AIM stocks rally on Conservative landslide
Who were the ‘short term’ winners and losers?
The Conservative election victory, supported by progress with the US/China trade negotiations, triggered a strong rally from stock markets, with the UK index of 100 leading shares up just over 1%, the UK mid-cap index surging over 3% and US stocks hitting record highs. The AIM index was up just over 2%, but who were the biggest winners on our AIM portfolios from this short term ‘Boris bounce’?
Anything associated with housebuilding, construction and infrastructure spending had a terrific day, with notable risers from our AIM portfolios Breedon (construction materials) and Nexus Infrastructure (infrastructure services to UK housebuilders). Having struggled in the first half of the year, Nexus announced its full year results this week with a strong order book offering plenty of encouragement for the future.
Shares in Adept Technology, which provides managed IT services to over 100 councils, NHS trusts, schools and other government bodies, also rallied. The share price of this excellent business, which generates plenty of reliable recurring revenue and cash, has struggled to make much progress over the past few months. With the election out of the way and a more stable political outlook hopefully it will start to attract greater interest.
Highly rated foreign exchange brokers Alpha FX Group and Argentex will have had a busy time supporting their clients in the face of a rising pound, but their share prices barely moved today. With many predicting that the pound will continue to rise over the coming months their services should continue to be in high demand from corporate clients needing help managing foreign exchange exposures.
RWS Holdings, the intellectual property support services and localization provider, was a notable faller on the day. AIM’s 8th largest company announced excellent results this week but warned that, having previously benefited from positive exchange rate movements, currency is proving less supportive at the start of its new financial year. A resurgent pound won’t have helped sentiment in the short-term but this terrific business has weathered far greater currency storms over the past 10 years.
For further information on Fundamental’s high-performing AIM portfolios and thoughts on winners and loses from the election please contact Chris or Stephen on 01923 713890. You can download fact sheets and other information from the Publications section here.
While the UK market was clearly the main focus of attention for many, a US listed company which we hold on some of our general portfolios stole the show for us and highlights the terrific investment opportunities available on overseas markets. Adobe will be well known many through its free Acrobat software which is used to read PDF documents, however, there is clearly much more to this creative and digital media software business. This US giant has delivered tremendous growth over the past 3 years and now boasts a market capitalisation of $150bn. Despite its huge size Adobe has just reported a 24% growth in like-for-like annual revenue to $11.17billion and 15% growth in earnings per share. And who says elephants can’t gallop!
Adobe is also a constituent of Investor’s Champion’s Ultimate Stocks Portfolio which you can find out more on from the link here.
