MARKET REPORT: CMC founder Lord Cruddas cashes in on market turbulence

The founder of CMC Markets enjoyed some peace of mind as traders took advantage of rising economic uncertainty.

Lord Cruddas, who founded the trading platform in 1989, said the company has been boosted by market volatility and increased trading with clients.

In a trading update, CMC said revenues in the six months to the end of September were 21 percent higher than a year earlier, at around £153 million. Shares rose 5.6 percent or 12.5 pence to 235 pence.

The update will have come as a relief to Cruddas. The 69-year-old Tory colleague is CMC’s largest shareholder with a 58.83 percent stake, while his wife Fiona owns 3.2 percent.

The Cruddas’ family stake is worth nearly £409 million. But despite today’s rally, this is a long way from when those shares were worth £936m when the stock peaked at 538p last April.

As recession fears persisted, the FTSE 100 fell 0.78 percent or 55.35 points to 6997.27 and the FTSE 250 rose 0.40 percent or 70.22 points to 17,632.64.

The vote was not helped by credit rating agency Fitch, which lowered its outlook for the UK to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ in the wake of the mini-budget.

In London’s top index, Imperial Brands offered a double dose of good news for its investors.

The tobacco company, which includes brands such as Lambert & Butler, John Player, Golden Virginia and Rizla, said it will launch a £1 billion share buyback program tomorrow.

Trade has remained in line with expectations, while revenue and profit for the year are expected to grow about 1 percent, Imperial added. Shares rose 2.5 percent, or 47p, to 1944p.

Stock Watch – Victorian Plumbing

Shares in Victorian Plumbing rose after the strong end of the fiscal year.

The bathroom retailer said sales in the second half of the year were 5 percent higher than in the same period in 2021.

This surpassed the 3 percent figure that City broker Numis predicted.

The turnover for the 12 months to the end of September was in line with last year.

Shares of the AIM-listed company, which rose to 330 pence after its IPO in June last year but fell to 34 pence this week, rose 13.8 percent or 4.9 pence to 40.5 pence.

Credit scorer Experian has strengthened his board with two new appointments.

The group said fintech expert Kathleen DeRose, who sits on the board of the London Stock Exchange Group (down 1.4 percent, or 108p, to 7682p) and Louise Pentland, a lawyer who has worked at PayPal, said next month. will join. Shares were up 0.07 percent, or 2p, to 2753p.

Halma, the safety equipment company, has broken into German designer and manufacturer of electrical testing technology Wetech for around £50 million. Shares in Halma rose 0.9 percent, or 19p, to 2160p.

Diageo started the new fiscal year well with a short update ahead of the annual general meeting.

The Guinness owner reiterated that he is on track to meet his medium-term sales and profit growth targets between 2023 and 2025. Shares fell 1.4 percent, or 53p, to 3728.5p.

A large number of blue-chip and mid-cap stocks trade ex-dividend.

Centrica fell 4.4 percent or 3.18p to 68.44p, Synthomer fell 8.3 percent or 9.3p to 103.2p and Vistry Group fell 4 percent or 24p to 579p.

Returning to company news, Ferrexpo brought the horrors of Vladimir Putin’s war to life after the iron ore miner said eight of his workers died while serving in the Ukrainian armed forces.

In an update on the third quarter of the year, the group said iron ore pellet production fell 68 percent from last year, while sales fell 65 percent due to the conflict.

Liberum analysts said the group emphasized that this would likely be its weakest quarter, though Ferrexpo boss Jim North praised his teams for continuing to operate in Ukraine despite the war. Shares fell 3.9 percent, or 5.2p, to 126.7p.

Investment firm Abrdn may have hoped for a better assessment of Deutsche Bank.

The broker gave a ‘sell’ rating and cut its target price from 135p to 125p, in anticipation of a potential dividend cut when full-year results are revealed, as Abrdn shares fell 1.1 percent or 1.54p to 135.61p yesterday .