MARKET REPORT: Shares in M&S sparkle after HSBC backs inventory once more

High Street favourite Marks and Spencer was bumped higher after HSBC encouraged clients to buy the stock again.

The bank said the turnaround progress being made by M&S is ‘too good to ignore’ as its popularity and appeal soar.

M&S, which last year returned to the FTSE 100 for the first time since 2019, has reported two years of sales growth across both its food and its clothing & home divisions. 

Analysts at the bank said ‘this turnaround is more sustainable than previous attempts’ and could pave the way for shareholder returns.

HSBC expects lower interest rates, rising wages and a recovery in consumer confidence to spur customers’ spending, lifting M&S 1.9 per cent, or 5.7p, to 302.3p.

Turnaround: M&S, which last year returned to the FTSE 100 for the first time since 2019, has reported two years of sales growth across both its food and its clothing & home divisions

Wealth manager St James’s Place made gains after positive broker notes. 

Peel Hunt decided it was time to start covering the stock once again and issued a ‘buy’ rating while Bank of America upgraded its outlook.

SJP will be booted out officially of the FTSE 100, for the first time since March 2014, and into the mid-cap index on June 24 but gained 4.9 per cent, or 25p, to 533p.

On the wider market, the FTSE 100 rose 0.8 per cent, or 67.67 points, to 8215.48 and the FTSE 250 was up 1.1 per cent, or 230.55 points, to 20,497.40. 

Tech investor Molten Ventures said that the value of companies it invests in, including the financial app Revolut and Aircall, a French cloud-based customer phone and communication platform, was slightly higher than expected.

Its gross portfolio value rose a touch to £1.38billion in the 12 months to March 31. The stock surged 19.1 per cent, or 64.5p, to 401.5p.

Stock Watch –  HSS

Tools and equipment hire group HSS crashed 13.6 per cent, or 1.14p, to 7.26p, a record low, after infrastructure business Amey switched supplier.

The deal with Amey had accounted for about 7 per cent of revenues and a tenth of its adjusted earnings in 2023, HSS said. The two businesses held an agreement for nearly nine years, and it was set to end this year.

The announcement raises questions over how HSS will fill the gap in its income after the contract ends.

Shares in RWS soared 21.3 per cent, or 35.6p, to 203p after the language services firm returned to growth in half of its divisions and pinned its hopes on cashing in on increased demand from clients for artificial intelligence (AI).

The company, whose chat tool has helped translate documents between a joint US and South Korean army division, added that trading has been ‘encouraging’ so far in the second half.

Equals Group has extended the offer deadline for a consortium interested in it from yesterday to July 10. Shares tumbled 7.4 per cent, or 9p, to 112.5p. 

Safestore, which owns nearly 200 stores across the UK, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium, said sales dipped a touch to £107million in the first half to the end of April.

In the UK revenues fell 1.5 per cent to £78.6million, and the shares sank 4.2 per cent, or 34.5p, to 793.5p.

Scancell signed a seven-month exclusivity agreement with an unnamed global biotech company to evaluate a potential antibody generated by the AIM-listed firm’s platform, and climbed 3.7 per cent, or 0.35p, to 9.75.

And Tungsten West was granted the final permit it needed to pave the way to raise fresh capital to bring its Hemerdon mine in Devon back into production in 2026.

The update came a week after Neil Gawthorpe resigned as chief executive.

The shares jumped 38.4 per cent, or 1.63p, to 5.88p.