It’s a relatively quiet start back after the holiday weekend but Kingfisher, the retail group behind names including Screwfix and B&Q, published a first quarter update this morning. Management noted that the comparative period had been a strong one, but regardless managed to see revenues rise by 0.8%. Most brands also saw market share gains and although the cool start to the year did impact the sale of seasonal items at B&Q, full year guidance remains on track. There’s an increased focus on controlling what the business can in terms of cost and accounting for the challenging macro backdrop but this has been sufficient to drive the Kingfisher share price up more than 5% in early trade.
The Birmingham-based aerospace company Melrose issued a note this morning advising the market of an ongoing incident at its Garden Grove facility in California. On Friday a thermal issue was identified regarding a chemical storage facility which resulted in a series of evacuations from the immediate area. The situation has been scaled back over the weekend and no leaks, injuries or contaminations have occurred but there’s presumably some concern over disruption to production as well as the potential for litigation. The Melrose share price was down around 5% shortly after the open.
The miner focused on copper deposits in Spain issued a Q1 update this morning. Despite production in the early part of the year hampering production, strong underlying prices and an expectation that targets for the full year can still be met has been sufficient to evidently placate any fears amongst investors. There’s a nod to the risk of production cost pressures rising as a result of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East but the market appeared happy to look beyond this, responding to the update with a degree of confidence. The Atalaya share price was up 5% by 8.30am.
Most read news on Investegate this morning
Ongoing incident at Garden Grove facility - - Melrose Industries (MRO)
Appointment of Adviser and Tulu Kapi Update - - KEFI Gold and Copper (KEFI)
Refinancing, Launch of SBB and Acquisition - - CVS Group (CVSG)
