Homeserve hits record high as cash floods in

SHARES in home repairs and insurance provider Homeserve touched a record high after the company told investors it expects to make more money this year.

Revenues in the six months to the end of September rose 13pc to £458m. Profits edged 2pc higher, as business boomed in the US.

It also revealed it is plotting an even bigger push into the North American market, where it picked up 13pc more customers in the first-half, by spending £108m on a controlling stake in US group Elocal. Homeserve has bought 79pc of Elocal, which connects customers with tradespeople, and can buy the rest of the company at a later date.

Mid- cap Homeserve said it expects Elocal to add £3.9m to its profits this year, which sent its stock to a record high of 1282p. Shares later fell back to close 4.8pc higher, up 57p, at 1255p.

Elsewhere, safety equipment maker Halma barrelled to the top of the Footsie’s leaderboard after it reported a better-than-forecast rise in half-year profits and a revenue jump of 12pc on the back of five acquisitions.

The company, which makes hazard-protection equipment, pumped up its first-half dividend to 6.54p per share, up from 6.11p in the same period of last year. Shares rallied 8.5pc, or 160.5p, to 2059p at the close.

Halma’s performance lifted fellow safety group Intertek, which specialises in product testing and certification. Intertek shares rallied 3.7pc, or 196p, to 5502p, and were also boosted by an upgrade from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’ by Jefferies analysts. Shares in industrials group Melrose Industries closed up 0.7pc, or 1.6p, at 224p, after it said that its transformation of GKN is making progress, though a strike at General

Motors in the US knocked revenue in two of its divisions.

Blue-chip miner Rio Tinto rose 1.2pc, or 48p, to 4214.5p, after it hit back at claims that agreements underpinning its £ 4bn underground copper mine in Mongolia are illegal. It insists it followed all the right processes.

Profits fell 3pc to £118m at pub behemoth EI Group as it disposed of 354 sites in the run-up to its takeover from Slug & Lettuceowner Stonegate.

Its shares edged 0.1pc lower, down 0.2p, to close at 281.8p.

Buoyed by the gains in industrial stocks, the FTSE 100 climbed 0.2pc, or 16.1 points, to 7323.8.

London’s premier index was also propped up by rises in Asiaexposed HSBC (up 1pc, or 5.7p, to 580.7p) and Prudential (up 1.3pc, or 16.5p, to 1318.5p).

Both stocks made gains after China’s central bank cut a closely watched lending rate, which it is hoped will stimulate the country’s economy. The FTSE 250, the domestically exposed mid- cap index, rose 0.4pc, or 87.98 points, to 20528.48. It was boosted by a 16.5pc surge in Puretech’s stock, which ended 41p higher at 290p a day after a schizophrenia drug from its affiliate Karuna Therapeutics met the main goal in a pharmaceuticals trial. Shopping centre- owner Hammerson (up 1.1pc, or 3.1p, to 293.8p) was on the up after it sold a retail park in Gloucester for £54m to a local council. It is assumed this is Gloucester City Council, as other local councils have denied they were the buyer, but Hammerson did not name it directly.

On the other end of the scale, mid- cap financial services business Equiniti booked its worst day on record on the back of a profit warning and gloomy outlook.

Its shares tumbled 13.4pc, or 30.5p, to 196.9p.

The US-China trade war took a bite out of LED maker Dialight, whose shares crashed 19.4pc, or 58.5p, to 243p, as it too released a profit warning and said the uncertainty around its trading relationship with China was a major drag on its performance.