MARKET REPORT: Lord Cruddas £60m poorer as CMC shares collapse

Tory colleague Lord Cruddas and his wife saw nearly £60 million wipe out their fortunes when CMC Markets collapsed.

The rags-to-riches businessman, who founded the trading company in 1989, saw the value of his stake dwindle as clients struggling to get a handle on inflation and the war in Ukraine left the platform.

In an update for the six months to the end of September, CMC said its trade customer base was down 7 percent and it was suffering from rising costs.

CMC benefited from an increase in trading activity during the pandemic as the British looked for ways to make money and pass the time. But as lockdown restrictions eased, activity on the investment platform eased.

And the expansion projects turn out to be more expensive than expected. Operating expenses were £106.3m, up 28 per cent on the same period last year. Shares fell 12.7 percent, or 34 pence, to 234 pence.

Cruddas, a former Tory party treasurer and backer, and his wife Fiona together own 62 percent of the company, worth £407.5 million.

The FTSE 100 fell 0.25 percent, or 18.25 points, to 7351.19 while the FTSE 250 fell 1.77 percent, or 343.48 points, to 19,112.40. Ukraine.

The strike fueled fears that Poland, a NATO member, could be dragged into the war. But President Andrzej Duda said: “There are no indications that this was a deliberate attack on Poland.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also said a Ukrainian air defense missile was the likely cause, although “Russia bears ultimate responsibility” for its attack on Ukraine.

Shares in BAE Systems rose 4.2 percent, or 31.2 pence, to 769.8 pence, while Babcock added 0.1 percent, or 0.4 pence, to 280.8 pence.

Software giant Sage ended its fiscal year in style with revenue up 5 percent to £1.95 billion for the year to September, with its enterprise cloud division up 24 percent. Shares added 7.3 percent or 55.4 pence to 811.2 pence.

Mr. Kipling and Bisto’s owner, Premier Foods, grew in the first half of the year to Oct. 1 as more consumers stay indoors rather than eat out. Turnover rose 6.2 per cent to £419 million and profits increased by more than a tenth to £47 million. But shares fell 2.3 percent, or 2.6 pence, to 108.4 pence.

Supply Guard: Kromek

Kromek has won a contract worth nearly £5 million with a UK government agency for ‘biological threat detection systems’.

The Durham group makes products that can identify cancerous tissue, portable nuclear radiation detector kits and dirty bombs.

Chief Arnab Basu said, “We believe that technologies that can provide intelligence on emerging threats in near real-time will be a critical part of strategies.”

Shares rose 14.2 percent, or 1.15 pence, to 9.25 pence.

British Land saw the value of its estate fall 3 per cent to £9.6 billion amid rising interest rates, while it fell 1.1 per cent, or 4.4 pence, to 391.7 pence.

At Vodafone, investors welcomed the telecom giant’s launch of a share buyback program worth up to £580 million. It rose 1.3 percent, or 1.27 pence, to 97.16 pence.

Meanwhile, Hill & Smith cheered strong demand after the security barrier maker said profit for the year should top £89.7m. It climbed 5.3 percent, or 58p, to 1150p.

Serco sank into the red despite winning a £200 million contract with the Ministry of Defense to provide services to the Royal Navy. The share price fell 0.7 percent, or 1.2 pence, to 164.9 pence.

Tullow Oil fell 0.4 percent, or 0.2 pence, to 47.3 pence after the energy company’s production forecast for the year fell short of 2020 levels.

It expects to have produced 61,000 to 62,000 barrels of oil per day by the end of 2022 – down from an earlier streak of 60,000 to 64,000, and still a long way from 74,900 in 2020.

Kainos rose 4.8 percent, or 69 pence, to 1,510 pence after Berenberg upgraded the IT company’s rating to “buy from holding” and raised its price target from 1,200 pence to 1,700 pence.

Deliveroo fell 7.1 percent, or 7.02 pence, to 92.58 pence after ending a seven-year stint in Australia. The online delivery company placed its subsidiary there under voluntary management because it said the company cannot become profitable without “significant financial investment.”