MARKET REPORT: Pharma firm Okyo tumbles as it quits City for New York

Okyo Pharma shares tumbled after it became the latest company to quit the London stock market for New York.

The British biopharmaceutical group, which floated in London in July 2018, said its shares will be delisted on May 12 pending shareholder approval.

‘The volume of trading of the ordinary shares on the Main Market is negligible and does not justify the associated costs,’ a spokesman said.

Okyo Pharma, which focuses on treatments for dry eye disease, has a dual US-UK listing.

Okyo Pharma, which focuses on treatments for dry eye disease, has a dual US-UK listing

The company’s proposal would see its London-listed shares transferred to Nasdaq but would have no impact on those already traded in New York.

Chairman Gabriele Cerrone owns 33.73 per cent of shares mostly through his company Panetta Partners. Shares plunged 14.6 per cent, or 0.3p, to 1.75p.

Okyo Pharma’s decision to prioritise New York piles further pressure on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has vowed to make the UK a ‘more attractive place to list’.

The London stock market suffered a major blow earlier this year when Arm, the Cambridge-based chip designer, choose to list on Wall Street over the City.

The £30billion building materials group CRH (down 0.8 per cent, or 31p, to 4021p) has outlined plans to quit London for New York. 

Meanwhile, gambling group Flutter (down 0.7 per cent, or 100p, to 14430p) and education publisher Pearson (up 0.3 per cent, or 2.4p, to 839.4p) are among those looking at adding a Wall Street listing.

Having risen for the previous six sessions, the FTSE 100 fell 0.5 per cent, or 38.48 points, to 7634.52 and the FTSE 250 lost 0.3 per cent, or 64.37 points, to 18815.04. Following a sharp rally on Monday after Opec announced plans to cut production, oil prices drifted back below $85 a barrel.

BP fell 1 per cent, or 5.5p, to 527.2p and Shell slid 1.9pc, or 46p, to 2359p.

US private equity group Apollo tabled a fifth and final offer for engineering group John Wood worth £1.66billion. The 240p a share offer came after Wood rejected four previous offers. But Wood shares fell 2.3 per cent, or 4.6p, to 200p, leaving them well below the offer price in a sign investors do not believe a deal will go through.

STOCK WATCH 

Pawnbroker Ramsdens sparkled after it raised its profit forecast and cashed in on watches, chains and bracelets.

The group, which has 150 branches, said its pawn- broking loans hit a record level in the six months to March 31 as customers looked to access funds amid increased living costs.

Retail jewellery profit increased by more than a fifth on the previous year.

It expects profit for the year to September 30 to be ‘not less than £9.5million’. 

Shares soared 5.8 per cent, or 12.5p, to 230p.

Drax gained 2.1 per cent, or 12.4p, to 605.4p after City broker Liberum issued a buy rating and said the power firm still has a role to play in the UK’s bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) proposition. 

The Government last month snubbed the group’s proposal to capture emissions from its biomass plant near Selby in North Yorkshire.

At Renishaw, Jefferies initiated its coverage of the engineer with an ‘underperform’ rating and target price of 3270p. Shares, which closed at 4040p on Monday, fell 5.1 per cent, or 206p, to 3834p.

Pennon Group sank after Morgan Stanley downgraded the South West Water owner from ‘overweight’ to ‘equal weight’ and cut the target price from 1060p to 940p. Shares slid 0.4 per cent, or 3p, to 854.5p.

Gooch & Housego warned its business was being weighed down by soaring inflation and some customers who had bought more stock than they needed.

The maker of parts for satellites, medical devices and the manufacturing sector said it has also bumped up salaries to ensure it remains ‘competitive in the employment market’.

Revenue looks to have come in at around £71million for the six months to March 31, it said. This would be above the £54.1million it reported during the same period a year ago. Shares shed 2.8 per cent, or 13p, to 447p.

Argo Blockchain slid 7.4 per cent, or 1p, to 12.6p after the crypto miner said its output in March was 10 per cent below the amount it produced in February due to ‘the increase in network difficulty’.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk