Oven cleaner and own-brand soap-maker McBride fell to a five-year low today after revealing a drop in sales and warning on profits.
The business said revenue dropped 4% and warned that “given market unpredictability” it will not meet market expectations with results for the year to June 2014.
The small-cap firm, which also has operations on the Continent, promised “significant restructuring” after a strategic review. Shares fell 10.5p to 94.75p, a level not seen since March 2009.
Tullow Oil welled up 35p to 788p today after UBS said now was a good time to buy into the business. Tullow fell last week after a disappointing update from Kenya and the broker’s Jon Rigby says a string of bad news from the explorer has hit shares, which have almost halved in two years.
But Rigby thinks this downward trend is unfair and describes Tullow as “a well-financed company, with a strong asset portfolio, material exploration upside, decent downside protection,” and it can be bought “at an attractive price”.
The benchmark index was quiet today with no big economic or political story to drive trading and a lack of corporate news. The FTSE 100 rose 8.95 points to 6667.99.
Blue-chip telecoms giant Vodafone, down 1.2p to 219.9p, announced plans to open 150 new stores in the UK, creating 1400 new jobs.
Property redeveloper St Modwen fell 16.5p to 381p, after the founding families took profits. Relations of the late Sir Stanley Clarke and his brother-in-law Jim Leavesley, who founded the firm in 1966, sold 8.26 million shares at 380p.
The FTSE 250 firm, whose projects include the £2 billion redevelopment of New Covent Garden Market in Nine Elms, has been trading near a six-year high and the two families netted a combined £31.1 million from the sale of the 3.75% stake. The Clarke and Leavesley families, who operate independently of the business, still retain a 16% holding in the company.
