Proactive Investors -
- Blue chips down 22 points at 8,316
- Retail sales underwhelm
- Energy bills to fall
AJ Bell slips as boss sells £28mln worth of shares
AJ Bell PLC (LON:AJBA) slipped 3% on Friday on news chief executive Andy Bell had sold £28.1 million worth of shares in the online investment company.
Bell sold 7.5 million shares at 375p each, marking a 7% discount to Thursday’s closing price, a regulatory filing showed.
Bell has been left with an 18.7% stake in AJ Bell, which he founded, following the move.
This came after shares in the company jumped on Thursday following results showing a 47% jump in pre tax profit to £61.4 million, reflecting an improved margin of 46.8%.
Director Billy Mackay and chief technology officer Amber Tagari have also sold parts of their stakes in AJ Bell, another filing on Thursday showed.
Shares fell 3.9% to 387.28p.
Positive start on Wall Street
Wall Street enjoyed a positive start as trading got underway on Friday.
The Nasdaq was up 64 points after the opening bell, reversing falls seen on Thursday despite NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA)’s rally after beating first-quarter expectations.
The Dow Jones and S&P 500 also climbed, by 64 and 18 points respectively, after slipping alongside the Nasdaq earlier on in the week.
Thursday drop “was triggered by expectations the Fed’s first interest rate cut could [be] delayed by several further months, after a much stronger-than-expected US business activity ended a run of soft data releases,” City Index’s Fawad Razaqzada explained.
Attention turned to durable goods orders, due on Friday afternoon, while Federal Reserve governor Cristopher Waller is also set to speak later on.
“Markets [are] hoping for weakness given the ‘good news is bad news’ construct highlighted by yesterday’s PMI release,” Scope Markets analyst Joshua Mahony added.
“With the FOMC minutes highlighting a mixed range of views that included the potential to hike rates further, any pop in the core durable goods orders figure could further drive risk-off sentiment given the implications for monetary policy.”
Thames Water to wait longer for decision on bill hike plan
More on Thames Water and Ofwat has reportedly pushed back its review of the supplier’s plan to hike bills.
According to the Telegraph, the date by which Ofwat will approve or block the plan has been changed from June 12 to July 11.
Such plan would see Thames Water hike bills by 45% over the coming years as it grapples with high debt and plans £19.8 billion of investment for 2025 to 2030.
Thames has appeared on the brink of collapse, with payments to bondholders being defaulted on, board members quitting and plans reportedly being drawn up to unload £500 million worth of loans onto the market most recently... Read more
Retailers climb despite poor April sales
Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO), Kingfisher PLC (LON:KGF) and Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LON:MKS) were among the FTSE 100’s top risers into Friday afternoon.
Up 1.7%, 1.2% and 0.9%, gains came despite worse-than-expected retail sales data for April earlier in the day.
Analysts subsequently noted sales should tick up in the coming months as the likes of lower inflation and growing wages help to deepen consumer pockets.
Fresnillo PLC (LON:FRES) topped the day’s losers, down 2.5%, while Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY), St James’s Place PLC and Entain PLC (LON:ENT) also fell.
“European equity markets are on track for their worst weekly performance in three weeks, as risk sentiment sours and interest rate bets get pushed back once again,” XTB analyst Kathleen Brooks said.
“Stronger than expected CPI in the UK, an increase in negotiated wage growth in the first quarter for the Eurozone, hawkish Fed minutes in the US and strong PMI data have all contributed to a ‘risk off’ tone to markets, even though Nvidia’s monster results suggest that the AI boom still has much further to go.”
Wall Street to open higher
Futures contracts are pointing to a bullish start to Friday for the US markets, with the Nasdaq 100 tipped to open 54 points above yesterday’s close.
The broader S&P 500 index is set to open 15 points higher at 5,283.
Following yesterday’s blockbuster earnings report, chipmaker NVIDIA Corp is expected to add another percentage point after rally to an all-time high yesterday.
Things are quieter on the company news front today, with attention turning to durable goods orders and consumer sentiment on the macroeconomic calendar.