It’s been a bumper run for the precious metals miners but interims from Hochschild published this morning raised some cause for concern amongst investors as the company significantly scaled back production forecasts at two sites. The headlines were certainly impressive, including a 33% jump in revenues, a doubling of post-exceptional profit before tax, higher cash levels and lower debt, but the strong run for the stock in recent years has left room for profit taking. The Hochschild share price was 18% lower shortly after the open.
The high street athleisure wear retailer issued its Q2 trading update today which painted a mixed picture. Whilst group wide sales are growing on an organic basis, there’s a worrying – and worsening – decline being seen in the UK market, symptomatic of waning consumer confidence. The company remains on track for the full year although cautions over the impact of evolving US tariffs whilst a new £100m share buyback was also launched. The JD Sports share price was 4% higher in early trade.
Over to the smaller cap side of the market where med tech company Fusion Antibodies updated the market with news of contract wins from an existing US-based client. The new contracts are worth $460k, with $400k of that expected to be realised in the current financial year, and build on the success of the collaboration so far. The Fusion Antibodies share price was around 8% higher by 8.30am.
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