MARKET REPORT: Mixed fortunes for UK’s biggest fund managers

There were mixed fortunes for some of Britain’s biggest fund managers on a blockbuster day of results.

St James’s Place suffered its worst day on the stock market in seven years while it was Jupiter’s best session in five months.

Investors still poured their money into funds despite months of economic turmoil. For St James’s Place, net inflows of £3.4billion in the six months to the end of June were 38 per cent below the same period a year ago, and below the £4billion analysts had expected.

It welcomed £8billion of investments from new clients in the first half of 2023 – down from £9.1billion last year. The company now has a record £157.5billion under management, up 6 per cent from the end of December. Boss Andrew Croft said the period was ‘challenging’ amid a cocktail of economic woes.

SJP also plans to reduce fees on some of its investment products following regulatory changes. Shares tumbled 16 per cent, or 189.6p, to 993.4p, its biggest fall since 2016. By contrast, Jupiter made gains following interim results that beat market forecasts.

Making a move: The FTSE 100 was up 0.2 per cent, or 15.87 points, to 7692.76 and the FTSE 250 climbed 0.5 per cent, or 86.83 points, to 19,273.37

Profit jumped 56 per cent to £46.4m in the first six months of 2023, which was more than the £41m pencilled in by analysts. Assets under management were £51.4billion.

Jupiter rose 6.3 per cent, or 6.9p, to 115p to mark the stock’s highest one-day price increase since February. Analysts at Panmure Gordon said: ‘It would be wrong to suggest we should be celebrating a successful turnaround, it is far too early for that, but equally too many commentators had written the business off, and that was equally ahead of time.’

Schroders raked in £5.7billion from new clients in the six months to the end of June – up from £4.4billion in the same period last year. It rose 0.8 per cent, or 3.7p, to 463.7p.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.2 per cent, or 15.87 points, to 7692.76 and the FTSE 250 climbed 0.5 per cent, or 86.83 points, to 19,273.37.

On a busy day of corporate news with updates from more than a dozen blue-chip companies alone, Anglo American sank into the red as half-year profits fell on the back of weaker prices for its products. Shares fell 0.9 per cent, or 23p, to 2427p.

Mitchells & Butlers boss Phil Urban said there are signs that inflation is easing, as sales in the third quarter, which included a record-breaking Father’s Day in June, were 9.7 per cent higher than the same period a year ago. It rose 8.3 per cent, or 17.8p, to 233p.

Rolls-Royce gained 2.5 per cent, or 4.6p, to 189.6p after Deutsche Bank maintained its ‘buy’ rating on the jet engine maker’s stock and increased the target price to 210p from 160p, a day after it hiked its profit forecast for 2023.

BT has been abandoned by 126,000 broadband customers in three months as the telecoms giant fends off competition.

It blamed a weak broadband market and expects these figures to decline by around 400,000 over the full year. Shares fell 2.1 per cent, or 2.6p, to 123.9p.

Luke Jensen, the boss of Ocado Solutions, an arm of online supermarket Ocado, is to step down at the end of September after six years to be replaced by non-executive director John Martin. Ocado slid 0.8 per cent, or 7.8p, to 9562.6p.

Relx posted higher revenue and profit for the first half of this year and committed to returning the remaining £200m of its £800m share buyback programme to investors before the end of 2023. Shares climbed by 4.7 per cent, or 119p, to 2661p.

Mobico Group, formerly known as National Express, swung to a loss of £23.4m in the first half of 2023, having made a £20.5m profit the year before. It blamed a fall in Covid funding and a higher wage bill. Its shares sank 11.1 per cent, or 11.9p, to 95p.

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