Market report: Rising dividend and solid results inject life into Hikma shares
Strong demand helped Hikma Pharmaceuticals seize the top spot among FTSE 100 risers yesterday.
Hikma was up 236p to £23.93 after posting solid first-half results and raising its dividend. The pharma group’s profit before tax rose to $274m (£210m) in the six months to the end of June, compared to $226m during the same period last year. It saw its strongest growth in the US, with core revenues up 63pc over the period, while injectables were its best-performing segment.
The group declared a 16 cents per share dividend, up 14pc on last year.
Jefferies’ James Vane-Tempest called the results impressive, saying they suggested “strong demand near-term and limited impact from Covid-19”.
Rightmove was close behind, jumping 52.7p to 630.5p. The UK’s biggest property portal saw its profit before tax drop to £61.6m during the six months to the end of June, down from £108m for the same period last year.
It said home-hunter demand had been “strong” since viewings began again on May 13, adding it had beaten its February web traffic on 65 days since then.
It said: “The significant increase in activity is being driven not only from the pent-up demand from the period of lockdown, but an increased number of home-hunters who have decided to move.”
Royal Bank of Canada’s Sherri Malek said the results were “reassuringly in line”, but warned: “[We] do not believe the shares are appropriately discounting the risk of prolonged pressure on the property market.”
Hargreaves Lansdown was another notable blue-chip riser, up 40p to £18.65, after it said profit had jumped 24pc during a record half for client gains.
Shore Capital’s Paul McGinnis said lockdown “had proved to be somewhat of a boom period for retail-focused share dealing platforms”, but cautioned investors should consider taking profits.
Rolls-Royce recovered following a sharp drop in the morning after it emerged that the one-time largest investor in the troubled engineer had dumped its entire stake.
Shares fell as much as 4pc as investors digested news that the ValueAct hedge fund, which built up an 11pc stake in Rolls starting in 2015, had sold off the last of its holding. Rolls closed down 0.5p at 252.6p.
On the FTSE 250, TP Icap, the interdealer broker, led fallers, dropping 25.80p to 310p after it reported pre-tax profits of £136m in the first half, a £2m increase on the same time in 2019.
The firm, which acts as a middleman in financial trading transactions, boosted revenues by 7.4pc to £990m as market volatility sent trading soaring. Robin Stewart, the firm’s finance chief, said the broker spent an extra £3m on technology, mostly on cloud technology, to ensure the vast majority of staff could work remotely.
The mid-cap index was led by Spirent Communications, which bounced 30p to 304p – a 19-year high – after analyst Luke Holbrook lifted Stifel’s price target on the telecoms group, saying its premium to peers looks “deserved”.
