Barratt building on strong foundations
Housebuilder Barratt was one of the top blue-chip risers after it shrugged off the end of the stamp duty holiday and changes to Help to buy to deliver strong sales of new homes.
The FTse100 firm said it had seen ‘continued strength in customer demand’ over the summer, with buyers reserving around 281 homes every week between July and october. The company’s order book expanded to £3.9bn from £3.6bn a year ago while the average house sale cost crept up to £344,300 from £331,400.
barratt also said it had built 3,699 homes, down from 4,032 over the same period last year which had benefited from a surge in activity following the relaxation of the first uK lockdown.
As a result, the firm reiterated its plans to complete at least 17,000 homes in the year to the next June.
‘The positive start to the new financial year has continued in recent weeks with private reservations remaining strong. This is encouraging given the significant year on year reduction in Help to buy reservations and the ending of the stamp duty holiday.
‘We have not experienced any significant disruption to our build programme as a result of the challenging supply chain environment’, said barratt boss david Thomas.
The assessment sent the shares up 6.3pc, or 40p to 682.2p. Analysts at Peel Hunt were also impressed, upgrading the firm to ‘buy’ from ‘add’. The news lifted other building firms, with Vistry Group rising 4.7pc, or 53p, to 1178p while Persimmon climbed 3.6pc, or 92p, to 2,657p, Berkeley added 1.7pc, or 72p to 4278p, Taylor Wimpey jumped 3.9pc, or 5.9p, to 155.3p and Redrow rose 2.4pc, or 16p to 670.8p. The FTSE 100 barely moved, rising just 0.16pc, or 11.59 points to 7141.82 while the FTSE 250 rose 0.74pc, or 166.37 points to 22635.27.
investors appeared to be unsure of which direction to turn after uK GdP data showed that the economy picked up in August but was below pre-pandemic levels. supply chain issues and the fuel crisis left many wondering if momentum could be maintained.
british Gas owner Centrica saw its shares cool, falling 4.5pc, or 2.8p to 58.3p after it postponed a capital markets event due to the ‘unprecedented’ volatility in energy markets.
Company boss Chris o’shea said the company was instead focused on looking after its customers in what he said was an ‘unprecedented commodity price environment’.
Food delivery app Just Eat flagged that hungry uK households have placed one 1bn orders on its platform since its 2001 creation, including 266m orders in the third quarter of this year.
Although order numbers were 25pc up on last year, the rate of growth was slower than previous quarters, sending the shares down 1.7pc, or 92p, to 5414p.
Cybersecurity firm Darktrace surged 7.7pc, or 64.5p to 904.5p after lifting its full-year revenue guidance. The company said it had seen a strong performance in the three months to october, with revenues up nearly 51pc year-onyear, it expects revenues for its 2022 financial year to grow by between 37pc and 39pc, up from previous estimates.
Asset manager Man Group was another strong mid-cap riser after its funds under management grew to a record £102bn in the three months to october from £99bn at the end of June.
The company highlighted ‘very strong’ inflows of funds and a solid performance from its investments, adding that the positive momentum is expected to continue into the following quarter. shares rose 7.6pc. or 15.4p to 218.2p.
Meanwhile, publican Marston’s dropped 0.1pc, or 0,05p to 72.8p after a rebound in sales following the relaxation of lockdown restrictions in April.