(^) The Mail on Sunday September 1 • 2019
Ri SeRS and
falleRS of
THe week
diRecToRS’
dealingS
Andrew Scull, corporate
services director of 4imprint,
has sold 6,761 shares in the
promotional products group
at £28.42 each. The
Manchester-based company
is the best performing FTSE
350 stock when measured
over the past ten years,
rising 23-fold in that period.
Supplied by
Sept 2018 Sept 2019
£30
£25
£20
£15
4imprint share price
Andrew Scull
sells £192,137
of stock
need To know
The Footsie closed at 7,207, up
1.6 per cent on positive signs
for US-China trade talks.
CPI inflation..................2.1%
RPI inflation..................2.8%
Euro rate: £1 buys €1.1070
Dollar rate: £1 buys $1.2166
fTSe 100 biggest risers
NMC Health 15.99%
Takeover rumours send shares higher
Melrose 9.20%
Analyst’s report boosts corporate raider
Fresnillo 8.18%
Silver price rise sends miner soaring
Ocado 7.96%
Delivery group gets analyst’s backing
Antofagasta 6.65%
Metal price increase boosts mining firm
fTSe 100 biggest fallers
Micro Focus –29.34%
Tech giant lowers forecast for turnover
Aveva Group –3.95%
US rival cuts profits prediction
British American Tobacco –2.74%
Emerging threat from rivals’ merger
Aviva –2.02%
Fund manager continues its spiral down
Hiscox –1.90%
Insurer’s shares continue their slide
ai M biggest risers
Amryt Pharma 760.61%
Firm reveals US takeover details
Albert Technologies 116.22%
Technology expert leaves Aim
Horizonte Minerals 62.30%
Brazilian royalty deal agreed
ai M biggest fallers
Cambridge Cognition –52.80%
Medical researcher’s turnover falls
Avanti Communications –33.85%
Satellite group slips to loss
Petro Matad –31.91%
Oil explorer falls back after share surge
MoST SHoRTed
SHARES BEING BET AGAINST
Kier 11.6%
Thomas Cook 10.2%
AA 9.6%
John Wood 9.3%
Weir 8.4%
FCA dATA: eXCludeS MiNOR pOSiTiONS
96 FINANCIAL
THREE of Britain’s best-known
blue-chip companies are on the
verge of dropping out of the
FTSE 100 in a ‘hugely symbolic’
changing of the guard as investors
ditch shares once viewed as
safe bets.
Shareholders were warned of a
bumpy ride for retailer Marks &
Spencer, insurer Direct Line and
software company Micro Focus, all
of which are expected to be
demoted to the FTSE 250 this week
following a slump in their values.
Shares in M&S have more than
halved in five years, having been
hit by onerous long leases on large
stores and being slow to adapt to
online shopping.
Following a steady erosion of
profits, it now has a market cap of
£ 3 .7 billion – below the value it
needs to stay in the FTSE 100. Its
relegation would end its 35-year
membership of the index of Brit-
ain’s 100 biggest companies.
Micro Focus was dubbed ‘Hocus
Pocus Micro Focus’ by analysts in
the 1990s due to its reputation for
dishing out profit warnings. It
announced another profit alert last
week, wiping almost £1.7 billion off
its value as its shares collapsed by
a third.
Direct Line has been hit by regu-
latory issues amid an industry
probe into alleged ripping off of
customers. Its shares have slumped
to their lowest level since
late 2014.
The latest quarterly FTSE 100
reshuffle, to be announced on
Wednesday, will be based on stock
market valuations when the mar-
kets close on Tuesday. Companies
are automatically promoted to the
FTSE 100 from the FTSE 250 when
they rank within the top 90 compa-
By Harriet Dennys
Out with the old:
shock as three big
names set to fall
from the FTSE 100
nies in the UK in terms of value.
Firms are automatically ejected
from the FTSE 100 if they fall out-
side the top 110 largest companies.
Based on the state of play this
weekend, the three biggest
FTSE 250 firms – Russian gold
miner Polymetal, Hikma Pharma-
ceuticals and Meggitt, the aero-
space and defence firm – have all
risen to be valued in the top 90 larg-
est firms.
As a result, the bottom three
ranked FTSE 100 companies –
Micro Focus, M&S and Direct Line
- are on track to be pushed out.
Changes in share prices over the
next two days could alter these
rankings.
British Gas owner Centrica is at
risk as the next lowest-ranked com-
pany by value. Once perceived as a
‘safe stock’, Centrica investors
have sold shares as the energy
giant battles price caps, anger over
bosses’ bonuses and fears that a
Jeremy Corbyn administration
would nationalise energy firms.
Tom Stevenson, investment direc-
tor at Fidelity Personal Investing,
said: ‘It is significant that a very
domestically focused UK company- M&S – is being replaced in the
FTSE 100 by a Russian gold miner.
