Rightmove slumps as it reveals £20m sales hit

GREEN shoots in the housing market have failed to win over Rightmove investors as the property listings site warned it is likely to take another £20m hit to revenues this year.

Rightmove has clocked up its ten busiest-ever days since the market began reopening on May 13.

In the last seven days alone the number of properties added in England is more than 10pc higher than the same week last year, while sales agreed are more than 10pc higher than a year ago.

It all sounds promising but scepticism about how long this will last runs deep and even Rightmove has said it’s still too early to provide any financial guidance.

In a bid to make things easier for the estate agents that advertise on its site it has extended a discounting scheme to the end of September.

It already estimated that cutting fees by 75pc between April and July has cost it £65m to £75m.

Extending this to between 75pc and 40pc for England, Scotland and Wales will add another £17m to £20m, potentially adding up to an eye-watering £95m.

And it has been losing members, with 620 agency branches and 135 new-build developments departing. Rightmove lost 4.1pc, or 24.4p, finishing at 564.6p. In contrast, its smaller rival On

The Market gained 3.8pc, or 3p, to hit 81.5p, as it said it would extend the support it offers to estate agents. A 33pc three-month discount on listing fees that was due to expire on July 25 will be extended for one month and then by 20pc for the second month. Over on the FTSE 100, Hikma

Pharmaceuticals slumped after its second-largest shareholder sold its £1bn stake in the generic drugs maker.

Germany-based private firm Boehringer Ingelheim owned 40m shares through its 16.5pc stake. It netted £625m from the sale of 27m shares to institutional investors – and Hikma said it would spend up to £295m buying the rest back.

Shares fell 5.7pc, or 140p, to 2340p but are up by more than 16pc this year, boosted by a rally in pharmaceutical stocks following the coronavirus outbreak.

Big grocery stocks were also in the red, brushing off data from research group Kantar that under different circumstances would have the industry cracking open the champagne.

Between mid-May and mid-June grocery sales accelerated to 18.9pc, driven by online and convenience store purchases.

Online rocketed by 91pc compared with the same period last year, handing Ocado a record-high market share of 1.7pc, while market leader Tesco drew ahead of its Big Four supermarket rivals.

But Ocado fell 3.5pc, or 71p, to 1981p, Tesco dropped 1pc, or 2.4p, to 230.7p, Morrisons shed 0.8pc, or 1.6p, to 194p and Sainsbury’s 1pc, or 2p, to 204.6p, as the end of lockdown draws nearer.

The FTSE 100 as a whole gained 1.21pc, or 75.5 points, to finish at 6320.12, helped by an 8.2pc jump in Russian steel maker Evraz’s share price, which rose 23.6p, to 311.6p, after Morgan Stanley analysts raised the target price on stock from 250p to 270p.

The FTSE 250 added 0.45pc, or 79.36 points, to 17652.8. Mid- cap sausage maker

Cranswick rose 2.5pc, or 90p, to 3720p, after hiking its final dividend by 9p per share as profits jumped 20pc to £104m.

Export revenue to the Far East rocketed by 122pc, following an outbreak of African swine fever among pigs in China.

And over on AIM, online music kit retailer Gear4Music surged 21.1pc, or 67.5p, to 387.5p as it swung back to profit in full-year results, and hailed an ‘exceptional and sustained’ increase in demand for products during lockdown.