Chemring shareholders dash to sell after tragedy

INVESTORS fled flares-maker Chemring after an explosion at its Wiltshire plant on Saturday killed one worker and seriously injured another.

Work at the plant near Salisbury, which accounts for about 15pc of the company’s sales, has been suspended during a key period, with no date yet for production to restart.

Chemring said the incident could dent profits by between £10m and £20m, although the full impact could not yet be measured.

Traders sold as soon as the market opened. Shares fell to 180p before slowly climbing back up. They ended the day down 12.3pc, or 29p, at 207p.

Sports Direct investors appeared not bowled over by owner Mike Ashley’s snapping up House of Fraser on Friday, with shares down 1.4pc, or 5.6p, at 399.8p.

Analysts at Peel Hunt said: ‘The HoF deal is fascinating but the lack of any shared strategic plan for the stores means we can’t embrace management’s excitement with the deal.

‘We’d actually love to be more bullish, if only management would meet us half way. Or anywhere, in fact.’

Amid speculation about Ashley taking full control of other ailing department store Debenhams, its shares rose 9.5pc, or 1.11p, to 12.75p. They are still down from about 50p last year.

Investors also dumped online trading platform Plus 500 amid a regulatory crackdown, despite bumper profits and dividends.

Volatile markets have helped profits triple to £204m with sales up 147pc to £364m.

Bosses declared an interim dividend of £123m – nearly six times last year’s payout.

However, they warned that a clampdown on highly speculative trading coming into force this month means the exceptional performance was unlikely to be repeated. They said it could affect up to 30pc of group revenues in the short term. Shares closed down 16.3pc, or 328p, at 1680p.

Trouble with the Turkish lira rattled the FTSE 100, which closed down 0.3pc, or 24.56 points, at 7642.45. European travel stocks were hit, with Tui down 2.5pc, or 39p, at 1526.50p, and Thomas Cook down 2.9pc, or 2.55p, to 85.3p. Fund management group Ashmore, seen as a bellwether for emerging markets, was also hammered. Its shares were down 5.4pc, or 19.4p, to 337.6p.

However, Ashmore also suffered from a note from Numis, whose analysts said they were concerned about the business’s outlook.

Esure’s probable sell-up to Bain Capital boosted shares in other insurers, including Direct Line (up 1.5pc, or 4.8p, to 327.3p),

Admiral Group (up 1.6pc, or 32p, to 2019p) and Hastings Group Holdings (up 4.4pc, or 11p, to 261p. And better- than- feared results from shipping broker

Clarkson cheered investors. The business, which issued a profit warning in April, has been hit by falls in the US dollar, lower freight rates and the slump in the oil price.

Yesterday it posted an 18pc fall in profits to £18m and a 2.7pc decline in revenues to £152.6m.

But boss Andi Case said conditions in some markets had improved and he had confidence in the business’s future. Shares rose 6.6pc, or 170p, to 2755p.

At the junior end of the market, investors were happy with miner

Scotgold Resources as chief executive Richard Gray said major advancements have been made on its plans to start Scotland’s first commercial gold mine.

Despite delays, the Cononish mine, near Tyndrum, Stirling, remains on course to start producing in 2019. In 2016, Scotgold sold commemorative coins made of gold previously taken from the mine in a bid to drum up interest. Shares rose 1.9pc, or 0.5p, to 26p.