The Week UK - 14.03.2020

Shares CITY 55

14 March 2020 THE WEEK

AdmiralGroup
TheTimes
“Notracy,notglamorous”,
butthemotorinsurerisknown
forsolidresultsandsteady
management.Facingindustry-
widechallenges,butprofits
wereupby 10 %lastyear,to
£522.6m,makingAdmiral
a“strongbet”.Buy.£22.38.

DraxGroup
InvestorsChronicle
Draxisclosingitslasttwocoal
unitstofocusonhydroand
gas-generationassets,and
biomassgeneration.Expecting
higherdemandforsupport
services,whereprofitsjumped
over 60 %to£129mlastyear.
Buy.262p.

EqualsGroup

TheDailyTelegraph

Theforeignexchangefirm

haslostover 50 %thisyearas

holidaymakersstayathome.

Butthisexcessivedeclineseems

disproportionatetothelikely

durationofthecrisis,and

createsanopportunity.People

willtravelagain.Buy. 38.75p.

Unilever

TheShareCentre

Unilever’slargeanddiverse

rangeofwell-knownglobal

brandsincludeDovesoap

andCifhouseholdcleaner.

Dividendsareexpectedtorise

asthenewCEOtakesstepsto

boostgrowth.Yields3.4%.

Buy.£41.67.

UniteGroup

TheTimes

Sharesinthestudenthousing

provider,whichcontrols

74,00 0 bedsin 27 citiesand

hasaportfolioworth£5.2bn,

havebeenhitbycoronavirus

fears.Butit’swell-runina

marketsupportedbystrong

fundamentals.Buy.£11.08.

WeirGroup

TheTimes

Havingsolditsoilandgas

divisiontofocusonhigher-

marginminerals,theengineer

shouldbecomemorestable

andresilient.Weirhasuseful

technologytohelpminers

improvetheiremissions.

Buy.£12.77.

Who’s tipping what

Theweek’sbest shares

...and some to hold, avoid or sell

Aston Martin
LagondaGlobal
Investors Chronicle
Losseshave deepened,the CFO
has departedand the carmaker
is dependent onarights issue.
Much dependsonthe new
SUV,but Aston facesdemand
questionsand possible supply
disr uption. Sell. 345p.

Eddie Stobart Logistics
Investors Chronicle
The transportfirm’s deal with
private equityrescuerDBAY
has allowed it to “liveanother
day” aftersuspended shares
were reinstated. But debt is
nowalmostnine timesmarket
cap andfurther lossesare
expected.Sell. 11p.

HSBC

Investors Chronicle

The bank faces leadership

questionsand complex, painful

restructuring.This couldlead

to savings of $4.5bnayear

from 2022but, meanwhile, the

uncertain outlook, exacerbated

by thecoro navirus outbreak,is

worrying. Sell.520.1p.

RobertWalters

The Times

The headhunterhas faced

headwinds from Brexit,

Frenchprotests, civilunrest

in HongKong and global

trade tensions. Now ithasbeen

hit hard by thecoronavirus.

Revenues andprofitsare

falling. Sell.500p.

SercoGroup

TheDailyTelegraph

The supportservices group is

moving fromaturnaround

story to full growthpotential.

Debt reduction should reduce

risk andSerco hasarecord

£5.4bnorder intake and

“bulging” £14bnorderbook.

Hold.150.2p.

TheRestaurant Group

TheDailyTelegraph

Although salesatWagamama

have jumped 8.5%, the group’s

legacybrandsatretail and

leisure parks (suchasFrankie

&Benny’s)have been hit

hard. Thedividend hasbeen

susp endedand90restaurants

are closing. Avoid. 83.8p.

Directors’ dealings

ReddeNorthgate

VanhirecompanyNorthgate

hasmergedwithaccident

managementspecialistRedde

tocreatea£1.1bngroup.

ChairAvrilPalmer-Baunack

andCEOMartinWardhave

spent£175,000and£200, 000

uppingtheirstakes.

Form guide

Sharestipped 12 weeksago

Best tip

Breedon Group

The Daily Telegraph

up 54.25% to 92.24p

Worst tip

Superdry

The Times

down 48.53% to 236p

Market view

“We could be into a

massive bear market.”

Crispin Odey of

Odey Asset Management.

Quoted in The

Daily Telegraph

SOURCE: INVESTORS CHRONICLE

Market summary

6-monthmovement in the FTSE100index

10 Mar 2020 Week before Change (%)

FTSE 100 5960.23 6718.20 –11.28%

FTSE All-share UK 3332.98 3749.09 –11.10%

Dow Jones 23861.73 26475.34 –9.87%

NASDAQ 7995.67 8904.45 –10.21%

Nikkei 225 19867.12 21082.73 –5.77%

Hang Seng 25392.51 26284.82 –3.39%

Gold 1672.50 1599.65 4.55%

Brent Crude Oil 37.06 52.31 –29.15%

DIVIDEND YIELD(FTSE 100) 5.57% 4.90%

UK 10-year gilts yield 0.24 0.39

US 10-year Treasuries 0.64 1.04

UK ECONOMIC DATA

Latest CPI (yoy) 1.8% (Jan) 1.3% (Dec)

2.2% (Dec)

+4.1% (Jan)

Latest RPI (yoy) 2.7% (Jan)

Halifax house price (yoy) +2.8% (Feb)

£1 STERLING $1.277 E1.127 ¥134.340

Key numbers for investors Best and worst performing shares Following the Footsie

WEEK’S CHANGE, FTSE 100 STOCKS

RISES Price %change

Tesco 242.10 +2.98

Polymetal Int. 1299.00 +2.61

Morrison (WM) Spmkts 176.50 +0.23

FALLS

Carnival 1655.00 –28.94

Evraz 246.80 –25.35

Centrica 55.22 –25.14

BHP Group 1129.00 –22.82

Royal Dutch Shell B 1348.00 –21.67

BEST AND WORST UK STOCKS OVERALL

Indus Gas 220.00 +120.00

Premier Oil 23.00 –70.77

Source: Datastream (not adjusted for dividends). Prices on 10 Mar (pm)

8,000

5,500

Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

6,000

7,500

7,000

6,500

400

200

Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

250

350

300

Directors buy

145,716

Therewereonly three companies intheFTSE 100whose

shareprice rose this week.