Retailer’s forecasts: Next

Investors threw out their retail shares after Panmure Gordon said that the 7 per cent reduction in UK living standards over the next two years expected by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the official forecaster, is “going to stretch the period of risk to retailer’s forecasts further into the future”.

In turn, Panmure’s Georgia Pettman downgraded Next, considered a bellwether of the high street, from a buy to a hold recommendation, causing the shares to slip 66p, or 1.2 per cent, to £56.66.

Shares in Asos and Marks & Spencer fell 46½p, or 6.6 per cent, to 657p, and 3¾p, or 2.9 per cent, to 120p as Pettman kept her hold ratings, while Boohoo was also under pressure, falling 3½p, or 7.7 per cent, to 39¾p, as Goldman Sachs, as well as Panmure, cut their ratings to hold.

The sell-off in technology stocks did not bode well for Molten Ventures, the venture capitalist that invests in early stage companies which are reliant on raising more cash to fund their businesses. Shares in the FTSE 250 group fell by 13p, or 2.8 per cent, to 437¼p, as it said that the gross value of its portfolio fell to £1.45 billion as at September 30, down from £1.53 billion at the end of March.

Endeavour strikes more gold
Endeavour Mining has discovered a major gold deposit in Côte d’Ivoire (Tom Saunders writes).

Its chief executive, Sebastien de Montessus, called the discovery “one of the most significant discoveries made in West Africa over the last decade”.

The company estimated that the site contains 1.1 million ounces of gold, potentially increasing to 3 million ounces. Endeavour is planning a 70,000-metre drilling programme to further investigate the site.

Endeavour operates gold mines in Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Senegal and is based in London where it listed on the stock market in June last year and is now a constituent of the FTSE 100.

A month ago Endeavour reported that it had started construction on a gold mine at Lafigué which is expected to produce an average of about 203,000 ounces of gold a year.

Yesterday the share price rose by 1.95 per cent to £16.72.

The company has forecast that it will achieve its target of discovering between 15 and 20 million ounces of gold in the five years to 2025. It plans to produce between 1.32 and 1.4 million ounces of gold at costs of between $880 and $930 per ounce.

Wall Street report
Wall Street’s main indices slipped on fears of Covid restrictions returning in China. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 45.41 points to 33,700.28, the Nasdaq dropped by 121.55 points to 11,024.51 and the S&P 500 closed 15.4 points lower at 3,949.94.

Original Article here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/car-charger-runs-out-of-power-on-supply-worries-7gcff9pbn

Author: Jessica Newman, Journalist, The Times

Georgia Pettman

Associate, Research, Retail