Hammerson bouncing back after lockdown woe
THE pandemic has produced a litany of winners and losers on the stock market.
Among those to have suffered most is shopping centre operator Hammerson – at least until now.
Shares in the firm, whose sites include the Bullring in Birmingham, Brent Cross in London and Cabot Circus in Bristol, jumped another 13.3pc or 4.9p, to 41.7p. It has now gained 102pc since Boris Johnson outlined his road map out of lockdown, making it the best performer on the FTSE 350 in the past three weeks.
Others to have made gains in that time include Cineworld, up 44pc, Mecca bingo owner Rank, up 33pc, and British Airways parent IAG, up 30pc. ‘Pandemic losers have become winners and winners have become losers,’ said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
‘Investors are looking to price in an economic upturn and latching on those names that have suffered the most, on the grounds they could offer the fastest recovery in profits, cash-flows and dividends.’
The hope for Hammerson, it seems, is that Britons bored of lockdown will flood back to the shops when they reopen to splash the cash. That is not to say it will be plain sailing for the company, which has already lost a number of key tenants including Debenhams, which has gone bust.
And, it is worth noting, Hammerson shares are still down 70pc since the start of last year.
Other landlords have also seen a recovery and office owner Land Securities gained 4pc, or 27.5p, to 705.8p while British Land was up 4.6pc, or 23.4p, to 532p.
Also on the march was Astrazeneca, the Anglo-Swedish drugs giant at the heart of the European vaccine row. It rose 3.6pc, or 254p, to 7232p as investors focused on a £150m deal to supply more doses of its coronavirus treatment to the US.
Astra chief Pascal Soriot said: ‘The long-acting antibody combination has the potential to offer almost immediate protection to those who are not able to be vaccinated, to both prevent infection or treat the disease in patients already infected with the virus.’
The FTSE 100 index closed up 53.91 points at 6803.61 while the FTSE 250 increased by 242.14 points to 21,764.49.
Oil majors BP (down 1.6pc, or 4.9p, to 311.25p) and Royal Dutch Shell (off 1.8pc, or 27.4p, to 1459p) fell as the price of crude dipped.
Marketing group 4imprint Group fell 8.2pc, or 220p, to 2470p as the pandemic hammered demand for the promotional goods it makes such as branded pens, T-shirts and even hand sanitiser and masks. Revenues fell 35pc to £403m last year while profits were down 93pc to £2.7m.
Oilfield services firm Petrofac followed Monday’s 18.6pc fall with a drop of 9.8pc, or 10.68p, to 98.72p after it was barred from competing for contracts in the UAE.
Miner Antofagasta had a bumper year thanks to strong rises in the price of copper and gold. Profits jumped 12.3pc to £1.9bn with revenues up 3.3pc to £3.7bn despite sales volumes falling.
Copper prices soared to a tenyear high in February as China’s economic recovery increased demand. Dividends will nearly treble to 39.4p a share. The stock dipped 1.2pc, or 20.5p, to 1716p.
Infrastructure firm Costain made a £96.1m loss in 2020 as poor contract decisions bit. Bosses wrote off losses on two projects – a gas station job in Peterborough and Huntingdon, and the A465 project following a dispute with the Welsh Government. It rose 4.5pc, or 3.1p, to 66.3p.
ScS will return some furlough money to the Government as the sofa seller benefited from an 81pc rise in online sales in the six months to January 24. It shares rose 4.3pc, or 10p, to 242p.