MARKET REPORT: Lord Cruddas takes £80m hit as CMC shares tumble

Tory colleague Lord Cruddas and his wife saw more than £80million of their fortunes wiped out after shares in CMC Markets plummeted by a fifth.

The former Tory party treasurer and backer, who founded the trading company in 1989, saw his paper wealth dwindle after the company released a dismal trading update.

“February and March presented a more challenging environment, with lower share volumes and a higher share of lower margin institutional trading activities,” said a CMC spokesperson.

Net operating income for the year to 31 March is expected to be between £280m and £290m.

But this would be lower than the £304 million analysts had expected. And operating costs should be around £215m to £220m, the company added.

At its interim results in November, CMC said operating costs ‘remain unchanged’ at £215 million. Shares fell 20.6 percent, or 47.8 pence, to 184.2 pence.

That reduced the value of Cruddas and his wife Fiona’s 174.15 million shares by £83 million. Their 62 percent stake is now worth £320 million.

Shares in Thungela Resources plunged after the miner warned its shipments would fall for a second year in a row due to ongoing problems at South Africa’s largest coal exporter.

The company, which spun off from blue-chip mining giant Anglo American in 2021, revised its forecasts for this year and gave no outlook for 2024. Shares fell 5.1 percent, or 45p, to 835p.

Thungela attributed much of his misery to the poor performance of Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), a state-owned company in South Africa.

It has had a series of mishaps, from stolen cables preventing its electric trains from running to a shortage of spare parts for locomotives.

Stock watch – Scotgold

Scotgold Resources warned its future was in doubt and new funds were needed to stay afloat after production fell short of expectations.

The Scottish Highlands-based silver and gold miner planned to mine nearly 6,000 tonnes in February and March.

But it mined just 977 tons in February and expects up to 600 in March.

There was “considerable doubt” about its ability to continue in the near term if production remained weak.

Shares fell 63.4 percent, or 24.1 pence, to 13.9 pence.

Due to the turmoil at TFR, Thungela expects to ship between 10.5 million tons and 12.5 million tons this year – well below last year’s production of 13.1 million tons.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Thungela, though. Turnover almost doubled last year to £2.26 billion. Profits rose from £300 million a year earlier to £800 million for 2022.

Such results brought handsome returns to shareholders, receiving £610 million last year.

Across the industry, mining stocks struggled for direction. Fresnillo (-1.5 percent, or 11.2p, to 721.4p), Endeavor Mining (-0.05 percent, or 1p, to 1859p), and Rio Tinto (-0.4 percent, or 21p, to 5232p) all dipped in the red while Anglo American (0.04 percent, or 1p, to 2539p), Glencore (1.6 percent, or 6.9p, to 449.6p) and Antofagasta (0.2 percent, or 3p, to 1520p) made a profit.

In a positive start to the week, the FTSE 100 rose 0.9 percent, or 66.32 points, to 7471.77 and the FTSE 250 gained 0.2 percent, or 35.79 points, to 18529.62.

Burberry was one of the biggest blue-chip gainers after JP Morgan raised the luxury retailer’s target price from 2250p to 2000p.

The broker said it issued the upgrade to reflect faster reopening in China and better-than-expected demand in Europe. Shares were up 1.7 percent, or 40p, to 2383p.

Wetherspoons added another 2.6 percent, or 17.5 pence, to 677.5 pence after the trade update late last week, where the group returned to profit. It means the pub chain’s stock is up more than 50 percent this year.

WPP made its fourth acquisition this year after buying New York-based social influencer marketing agency Clear. Shares rose 1.3 percent, or 12.2 pence, to 929.6 pence.

Things looked good for Belvoir after the real estate franchise group said its mortgage activity has increased by about a fifth since the last three months of 2022.

The group saw its turnover rise 14 per cent to £33.7 million in 2022, while profits fell 2 per cent to £9.1 million. It increased its dividend for 2022 by 6 percent to 9 pence per share.

Shares rose 5.1 percent, or 8.5 pence, to 174.5 pence.