MARKET REPORT: Frasers set to buy back another £80m of shares

Shares of Frasers Group rose nearly 4 percent after the owner of Sports Direct launched its latest share buyback program.

The FTSE 100 fashion empire, which also owns Jack Wills and Flannels, will buy 10 million shares so it can pay back £80 million to investors. It is the company’s fifth share buyback in less than a year, bringing its total to £325 million since April 2022.

Fraser shares gained 3.2 percent, or 24.5p, to 794p.

Frasers is just the latest blue chip company to outline plans to return cash to investors.

Banking giant NatWest (-0.4 percent, or 1.2 pence, to 283.4 pence) began its £800 million share buyback program yesterday.

Rival Barclays (up 1.4 percent, or 2.38 pence, to 175.88 pence) and Guinness owner Diageo (plus 0.2 percent, or 8.5 pence, to 3,569p) both announced £500m share buybacks last week On.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.1 percent, or 9.95 points, to 8014.31 and the FTSE 250 was up 0.05 percent, or 9.48 points, to 20098.41.

Mining stocks were boosted as hopes of increased demand in China drove up metal prices.

Anglo American grew 4 percent, or 128p, to 3337.5p, Rio Tinto rose 2.9 percent, or 174p, to 6277p, Glencore climbed 2 percent, or 10p, to 519.7p and Antofagasta improved by 1.7 percent, or 29.5 pence p, to 1761p.

DS Smith went the other way. The packaging company fell 4.9 percent, or 17.4 pence, to 336 pence after its stock was downgraded to “neutral” from “buy” by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Stock watch – Trifast

Shares of Trifast plummeted after the boss resigned and warned profits would be lower than hoped.

The company, which makes screws, nuts and bolts, said Mark Belton resigned as CEO on Saturday after 23 years with the company, eight of them at the helm.

The company also said profit for the year to the end of March would be around £9m, well below the £14.3m expected by analysts.

Shares crashed 31.5 percent, or 29 pence, to 63 pence.

Analysts at the bank said demand for boxes has peaked. It also warned of higher energy and personnel costs.

Tesco was in sharp focus after Sky News reported that the supermarket giant could try to sell the banking arm it launched in 1997. Shares rose 0.1 percent, or 0.3 pence, to 251.2 pence yesterday.

Hill & Smith engineering group, which makes crash barriers, has completed the acquisition of Texas-based fiberglass product developer Enduro for £28.7 million. Shares rose 1.5 percent, or 20p, to 1370p.

Shares of law firm Keystone rose 6.7 percent, or 32.5 pence, to 520 pence after it said annual revenue and profit would beat expectations following strong demand for its services throughout the year.

Harland & Wolff rose 3.9 percent, or 0.58 pence, to 15.2 pence after the shipbuilder whose Belfast yard built the Titanic won six maintenance and manufacturing contracts worth more than £10 million in total.

The contracts are due to be completed within the next 12 to 18 months, with four starting this month in Belfast.

Meanwhile, the Tristel disinfectant business gained 4.8 percent, or 15 pence, to 330 pence after a positive half-year that saw sales surge and entry into the North American market.

Revenue of £17.5m for the six months to December was 16 per cent higher than a year earlier.

It also swung back to a profit of £2.4 million, after a loss of £1.2 million 12 months ago.

Tristel launched its medical device disinfectant in Canada during this time, and an approval decision from the US Food and Drug Administration is expected in June.

Indivior, which makes drugs to treat opioid addiction, fell 6.1 percent, or 103p, to 1582p after Jefferies cut its target price from 2655p to 2115p.

Last week, the mid-cap specialty pharma company set aside £242 million to settle an ongoing lawsuit in the US, though it warned the outcome could be “materially different” from the provision.

Similarly, Spectris tumbled 3.8 percent, or 124 pence, to 3112 pence after Berenberg brokers downgraded the supplier of precision instruments and controls from ‘buy’ to ‘hold’ and lowered its target price from 3835p to 3470p.