Three important things you need to know from across the markets this morning from investment writer, Tony Cross.
Aviation group Esken and owner of Southend Airport found its shares were the worst performer in London this morning, down 30%. The company published a market update regarding an ongoing situation with Carlyle Global Infrastructure fund regarding a loan agreement between Carlyle and the airport. Carlyle is alleging technical breaches in regard to the arrangement, something that Esken disputes and is currently investigating. This by all accounts still has some way to play out.
Primark owners Associated British Food provided a trading update this morning, covering the 16 weeks to 6th January. Although a multi-faceted operation, the performance at clothing retailer Primark was singled out, both with expansion of the store estate in the US driving sales up by 45% and the UK market recovering after a slow start off the back of a mild autumn. Management noted they expect to post meaningful progress in terms of profitability and cash generation, whilst gross margin improvement will provide protection if shipping costs are pushed higher as a result of the Red Sea disruption. The share price reaction was however rather muted with gains of around 1.5% although this comes against a backdrop of selling pressure.
A Q3 trading update from Premier Foods saw the company heralding its best ever Christmas performance, but it’s almost as if the market had priced this in already. Group sales were up 14.4% against the levels seen a year ago and total market share improved too, continuing to play into that theme that the food producer was well positioned to be a win for consumers during the cost of living squeeze. However the response from investors – shares quickly gave back opening gains to trade unchanged by late morning – suggests that the festive cheer had already been accounted for. In brighter news however, the stock is up more than 20% over the last year and has rallied seven-fold since the start of the COVID pandemic.
