Welcome to taking stock on.... Friday 21st July 2023
It's a look at today's top business news & investment views plus the winners, losers, the most read & the most followed including: ASC Bowleven Diageo Filtronic Gfinity Ondo InsurTech OptiBiotix Health Premier African Minerals Revolution Beauty Thruvision Group Unilever Warpaint London
COMMENTS
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WINNERS
Filtronic - New £3.2m Contract Award by European Space Agency
Filtronic plc (AIM: FTC), the designer and manufacturer of products and sub-systems for the aerospace, defence, telecoms infrastructure and space markets, is pleased to announce a new contract win to develop next generation space payload communication systems for the European Space Agency (ESA).
LOSERS
Bowleven - Response to Share Price Movement
Bowleven (AIM: BLVN), the Africa focused oil and gas, exploration and production company with key interests in Cameroon, notes the recent movement in the price of its shares and confirms that it is not aware of any particular reason for the sudden increase.
In its interim results statement on 30 March 2023, the Company noted that it had been considering its fundraising options and expects to seek to raise additional equity capital in 2023 to help to finance the Group's ongoing corporate activities and to assist financing its share of the future expenditure as the Etinde project progresses towards FID.
Most Followed
OptiBiotix Health
Most Read RNS
Premier African Minerals - Director's Loan
Premier African Minerals Limited announces that the Company has entered into a Loan Facility Agreement with George Roach for up to £1.7 million.
Terms of the Loan
The Company has entered into an unsecured £1.7 million Loan Facility Agreement with George Roach on 20 July 2023. Premier can request a draw down of the Loan in two separate requests with the first being for £1 million and the second request being the remaining balance of the Loan (collectively the "Utilisation Request"). Each Utilisation Request will be repayable on the date falling 6 calendar months after the Utilisation Request.
Top Business Stories
Retail sales grew 0.7% last month beating expectations with fine, sunny weather helping get shoppers out and spending, latest official data shows.
It follows a rise of 0.1% in May, a figure which the Office for National Statistics had revised down from 0.3%.
Experts had forecast an increase of 0.2% in June, according to an average supplied by Pantheon Macroeconomics.
The increase came across the board, with most of the main retail sectors apart from petrol and diesel sellers seeing their sales rise.
Fixed mortgage rates have risen again after a brief fall, according to the latest market data.
The average two-year homeowner mortgage rate on the market edged back up to 6.8% on Friday from 6.79% yesterday, financial information company Moneyfacts said.
Five-year fixes have also risen slightly back to 6.32%, up from 6.31% on Thursday.
The fleeting dip was the first time average mortgage rates had fallen for months.
The majority of UK mortgage holders are on fixed-rate deals.
More than 400,000 people were expected to move off existing fixed deals between July and September, meaning they are likely to be forced to sign up to higher monthly repayments.
The government borrowed less than expected in June, helped by higher tax receipts and a big drop in debt interest payments.
Borrowing - the difference between spending and tax income - fell to £18.5bn, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It is £400m lower than last June and below predictions by the government's independent forecaster.
But the ONS said borrowing is still the third highest for June on record.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had expected public borrowing to reach £21.1bn.
Meanwhile, the ONS said that borrowing for April and May had been revised down by £7bn.