AO World soars as it plugs in to lockdown demand

BRITONS keen to curl up in front of the TV and bake their own sourdough during lockdown boosted sales at appliances retailer AO World.

Demand rose for every category of product it sells, from games consoles and speakers to freezers and vacuums.

As boss John Roberts said: ‘There has been a new appreciation for anything that has got a plug in it. There are things we took for granted before, the ability to put the telly on when you are marooned at home, which we now don’t.’

He said five years’ worth of online shopping behaviour had accelerated into the space of five weeks – and reckons website sales will stay permanently above prelockdown levels once the restrictions are lifted.

The Bolton-based electronics retailer reassured investors annual profits in the year to March 31 will hit forecasts of between £1.02bn and £1.09bn.

This could be as much as 20pc higher than the £903m it made last year. People’s urge to upgrade their homes now they are suddenly having to spend more time there means AO World has been one of the few firms to shrug off the stock market rout, which has battered clothes retailers, airlines and leisure companies.

Its shares, which are up around 4pc this year, jumped as much as 17pc before closing 5.7pc higher, up 4.9p, to 90.5p. The FTSE 100 rose 0.93pc, or 55.04 points, to 5994.77, helped by an 8.7pc, or 9.88p, to 122.88p, lift in Vodafone’s stock as the telecoms giant pledged to keep its dividend.

The FTSE 250, in contrast, dipped 0.61pc, or 98.45 points, to 16,173.04. The recent wave of fundraising companies have scrambled to arrange to last the pandemic has boosted trading in stockbroker Numis’s equity division, partially offsetting the sharp drop in mergers and other deals.

Clients have included Asos – down 1.3pc, or 37p, to 2846p –

Hyve , which fell 17.8pc, or 2.92p, to 13.48p, and Polypipe, which dipped 3pc, or 13p, to 420p.

Revenue jumped 13pc to £61m in the six months to March while profits climbed 2pc to £7m, but the uncertain outlook tipped Numis into the red, with shares falling 0.2pc, or 0.5p, to 274p.

Elsewhere, Pets at Home tumbled 6.8pc, or 17.2p, to 235.8p after short-seller Bonitas Research claimed the company lied about a £34m loan. The US investment group believes this makes Pets at Home’s finances better than they are. But the retailer denied the claim – saying this was a historic issue that has been dealt with. Oilfield services provider Petrofac rose 0.8pc, or 1.3p, to 171.3p after striking a deal with BP, which rose 0.2pc, or 0.6p, to 313.25p, to maintain its North Sea sites.

And the sustainable fuels company Velocys rocketed 50.8pc, or 1.28p, to 3.8p after it secured another £1m of funding to build a waste-to-fuel plant in Lincolnshire from British Airways and

Royal Dutch Shell (down 0.1pc, or 0.8p, to 1261.2p). Retirement housing builder

McCarthy & Stone slid 3.4pc, or 2.5p, to 70.3p on the news finance boss Rowan Baker will leave in July for the same role at engineer Laing O’Rourke. And Ricardo shares fell 0.3pc, or 1p, to 385p as strategy head Mark Garrett said he would leave in the summer.

Brokers weren’t holding their breath for updates released today from holiday group Tui, down 0.8pc, or 2p, to 264.3p, and luxury car maker Aston Martin, where the stock plunged 11.7pc, or 5.06p, to 38.04p.

UBS downgraded Tui to ‘sell’ on the grounds its recovery could be slower than hoped, especially as the first wave of bookings will likely be people who are rearranging cancelled holidays rather than paying for new ones.

And Peel Hunt moved Aston from ‘hold’ to ‘reduce’ as it braced for sales and production to fall this year.