Carillion hammered as nervous investors flee
Following the collapse of doorstep lender Provident Financial on Tuesday, this year’s other big flop Carillion took back its all-too-familiar place at the bottom of the FTSE 350 yesterday.
The construction giant has secured several key contracts, including one to help build the UK’s controversial HS2 railway, since crashing by more than 60pc earlier this year on the back of a profit warning. But yesterday Carillion fell 11.4pc, or 5.48p, to a fresh low of 42.56p.
Traders are putting it down to momentum trading, which sees investors sell when a stock hits a new low, and rumours Carillion is planning to bring new shares to the market to raise money.
Henry Croft, a research analyst at Accendo Markets, said a rights issue seems likely, with Carillion’s liabilities currently thought to come in at around £1.6bn, greater than the value of its assets.
Video game seller Game Digital rocketed yesterday after reporting a strong response to its entry in the popular e-sports market, which sees professional gamers play against each other for money while spectators watch.
Following the ‘encouraging early performance’ of its 18 e-sports arenas and a strategic review of its businesses, game has decided to pump more cash and staff into its gaming competitions arm.
At the end of June, game sank by 30pc after issuing a profit warning, complaining of soft Xbox and PlayStation sales, and a shortage of nintendo Switch consoles.
But yesterday it said sales for the second half of the year ending July 29 rose 8.87pc in the UK and 13.9pc across the group, boosted by the popularity of the Switch console, launched in March.
Shares, which are 26pc-owned by Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct, climbed 35pc, or 8.6p, to 33.3p, adding £14.7m to the firm’s value.
A relatively quiet day for company news led the FTSE 100 to edge up just 0.01pc, or 0.91, to 7382.65. Private healthcare firm
NMC Health gave investors two bites of the cherry with a strong set of first-half results and a new contract announcement.
The firm, which provides healthcare in the UAE, was boosted by the introduction of mandatory health insurance in Dubai.
Year-on-year revenues rose 34pc in the first half of the year to around £606m, while profits rose 56pc to £82.7m. it also announced it had signed a contract to manage assets for Emirates Healthcare, prompting shares to rise 7.2pc, or 173p, to 2593p.
online gambling and spread betting firm Playtech has bolstered its financial division with a deal to buy UK-based trading services provider and brokerage Alpha for up to £117m.
Playtech, which was founded by israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, will pay an initial £3.9m for the firm, and said the acquisition will allow it to offer more services to its growing pool of high net worth traders. Shares were up 0.4pc, or 4p, to 993.5p.
Healthcare firm Concepta rose 6.9pc, or 0.75p, to 11.62p after making the first shipment of its mylotus fertility product, which helps women diagnose fertility problems at an early stage by testing hormone levels, to China.
Double glazing company Entu sank 59.7pc, or 2.08p, to 1.4p, after emergency funding talks failed.
it was speaking to investors to secure refinancing, but all apart from one of the talks have fallen through. Entu said that if it failed to secure funds it was likely that the firm would be placed into administration and have to sell its trading businesses.