks have tracked ahead of the same period in FY2019, with a particular increase in leisure routes.

“As a short-haul operator, easyJet is well positioned to capture demand from holiday-deprived families and individuals, who may be more wary about travelling further afield while there is still so much uncertainty,” said Hargreaves Lansdown lead equity analyst Sophie Lund-Yates.

The group highlighted the addition of five extra aircraft slots in Greece, positioning the travel firm as the largest carrier to the main Greek Islands over summer 2022.

The company also confirmed that 70% of its EasyJet holidays programme has been sold out and at substantially stronger margins against 2019 results.

“Despite a difficult climate, EasyJet has been increasing its operations, reaching a capacity of around 80% of 2019 levels in the first half of 2022,” said Third Bridge senior airlines analyst Allegra Dawes.

“High demand is expected in the European summer seasons as pent-up demand finds an outlet during the holiday season.”

EasyJet confirmed that the company flew at 67% 2019 capacity in Q2, in line with management expectations.

The travel firm suffered a dent in load factor for Q2 as a result of Omicron surges, however the load factor was built back over the second quarter after Covid-19 restrictions began to ease.

“EasyJet’s performance in the second quarter has been driven by improved trading following the UK Government’s decision to relax testing restrictions with an extra boost from self-help measures which saw us outperform market expectations,” said EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren.

“Since travel restrictions were removed, easyJet has seen a strong recovery in trading which has been sustained, resulting in a positive outlook for Easter and beyond, with daily booking volumes for summer currently tracking ahead of those at the same time in FY19.” 

Technology Minerals reported a slate of advancements in its interim results for HY2 2022. The company’s shares were down 3.5% to 2.9p in early morning trading on Tuesday.

The firm has been listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) since November 2021, and currently aims to create a sustainable circular economy for battery metals across the UK.

The group highlighted its £1.5 million fundraise pre-expenses from its admission to the London Stock Exchange (LSE), after its successful £5 million IPO fundraise.

Technology Minerals also noted its 49% owned firm Recyclus Group, which formed a partnership with Slicker Recycling Limited, and is set to see Slicker Recycling collect battery waste from around the UK and transport it to the nearest Recyclus plant.

The firm’s Recyclus achievements included the group’s first recycling site in Tipton, which opened in January 2022 and is set to provide national capability for lead-acid battery recycling.

The company added that Recyclus had opened the first laboratory suite at its new battery processing plant in Wolverhampton to conduct on-site testing for lead and lithium-ion battery recycling processes.

Technology Minerals celebrated its advancement in several ongoing projects, including a promising set of results from a sampling survey in its Oacoma Project, which reportedly confirmed the presence of manganese and rare earth oxides.

The firm confirmed that it had received a positive slate of initial results from due diligence sampling at its Asturmet Copper-Cobalt-Nickel Project in Asturias, Spain.

Technology Minerals also highlighted its acquisition of the Blackbird Creek Property in Idaho, US, which covers 1,285 hectares in the Idaho Cobalt Belt and potentially holds significant Copper-Cobalt deposits.

“It has been a great six months for the development of Technology Minerals,” said Stanbury.  

“We successfully listed on the London Stock Exchange in November and raised capital to accelerate our development plans and pursue our growth strategy to create a circular economy for battery metals.”  

Moneysupermarket shares were up 1.9% to 175.9p in early morning trading on Tuesday after the insurance company announced an 8% growth in revenue in its Q1 2022 trading update.

The company reported a rise in revenue to £92.3 million from £85.5 million over the last quarter, with a particular rebound in travel insurance, which hit close to 2019 levels with £3.2 million compared to £400,000 in Q1 2021.

Moneysupermarket highlighted a high rate of retention across its customer base and noted the upcoming launch of its MSE multi-compare tool for car insurance scheduled for launch at the end of Q1 2022 to increase its presence in the market.

The firm celebrated a strong growth in money, which was led by a recovering in borrowing with a 37% increase to £24.8 million against £18.1 million in Q1 2021.

The company also noted an advancement in its banking division, which was reportedly driven by the wide reach of its promotional offers.

Moneysupermarket highlighted that its cashback trading benefited from the recovery in travel, however its regained ground was offset by lower volume in other channels.

