Bosses of Ladbrokes owner Entain have bought £2.4m worth of shares in a bet on the gambling giant, sending the shares soaring.
In a show of confidence in its prospects, CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen bought almost £325,000 worth of shares.
She was joined by Barry Gibson, the chairman of Entain, and his wife Brenda, who together bought more than £1 million worth of shares.
Board members Stella David and Rahul Welde also increased their holdings.
According to the latest stock exchange listing, the purchases were made on Tuesday, November 7.
In a boost, bosses of Ladbrokes owner Entain have snapped up £2.4m worth of shares, sending the shares up 2.6%
It came a day after Dodge & Cox, the San Francisco-based investment fund, doubled its stake in Entain from 5.01 percent to 10.33 percent. Shares rose 1.8 percent, or 17p, to 958p.
The FTSE 100 fell 0.1 percent, or 8.3 points, to 7,401.7 and the FTSE 250 rose 0.5 percent, or 84.6 points, to 17,846.3.
Associated British Foods rose for a second day after strong results.
The Primark owner received support from the city when Bernstein and Deutsche Bank Research increased their target prices for the stock. Shares rose 2.5 percent, or 57p, to 2,307p.
Hiscox became the latest insurer to post positive results after premiums rose 6.8 percent to £3.06 billion in the nine months to the end of September.
It followed positive results from Direct Line and Beazley in the previous session.
But there was little to cheer about for two of Britain’s biggest investment platforms. Shares in Hargreaves Lansdown fell 2.3 per cent, or 17p, to 710.8p, while AJ Bell fell 0.9 per cent, or 2.4p, to 272.4p after broker UBS initiated its coverage ‘sell’ ratings for both stocks.
From May, Serco will oversee the process of installing and removing electronic ankle bracelets on offenders in England and Wales, after the public service provider secured a six-year contract worth £200 million from the Ministry of Justice. Shares rose 2.4 percent, or 3.5p, to 147.7p.
Economic turmoil, including a slow recovery in China and import restrictions in India, have hit gemstone sales, according to Anglo American’s diamond division.
De Beers, which mines in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa, said it sold £65 million worth of diamonds between October 4 and November 3.
That was down from the £163 million it sold between September 18 and October 3 and well below the £370 million recorded in the same period last year. Anglo-American shares fell 2.1 percent, or 44p, to 2,095.5p.
Daily Mirror owner Reach is cutting 450 jobs in a bid to cut costs. The newspaper publisher of national newspapers such as the Daily Star and regional newspapers, including the Manchester Evening News, announced two rounds of cuts in January and March.
Shares fell 0.2 percent, or 0.2p, to 77.8p. But strong demand for newspapers due to the Football World Cup, the death of the Queen and the coronation of King Charles gave Smiths News a boost.
Revenues rose 0.2 percent to £1.1 billion in the 12 months to August 26, while profits rose 14 percent to £31.8 million. But shares fell 1.4 per cent, or 0.7p, to 48.2p.
Persimmon has poached Galliford Try’s finance boss, Andrew Duxbury, a day after the company reported a rise in sales activity since early October. Shares fell 0.2 percent, or 2.5p, to 1143p.
Begbies Traynor has bought Andrew Forbes, a firm of surveyors, in a deal worth up to £1 million.
The newly acquired company will be part of Eddisons, the real estate division of the restructuring specialist. Shares fell 0.8 percent or 1p to 122.5p.
The GB Group boss, who has led the identity verification and fraud software company since April 2017, will step down at the end of January next year.
Chris Clark is replaced by Dev Dhiman. Shares rose 1.6 percent, or 4p, to 258.8p.
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