Market Report: Investors are in a ruthless mood
Mitie’s slump on the FTSE 250 was outdone by Just Eat
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Your support makes all the difference.Investors are in a ruthless mood, so it was no surprise they fled at the faintest sound of a profit warning for Mitie. Jefferies sounded the alarm by slashing its annual forecasts ahead of the FTSE 250 outsourcer’s full-year update in two weeks’ time, causing the shares to dive 20.6p to 273.5p.
Sales growth slowed in the first half and investors hoping for a pick-up in the second are likely to be disappointed, the broker warned: “It is clear from recent outsourcer/recruiter results that decision-making has paused given an uncertain economic environment, cost headwinds from government legislation and the Brexit referendum.”
Jefferies also suggested MiHomecare, Mitie’s home care business which came under fire last year for failing to pay staff above the minimum wage, “hasn’t turned the corner”; it predicted the division would not return to profit in the last six months of its financial year.
Most of the market was in the red on Monday, but iron ore prices jumped by almost a fifth thanks to increasing demand from China.
Antofagasta was swept 42p higher by the rally to 592.5p, while Glencore, Anglo American and Rio Tinto all gained more than 5 per cent. The mining sector’s continued recovery meant the FTSE 100 only lost 17.03 points at 6,182.40.
Mitie’s slump on the FTSE 250 was outdone by Just Eat, which dropped 40.8p to 383.3p after Friday evening’s revelation that chief executive David Buttress and chief financial officer Mike Wroe dumped £12.5m and £6.6m of shares respectively in the online takeaway firm.
Choppy waters caused shares in shipping firm Clarksons to sink 21p to 1,925p. While its annual results threw up no shocks, profit growth is expected to grind to a halt this year.
On the junior market, shares in FairFX were up 2.25p at 30.75p as activist hedge fund Crystal Amber injected £5m into the AIM-listed money transfer business in return for a 24 per cent stake. Richard Bernstein’s fund is best known for its bitter battle with Pinewood Studios, the home of James Bond, which last month hoisted the “for sale” sign above the business.
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