Talk Talk share lift as customers soar

TALKTALK shares climbed 8pc as it added another 88,000 broadband customers – and boasted of winning 150,000 this year.

The telecoms group booked a 4.1pc increase in first-quarter sales to £382m, as broadband customers hit 4.2m. While the extra 88,000 customers represented a slowdown from the 109,000 it added in the previous quarter, the figure is much higher than the 20,000 recorded in the same quarter last year.

Talk Talk also flagged a slowdown in the number of customers moving to another provider but the shares grew by 8.8p and closed at 118.7p.

The group has been undergoing a restructure following a cyber attack in 2015, which saw the personal data of nearly 160,000 customers accessed by hackers.

Costs of £119m from its turnaround plan left it nursing a £73m loss last year.

But chief executive Tristia Harrison said: ‘After resetting the business last year, we are now a much simpler, lower-cost business.’