‘The FTSE 100 is progressively
less and less about the British econ-
omy. It is such an international
market now.’
Rachel Winter, investment man-
ager at Killik, said: ‘This is a sad
moment for British brands. People
are concerned about Brexit so they
don’t want companies purely
exposed to the UK.’
Fund managers say the relegated
stocks will continue to experience
hard times after the demotions are
announced because funds that
track the FTSE 100 will be forced to
sell their holdings.
However, once the reshuffle is
complete later this month the
shares could rally.
Laith Khalaf, a senior analyst at
Hargreaves Lansdown, said M&S’s
exit from the FTSE 100 will be a
landmark moment. He added: ‘It is
hugely symbolic and a psychologi-
cal blow for M&S management.’
SIG poised to hive off £200m division
SIG has hired advisers to
find a buyer for a
division of the
construction materials
company that may be
worth more than
£ 2 00 million.
City sources said the
FTSE 250-listed firm has
appointed bankers from
Lazard to run a formal
auction of its Air
Handling division.
Various private equity
firms have been
contacted about
purchasing the unit.
SIG, formerly known
as the Sheffield
Insulations Group, said
last March it wanted to
carry out a ‘strategic
review’ of its AirHandling unit, which
sells filtering systems.
The firm’s first
acquisition in the sector
was Air Trade Centre in
2008 and since then the
Air Handling division
has grown significantly.
Air Handling generated
sales of around
€ 3 50 million
(£316 million) in 2018 and
is expected to turn overabout €370 million this
year.
There was speculation
last week that a private
equity firm may be
interested in buying the
whole business for 165p
a share. However,
sources close to the
company poured cold
water on the rumours.
SIG declined to
comment.By Ben Harrington
Jamie Nimmo’s
STock MaRkeT waTcHli ST
SHORT-SELLERS led by
the infamous Muddy
Waters Research have
been all over Burford
Capital in recent weeks,
cashing in as they took
aim at the litigation
financing firm.
But attentions could
turn to another AIM-
listed company this week.
IQE, a Cardiff-based
specialist semiconductor
firm which supplies
iPhone giant Apple,
knows all too well the
effect of an attack by
Muddy Waters, led by
Carson Block.
Its shares tumbled last
year after a scathing
report from the short-
selling outfit accused it of
being an ‘egregiousaccounting manipulator’.
That followed a report by
ShadowFall, which made
similar claims.
Both sets of allegations
were denied by IQE,
whose shares have halved
in 18 months.
The firm suffered again
in June after a profit
warning which it blamed
on the Huawei row.
The shares drifted even
lower last week ahead of
its first-half results on
Tuesday, which could hit
the shares further.
Deutsche Bank expects
revenues of £66 million,
but predicts pre-tax
profits will turn into
losses of £1.5 million.
More pain will delight
short-sellers once again.Apple supplier IQE may see
a bite taken out of its shares
n AFTER a tough first
year owning car and
plane parts maker
GKN, investors will be
hoping for signs that
the Melrose Four’s
fabled turnaround skills
are having an effect on
their largest acquisition
to date. They have
appeared to struggle to
find buyers for parts of
the business.
First-half results on
Thursday will showwhether their efforts to
fix the struggling
Driveline car division
are working.
Scribblers at RBC are
confident they can
reassure investors
about the performance,
with help from a
stronger aerospace
division.
A larger-than-
expected debt pile
could accelerate any
potential division sales.n RESULTS from
AstraZeneca’s late-stage
trial into heart failure
treatments will be
unveiled this evening at a
key pharmaceuticals
conference in Paris.
Positive results of trials
into its Brilinta and
Farxiga treatments could
boost its share price
further. The company has
been one of the best
performers on the
FTSE 100 this year,
having soared 24 per cent
to a record high.
It has quietly overtaken
GlaxoSmithKline as the
UK’s biggest
pharmaceuticals firm.
Glaxo’s £85 billion
market value is dwarfed
by Astra’s £96 billion
valuation. Upbeat results
from the trials just might
push it over the
£ 1 00 billion barrier.n THE City was swirling
with rumours around
Hurricane Energy last
week as the AIM-listed
North Sea oil explorer was
caught up in a gust of
gossip around a possible
oil discovery.
The word doing the
rounds was that Hurricane- a popular share among
private investors that
has amassed an army of
followers – had struck oil
at its Lincoln well.
Gossip-mongers even
said the well, which like
some of Hurricane’s other
fields is named after a
town, was flaring.
Even if it was, which I
understand it wasn’t, that
doesn’t necessarily mean
it’s hit the jackpot – so
investors should try not to
get too excited just yet.jamie.nimmo
@mailonsunday.co.uk97
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