Smith & Nephew recovers thanks to surgery restart
NOBODY who didn’t absolutely have to went to hospital for surgery in the last few months, a clear hit to medical equipment maker Smith & Nephew.
The hip and knee reconstruction specialist rallied today on signs that business is returning. City traders wonder if there is a glut of sports injuries acquired by unfit Brits trying to shed pounds in lockdown that now require treatment.
The company told the stock market that due to a sluggish first half of the year, profits will be “substantially down” but investors took heart that performance has improved of late. Sales were down 47% in April, 27% in May and a more hopeful 12% in June.
S&N said: “Performance was correlated strongly with the easing of lockdown restrictions and resumption of elective surgeries.”
On a generally dreary day for markets,
S&N was a rare bright spot, up 66p, 4%, at 1565p.
Big oil made somewhat of a comeback after a turbulent few weeks. Shell added 21p to 1245p, BP was up 5p to 312p.
Hammerson, the unloved retail property developer, had a smidgeon of good news. Its lenders have agreed to relax repayment terms for the next 18 months — a result just days after the collapse of rival Intu. Despite saying it has so far managed to collect just 16% of rent due from retailers in the last quarter, the shares gained 3p to 83p.
Covid-related events in America and Leicester otherwise weighed on equities.The FTSE 100 slipped four points to 6165, but the more UK-focused FTSE 250 was positive, gaining 70 points to 17,189.
Overnight, Asian stock markets struggled. Safe havens such as gold and the Japanese yen firmed as surging coronavirus infections in the US took some of the shine off better-than-expected factory activity in China.
Gold — which rallied to a fresh eightyear high of $1790 — looks to be a longterm winner from the pandemic as investors fret about inflation.
The flood of adverts on TV telling folk that now is the time to buy gold coins may help boost the precious metal.