SpaceX deal sends Filtronic into orbit

EYE-CATCHING deals involving Elon Musk’s SpaceX and drugs giant AstraZeneca today helped to fire up interest in London’s junior stock market.

Shares in Leeds-based Filtronic jumped 51% as the company whose valuation soared to £1.5 billion in the 2000 dotcom boom unveiled a longterm strategic partnership to supply SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet platform.

The maker of wireless communications for the aerospace, defence, telecoms infrastructure and space markets has also issued SpaceX with warrants over 10% of its shares.

Buoyed by improved guidance for Filtronic’s 2024 and 2025 financial years, the shares rocketed to the top of AIM with a rise of 16.8p to a multi-year high of 49.8p.

The next best performer was Guildford-based Angle, which jumped 25% or 3.1p to 15.4p after the cancer diagnostic liquid biopsy company signed a supplier agreement with AstraZeneca.

Angle said the move was validation of its Parsortix system, which allows tumour cells to be harvested through a blood test and subsequently analysed relatively quickly and routinely.

In the FTSE 100, a strong session for commodity-focused stocks including Rio Tinto and BP helped London’s top flight set a new intraday record at 8090. It later settled 38.46 points higher at 8083.27. Risk appetite benefited from a 13% surge for Tesla shares in dealings after last night’s first quarter results, even though the US-listed electric car maker reported its first drop in revenues since 2020.

A pledge to accelerate the launch of more affordable models pleased Wall Street and benefited the shares of backer Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, which rose 9.2p to 836.4p in the FTSE 100.

Other risers included BAE Systems, which lifted another 30p to a near record 1370p after Rishi Sunak’s pledge to boost UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.

The FTSE 250 index was 2.40 points lower at 19,797.32, with Abrdn up 4.1p to 143p and Quilter 4.1p higher at 106.6p after the wealth management businesses issued first quarter figures on assets under management.