Aviva CEO and husband snap up shares Costain directors make confidence purchase Morgan Advanced Materials director buys 25,000 shares CEO Amanda Blanc of insurance group Aviva (AV.) and a person closely connected with her, Kenneth Blanc have bought 25,736 shares at 623p, for a total value of £160,335 on 4 September. The Blanc's purchases reaffirm confidence in the company. The insurance group...

Molten Metals sold for £75 million Part of new streamlining strategy Proceeds include £20 million cash There was a rare serving of good news this morning from specialist material maker Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM), whose stock has been in the doldrums since peaking in mid-2021. The shares, which are roughly half their value of four years ago, added 4p or 2% to 211p on a quiet day for...

- Engineer sees full year towards top of forecast range- Stock jumps nearly 8%, but remains 25% off 2022 start- Technology providing pricing power leverMolten metal flow engineering group Vesuvius (VSVS) is showing a surprising ability to pass on higher input costs, although it still warned that end markets weakness is likely to remain a feature through the rest of 2022.The FTSE 250 company...

The FTSE 100 closed 0.8% higher at 7,000 despite a higher than expected inflation number in the US sparking a renewed sell-off on Wall Street.By 4.30pm UK time the S&P 500 in the US was down 1.2% at 4,101.69.Alcoholic drinks maker Diageo (DGE) gained 3.4% to £32.99, on announcing that it would initiate the second phase of £4.5 billion capital return program, but extend its duration by two...

The FTSE 100 had lost some of its early momentum by lunchtime with the index trading 0.4% higher at 6,974.59 having flirted with the 7,000 level earlier on.Sentiment was helped by stronger-than-anticipated economic data, with British gross domestic product falling 1.5% in the first quarter, beating expectations of a 1.6% drop.Alcoholic drinks maker Diageo (DGE) gained 3.1% to £32.875, on...

UK shares picked themselves up in early trade after a two-day plunge with leading stocks given a helping hand by a better than forecast first quarter GDP reading. The data showed the UK contracted by 1.5% in the lockdown-hit opening months to the year, compared to the 1.6% decline forecast.A stronger sign of recovery was news that the economy actually grew 2.1% in March, instead of the 1.5%...

Banking covenants across the hard hit engineering and industrials sectors are unlikely to be breached, according to analysis by investment bank Berenberg, even for the most levered businesses.'We believe these companies are very well placed,' it says, referring to the likes of FTSE 100 firm Halma (HLMA), plus FTSE 250 members Electrocomponents (ECM), Spectris (SXS) and Vesuvius...

UK markets open modestly on the front foot on Tuesday despite the blow to investors from news that Neil Woodford's Equity Income fund is to be wound up by its administrator and return cash to investors.The fund, run by the one-time star fund manager, was suspended on 4 June. At its peak, the Woodford Equity Income fund managed £10.2bn worth of assets, such as local authority pension funds but...

Holidays firm TUI (TUI) saw losses surge in the second quarter to March as holidaymaking Brits continue to put off bookings on ongoing Brexit uncertainty.But investors chase the shares to the top of the FTSE 100 leader board in early trade on Wednesday apparently relieved that things are not much worse. TUI shares are more than 3% higher at 830.2p, although the stock has slumped 26% so far...

It is becoming increasingly apparent there are high stakes for UK engineering and industrial companies if Brexit talks fail to smooth trade routes between the UK and the EU.Businesses including FTSE 250 constituents IMI (IMI), Bodycote (BOY), Spirax-Sarco (SPX) and Vesuvius (VSVS) generate more than a third of their annual revenues from doing business across the Continent, and analysts...

Cigarette and nicotine products company British American Tobacco (BATS) puffs up 4.4% to £41.48 on news its revenue increased by 56.9% to £11.6bn on a year-on-year basis. The company's chief executive Nicandro Durante says he is 'confident' that the company can exceed £1bn of revenue in its non-cigarette products as it seeks to diversify its product range.Molten metal engineering company...

All economies experience recurring and fluctuating levels of economic activity over time, with the five main stages of the business cycle running as follows: growth, peak, recession, trough and recovery.The business cycle is usually replicated in the stock market with the market going up when the economy is growing and going down when it is contracting.Different types of stocks tend to perform...

Support services and engineering sectors stand out from the recent corporate earnings season with a large number of companies beating forecasts.UBS says more than half of stocks in its European support services coverage beat earnings expectations. It says on average the stocks beating expectations went up by 1.3% and those missing expectations fell by 6.4%.Its most preferred UK-listed support...

Analysts are becoming increasingly confident of earnings outperformance potential across the engineering sector. Investment bank UBS is among those to have picked up on the trend.UBS believes eight out of 13 UK engineers beat expectations on organic top line growth in the third quarter of 2017 (July to September). They calculate average organic growth in the period was running at 7%.'Fenner...

A producer of bricks to line steel and glass furnaces so they withstand extreme thermal, mechanical and chemical stress is set to join the London Stock Exchange on 27 October. We believe RHI Magnesita (RHIM) is primed to qualify for the FTSE 250 index in the near future.Austrian group RHI generated €1.6bn revenue in 2016. Its merger with Brazilian group Magnesita finally completed this...

Investors have been waiting for the turn in global capital expenditure for years. There are now signs of sustained improvement for the first time in a decade. Analysis shows this is starting to filter through to better trading, increased merger and acquisition action and positive share price performance for many UK manufacturers.FTSE 250 companies such as thermal technology designers Bodycote...

Miners have fallen out of the top five performing stocks on the FTSE 350 after initially dominating the index when we updated the market last month.One of the last stocks standing in the sector is Kazakhstan-focused KAZ Minerals (KAZ), up 30% so far this year.It has benefited from a stronger copper price, driven by decent demand and industry supply disruptions.WHO IS THE TOP FTSE 350...

As a result of its vote in favour of leaving the EU, the UK is probably heading towards a recession'. That warning from Julius Baer's chief economist Janwillem Acket provides a good clue as to why the FTSE 250 has travelled in an opposite direction to the FTSE 100 blue chip index since the Brexit vote was cast.The FTSE 250 is down 5% since the EU referendum vote results on 24 June, versus a...

A 43.7% move in specialty chemicals outfit Alent (ALNT) is being prompted byan agreed 503p per share bid for the £1.3 billion cap by US-based chemicals industry consolidator Platform Specialty Products (PAH:NYSE).Spun off from Cookson Group along with Vesuvius (VSVS) in 2012, Alent's stint as an independent operator looks decidedly shortlived.As highlighted by Shares as recently as 07 May...

Margin growth is stalling and valuations look stretched among the quoted engineers, meaning investors need to tread carefully when looking at stocks in the sector.Shares warned the rally in engineering stocks was running out of steam when we last looked at the sector (24 Apr 2014, Spanner in the Works). Total returns in the FTSE All-Share industrial engineering index have subsequently been...