Turnaround hopes lift Stanley Gibbons shares
STAMP collecting firm stanley
gibbons was given a new year confidence boost despite falling into the red.
Shares at the company rose even after the group revealed business in the first half of the year was not as brisk as in the same period a year earlier.
It reported a loss of £6.2 min the six months to September 30, having made a profit of £1.1 min 2015.
Stamp sales were down 20pc at £3.2m and overall sales fell to £20.2m from £29.4m.
Stanley Gibbons, which has been hit by a string of senior staff departures this year, has embarked on an extensive turnaround programme. It issued a lengthy confession entitled What went Wrong in its full-year results in October.
It admitted, among other things, it had failed to properly integrate its Noble Investments online business acquired in 2013 and overinvested in its e-trading platform.
Now the company is hoping its newly revamped website will lead to an improvement in online sales.
It claimed to have made ‘significant progress’ in its business restructuring and appears not to be giving up on its goal to become the eBay for antiques and stamp collecting – adding it hopes to implement a new auction software on its website by early next year.
The optimistic approach was enough to boost shares by 2.1pc, or 0.25p to 12.38p.
Also enjoying an end of year boost was energy exploration firm Pantheon resources. The firm is poised to see in the new year with a bang after it unexpectedly struck oil in east Texas.
Its shares rocketed after it revealed it had discovered two potentially lucrative oil wells in one of its drilling locations and would be delaying efforts to reach its primary and secondary targets in order to make best use of them.The London-based firm, which has had a mixed performance this year, said the two new zones could become ‘potentially significant’ sources of revenue.
It’s a welcome boost for the firm, which suffered heavily last month after it issued an early assessment of its flow testing progress in Texas.
However, the company reported reduced losses this year, incurring an operating loss of £900,000 in the year to June 30 compared to the £1.2m loss it recorded in 2015.
Jay Cheatham, chief executive, said: ‘I am extremely happy to report the presence of two potentially significant zones, both of which are productive regionally and have the potential to be significant also for Pantheon.’
Oil has gained more than 50pc during the year, the biggest annual rise since 2009, after major oil producing countries promised to curb production. The November deal gave a late surge to the price. Pantheon shares rose 20.3pc, or 13.5p to 80p.
The ftse 100 finished at a new all-time high of 7,142.83, breaking its record for the third day in a row. On an early close ahead on the new year break, the blue-chip index gained 22.57 points, or 0.3pc, taking its gains for the year to 14.4pc despite the political turbulence at home and abroad.
The biggest Footsie casualty of the year was outsourcing firm capita, which has fallen 56pc, but closed up 1.6pc, or 8.5p to 531p yesterday.
Anglo American was the benchmark’s best performer, up 287pc this year, though, like other miners, it failed to capitalise on the final day boost. Its shares fell 0.1pc, or 1p to 1160p, while mineral miner fresnillo fell 0.3pc, or 3p to 1221p.
randgold remained flat at 6415p and shares at Antofagasta fell 0.2pc, or 1.5p to 675p. centamin also fell slightly 1.6pc, or 2.2p to 138.5p.
Tullett Prebon has completed its £1.28bn acquisition of the voice-broker business from ICAP PLC – in what is likely to be the final deal of the year. The new venture, named TP
ICAP, will use its larger size to boost its technology business, giving it an advantage over rivals such as BGC Partners.
ICAP, which has renamed itself NEX, will move into electronic markets. TP ICAP was up 4.8pc, or 19.8p to 433.3p.