(LON:WOSG) shares rose 24.14% to 412p
Shares in the UK’s largest luxury watch retailer surged this morning after the Company published a strong trading update and upgraded full year sales and earnings guidance.
It said demand for luxury watches continues to outstrip supply with the group’s trading momentum continuing to rise in the second quarter while US sales creep higher.
Brian Duffy, Chief Executive Officer said the strong momentum the group has established in the US has “further accelerated” with all US regions contributing to this positive trend.
For the 13 weeks ending 25 October 2020, the group said UK domestic sales were offsetting lower tourist and airport traffic while regional stores outperformed London stores.
Revenue for the first 10 weeks of Q2 had been stronger than expected at £202.7 million, +20.2% in constant currency and +18.3% in reported terms, relative to the prior year.
With its strong performance, Watches of Switzerland is now anticipating full year 2021 sales of £880 million to £910 million, up from previous guidance of £840 million to £860 million.
Analysts from Shore Capital commented on the trading update as reported by City A.M:
“Our key takeaway is the resilience of the trading performance in the UK given the lack of footfall from tourists and lower airport sales, together with a step on in the US sales.
“Demand for luxury watches continues to outstrip supply. We believe that the shares will go better on the back of upgraded guidance and we think that the company strategy of selective refits to stores.”
(AIM:ROCK) shares rose 28.57% to 1.125p after drilling expansion
The AIM-listed mining company said drilling has returned a ‘very long’ interval of gold at the group’s 100%-owned Plateau gold deposit (“Plateau”) in North Queensland, Australia.
A second hole at Plateau returned the largest gold intersection so far at the site, with mineralisation over the entire sampled interval of 341.3m, at 0.2 grams per tonne of gold.
‘Every hole drilled so far at Plateau has intersected varying grades of gold mineralisation, and often over vast intervals,’ Rockfire highlighted to investors this morning.
‘The extent of the mineralisation is particularly pleasing for the Company and provides further evidence that the Plateau gold deposit is an exceptionally large mineralised system.’
“The very long intervals of gold mineralisation, the abundance of sulphides, higher-grade gold intervals and the very strong alteration continue to encourage our team and indicate potential for a high-grade gold source still to be discovered,” said CEO, David Price.
He added, “These encouraging results demonstrate that higher grade gold is being encountered at levels around 350m from surface.
Owing to a change in the dip of the breccia contact from almost vertical, to a moderate-steep dip to the north, the anticipated target depth of 400m – 500m depth, as determined by the Mt Wright model, remains untested at the location of BPL038.”
(AIM:VGAS) shares jumped 16.67% to 28p with significant discovery
The oil and gas exploration group operating in the Volga Region of Russia announced a potentially significant discovery of a new oil field in its ongoing exploration drilling programme.
Volga is undertaking a programme of drilling six slim hole exploration wells within its Karpenskiy Licence Area in structures separate from existing oil reserves in the Uzen field.
Drilling on the Novo Kurilovskiy prospect reached a depth of around 1,200m, it noted. The group reported that exploration intersected a total of 60m of oil-bearing pay in the deeper Jurassic interval between 1,144 and 1,218 metres depth.
‘Since the potential pay thickness is in excess of the calculated depth of the structural closure from seismic mapping, this indicates a potential stratigraphic element to the prospect, with implications of significant upside in terms of gross oil in place,’ it noted.
It said the commercial significance of this discovery will depend on the characteristics of the reservoir which are still unknown. It said it now plans to complete drilling down to the Permian salt layer, open-hole logging and casing, which could take 10-14 days.
A 2020 exploration drilling programme on another four exploration targets in the Karpenskiy licence area continues in addition to the appraisal and evaluation of the prospects already drilled.
(AIM:XPD) shares jumped 15.22% to 26.5p with new acquisition
The freight management services provider has today acquired the UK-based international groupage freight forwarder and operator, Nidd Transport for a total consideration of £4.6m.
The group said it expects the acquisition of Nidd to be immediately earnings enhancing.
Xpediator said this morning’s complementary acquisition of Nidd comes with ‘immediate cross-selling opportunities’ and is ‘a natural fit’ with the Company’s existing operations.
The group highlighted that Nidd’s current western European focus complements its focus on central and eastern Europe, Italy and Germany and provides opportunities ‘to cross sell its own services to Nidd’s customer base and maximise carrying capacities to and from Europe.’
It also said there are operational synergies of linking UK national service offering using Nidd’s transport and distribution in the North would strengthen the Midlands and Southern regions.
While the business will operate under the Nidd brand, Xpediator said an integrated customs clearance service would differentiate and improve Nidd’s prospects during a potential hard Brexit.
“We have known Nidd Transport for some time and its reputation for being an excellent regional freight forwarder,” said Robert Ross, Chief Executive of Xpediator.
Robert Ross highlights the significance of the acquisition in an interview with Vox Markets.
Profit taking in pulls the shares back 11% to 131.49p
The finance software provider saw a drop off after its stock rose 29% in September,
‘Following a firm bounce in price, Alfa may be sending very bearish signals with a price-to-earnings (or “P/E”) ratio of 28x, since almost half of all companies in the UK have P/E ratios under 17x and even P/E’s lower than 10x are not unusual,’ said Simply Wall Street.
In recent weeks, the market commentator has said the P/E may be high as investors think Alfa will turn things around completely and accelerate past most others in the market.
‘If not, then existing shareholders may be very nervous about the viability of the share price,’ it commented.
Alfa revealed a 24% boost in revenue for H1 2020 with revenue and profit “significantly ahead” of expectations and 2020 expected to be 5% ahead of current revenue expectations.
Commenting on the half-year results, Andrew Denton, Chief Executive Officer said:
“It is great to see that the dedication, skills and the effort of our people in difficult circumstances has been reflected in a strong first half financial performance.”
Recent Comments