Telecom stocks were traders Valentine Day’s pick amid hopes that the industry might finally consolidate.
In a major boost for the sector, Vodafone rose 3.4 per cent, or 3.22p, to 97.22p while BT was up 3.1 per cent, or 4.2p, to 138.3p and Airtel Africa added 2.2 per cent, or 2.7p, to 126.5p.
The gains came after US-based Liberty Global revealed it spent £1.2billion to snap up a near-5 per cent stake in Vodafone. It is hoping to capitalise on Vodafone’s cheap share price and is keen that the firm merge with Three UK, which is owned by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchinson Holdings.
US-based Liberty Global is hoping to capitalise on Vodafone’s cheap share price and is keen that the firm merge with Three UK
Rival BT has also been the subject of recent stake-building and merger chatter in the City.
Altice, the European telecoms business led by the billionaire Patrick Draghi, upped its stake in BT from 12.1 per cent to 18 per cent in mid-December.
‘Consolidation is the name of the game in the telecoms sector and Liberty Global is taking a £1.2billion bet that Vodafone is going to be an important cog in the system,’ said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.1 per cent, or 6.25 points, to 7953.85 while the FTSE 250 fell 0.5 per cent, or 106.29 points, to 20,018.23. Also in the top flight, BAE landed a three-year contract worth £38million to protect the UK’s border.
The defence giant will develop technology to enable the Border Force and other agencies to process data and identify risks to national security. Shares rose 0.2 per cent, or 1.8p, to 865.4p
Unilever inched up 0.1 per cent, or 4.5p, to 4226.5p after the consumer goods group sold its Suave beauty and personal care brand in North America to Yellow Wood Partners.
Across the Atlantic, official figures in the US showed inflation came in at 6.4 per cent for January.
Stock Watch – ADF
ADF, the movie make-up trailer group, made a strong start to its first year as a listed company.
The firm, which worked on the production of the fifth season of The Crown , said revenue and profit for the year to December should be higher than the previous 12 months.
It has continued to pick up orders for larger productions with higher revenue per job in its current financial year.
Shares, which floated at 50p on January 5 last year, rose 7.3 per cent, or 4p, to 58.5p.
This was slightly above the 6.2 per cent predicted by economists but lower than December’s 6.5 per cent.
It sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.3pc but the S&P 500 rose 0.1 per cent and the Nasdaq climbed 0.5 per cent.
Chris Beauchamp, analyst at trading platform IG Group, said: ‘US inflation is still resolutely sticky, and it shows the Fed still has more to do.
But the numbers were broadly in line with what markets had been expecting, and were certainly not enough to frighten the horses too much.’
Back in London, airline stocks soared higher amid hopes over the improving health of the UK economy.
Easyjet rose 3.9 per cent, or 18.4p, to 488.6p after Deutsche Bank Research raised its rating to ‘buy’ from ‘sell’ and increased the target price to 580p from 410p, saying its ‘cautious stance’ back in mid-December was based on fears over the UK economy.
But now it says the outlook has ‘improved dramatically’, which will favour Easyjet which is the airline most exposed to the UK.
The gains filtered through the sector, with Wizz Air up 2.8 per cent, or 76p, to 2810p while IAG added 1.9 per cent, or 3.12p, to 165.38p.
Over at Plus500, the stock trading platform gained 0.8 per cent, or 15p, to 1923p as it cheered a bumper set of results for 2022.
Revenue surged 16 per cent to £683.4million while profit rose by nearly a fifth to £357million.
Plus500 retained most of its customers who signed up to trade during the pandemic.
It also pledged to return £82 to shareholders, meaning that more than £222million will have been handed back to investors during the financial year.
Finally, the cyber security specialist NCC Group has joined Amazon’s Web Services Marketplace in a bid to expand its reach to software vendors.
Its shares dipped 0.4 per cent, or 0.8p, to 179.2p.
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
