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Turnround pursuits
By Jane Fuller
Published: December 31 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 31 2004 02:00
Forget Trivial Pursuits and its newfangled titles for geography and literature (global view and the written word, ugh!). I much prefer to pore over stock market winners and losers and try to guess what is going on.
As with M&A, the patterns are complex, other than the obvious energy boom and property's popularity. Several sectors house both stars and dogs, stressing that this is a stock-picker's market.
In the FTSE 100, two of last year's winners, Cable and Wireless and ITV, dropped from the top 10 to the bottom 10. Their share price rebounds obviously overshot in 2003.
Half of last year's dogs - including Marks and Spencer and Imperial Chemical Industries - have rebounded into the top half of the table, with United Utilities doing the best of them.
Cairn was the clear FTSE100 winner for oil discovery reasons, but more interesting are the recoveries mounted by Corus, Reuters (continuing last year's progress) and Tate & Lyle.
Everyone loves a turnround story and the best examples fall in the SmallCap sector, led by Ashtead (plant hire) up nearly 400 per cent, Charter (engineering) and Xaar (ink-jet printing).
That bodes well for Ultraframe (conservatories), the biggest SmallCap faller after a string of profit warnings. Now under new management, it would tickle my fancy as a 2005 recovery play.
As for Aim, it is tantalising but so difficult for an outsider to fathom. At least the winner's website is easy to find. ASOS, up an astonishing 1,296 per cent, is an online fashion retailer specialising in replicas of celebrities' clothing "as seen on screen". Anyone for the Vicar of Dibley's cassock?
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