GVC rallies as investors bet on vote to save the company £676m

GVC’S strongest surge in three years pushed it to the top of the FTSE 100 risers’ board as investors put bets on the gambling giant ahead of a vote in Parliament that will save it £676m.

While MPS are expected to slash the maximum stake on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) to just £2 early next week, GVC will avoid paying hundreds of millions to Ladbrokes Coral shareholders if the legislation is approved.

GVC’S swoop on its rival was finalised before the Government decided to cut the stake on the “crack cocaine” of gambling. Ladbrokes investors were given “contingent value rights”, which would be valued on the final FOBT decision. However, GVC will pay nothing extra to the shareholders if the legislation is enacted before March 28 2019.

The vote will be a “significant” catalyst for GVC shares, which have plunged 43pc in just four months, Citigroup told clients. The payout risk “has recently kept some investors on the sidelines” and the vote is likely to be “uncontentious”, the Wall Street bank said.

GVC’S 60p, or 9pc, rally to 721.5p lifted the company away from last week’s 22-month low. Elsewhere, spreadbetter

Plus500 sank 79p to £13.63 after its co-founder Alon Gonen cashed out on a £32m stake and Liberum warned investors of circling short-sellers.

Analyst Ben Williams told clients that the “very high” short interest had been caused by “understandable difficulty in seeing how a business that made $100m in the third quarter could make more than $500m in 2019”.

Floor materials maker

Low & Bonar tumbled 3.1p to 17.5p after admitting it was mulling an equity raise to reduce its debt load.

Its shares slumped to a record low after telling shareholders that the “tough market and trading conditions” had seen no improvement.

Investors were unconvinced by Citigroup speculation that easyjet could become a target for a takeover or an activist investor. It predicted that its top shareholders will “tire” of the lack of profits momentum in 2019. Citi argued that British Airways owner IAG could make a swoop but easyjet shares closed just 3p higher at £11.02.

Miners led another slide in global stocks amid more signs of a sharp slowdown in key growth driver China. Industrial production growth pulled back to just 5.4pc, its lowest level since 2002. FTSE 100 mining heavyweights Glencore and

Rio Tinto tracked metal prices lower, sinking 5.5p to 289.7p and 59p to £36.76 respectively, while Roman Abramovich-owned Evraz slipped 18.9p to 464.4p.

The wider blue-chip index trimmed its early losses to finish the week 1pc higher after last week’s market slump. The FTSE

100 dipped 32.33 points to 6,845.17 yesterday.

As attention started to turn to the Federal Reserve’s meeting on Wednesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch fund-flows data revealed a record $39bn was yanked out of global stocks last week. The US central bank could fuel a so-called “Santa rally” by signalling a pause in the brisk pace of its interest rate rises after a year of market turmoil.