The insurance group said that the factors affecting its market remained unchanged from those outlined in its February preliminary results, and that the Board currently anticipates full-year EBITDA to rise to 2020 levels, with its profit weighted in the second half.

“We are pleased with the strong recovery in Money and Travel, and continue to execute well against our strategy,” said Moneysupermarket CEO Peter Duffy.

“With cost-of-living increases adding pressure to consumer budgets, our distinctive brands remain well positioned to help households save money in a broad range of areas.”

Tortilla reported a transformational year on Monday with a 79.5% increase in revenue to a record £48.1m in 2021 compared to £26.8m in 2020 due to a strong performance across its venues as consumers begin to eat out again as restrictions ease.

In 2021, Tortilla saw an 80% increase in revenues after the Mexican fast-food chain reopened venues along with adding 7 new restaurants of which 3 were delivery-only despite 285 trading weeks being lost due to pandemic closures. The total number of venues for Tortilla is now 64.

LFL sales grew 23.8% compared to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 for the group’s existing estates.

The group has launched new partnerships with Merlin Entertainments to open at Chessington World of Adventures and expanded its existing partnership with SSP to open two further sites at Gatwick Airport and Leeds Skelton Services.

Tortilla saw a pre-tax profit of £2.2m after seeing losses of £1.7m in 2020 as eases in restrictions helped the group’s profit bounce back.

The group’s adjusted EBITDA, pre-IFRS 16 increased 262.5% to £8.7m from £2.4m in 2020.

Tortilla’s business is highly cash generative, and benefits from a negative working capital cycle which helps fund new store openings from its capital. The group’s net debt position has been reversed from net debt of £2.3m in 2020 to net cash of £6.7m in 2021.

The group has a total revolving credit facility of £10m held with Santander out of which only £3m is drawn as of 2 January 2022.

For 2021, the board did not recommend a dividend and the capital generated at the moment will be used for the company’s growth.

Going into 2022, the company plans to open 7 more sites to sum up to 45 sites by the end of 2026 underpinning the board’s confidence. The group has already opened up 1 site in Q1 and one in April.

Four sites are already open for business, with plans to build at least ten more over the next five years, thanks to a successful franchise arrangement with the Compass Group.

The momentum from 2021 has continued in 2022 and YTD LFL growth is 20.1%, in line with expectations for the group.

Tortilla is well-positioned to handle any macroeconomic pressures with strong support from the brand, value-for-money proposition and flexible operating model.

Richard Morris, CEO of Tortilla said, “Capping off a transformational year for Tortilla, we are very pleased to announce a record financial performance for the group’s maiden Annual Results following its successful IPO in October 2021.” 

“During the year we made excellent progress in delivery of our long-term growth strategy. We opened further sites in line with our UK roll out plans, expanded our delivery kitchen estate to fulfil growing customer demand, and both extended and launched franchise partnerships which introduced the Tortilla brand to even more customers across the UK.”

Tortilla shares were trading up 1.5% to 168p following the announcement of a strong performance in 2021.

United Oil and Gas shares were up 1.9% to 2.6p in late afternoon trading on Monday after the company announced the sale of its UOG Italia Srl asset to PXOG Marshall Limited for €2,164,701.

United Oil and Gas sold 100% of the share capital for its Italian asset following final approvals from the national authorities.

The company noted that the UOG Italia Srl asset currently holds a 20% non-operated interest in the Podere Gallina licence, which also contains the Selva gas development project.

United confirmed that it received a completion payment of €2,190,966 which included the balance of the consideration, alongside a working capital adjustment from the effective date of €134,500 less the capital deposit of €108,235, which was reportedly received on 10 August last year.

The deal marks United’s exit from Italian operations, and the group will consequently no longer be liable for its share of the Selva gas development capital expenditure worth approximately €800,000.

United said that the finance from the agreement will be used to strengthen its balance sheet, which in combination with the higher oil prices, places the company in a strong position going forwards in 2022.

“We are pleased to have completed the sale of  the Italian asset with our joint venture  partner on the licence, Prospex Energy. The  proceeds of this transaction along with other divestments strengthen our balance sheet to support our growth strategy,” said United CEO Brian Larkin.

“We have re-focused our portfolio on our core areas which provides us with a platform for organic growth and also a base from which we can evaluate further growth opportunities in 2022 and beyond. We wish Prospex Energy and all stakeholders of the Selva project well during its development”.