High Street bank NatWest published interim earnings today and the market was evidently impressed by what it saw. Whilst H1 operating profits were lower, the bank added that for the full year, performance prospects were being upped, they noted a marked contraction in impairments – at least for now – and management were also in a position to hike the half year dividend by 9%. The NatWest share price added more than 7% in the first hour of trade.
Power generation play Drax also issued half year numbers today which included news of a £300m share buyback, a significant jump in profitability and an improved outlook for the full year that should push EBITDA to the top end of the current analyst consensus estimates. The news was sufficient to lift the Drax share price as much as 15% in early trade before the gains abated slightly to around 12%.
FTSE-250 listed VC firm Molten ventures provided an update to the market this morning including news of a £10m share buyback and replacement of a debt facility that was due to expire this year. The scale of the facility has been increased by 20% but lending terms remain unchanged. The company also announced that it had completed its exit from a portfolio holdings, which takes it a step closer to achieving the £100m of realisations it is aiming for this financial year. The Molten Ventures share price advanced 21p or 6% at the open although gave back around one third of those gains in the first hour.
Headlines we expect on Monday
Cranswick Trading Statement
This time last year Q1 sales up 14.7% YoY
Trifast Final Results
This time last year Revenue £238m, Underlying pre-tax profit £8.6m, Total dividend 2.25p
