LONDON -- The FTSE 100 (INDEX: ^FTSE) recovered a little this morning after yesterday's euro-panic slump and was up 11 points to 5,546 by mid-morning. It was Spain's crippled banking industry that led yesterday's falls as the blinkers were once again torn from the eyes of those who were pretending all is now sorted.
But some individual FTSE constituents did well today, even though one of them is closely tied up with eurozone investing.
Man Group (LSE: EMG.L)
Last week I suggested that hedge fund manager Man Group was a possible investment opportunity, and today the shares jumped 10% to 76 pence. The occasion was the release of interim results.
As expected, total funds under management declined from $58.4 billion in December to $52.7 billion, and we saw a pretax loss of $164 million. But the firm also managed cost savings of $95 million, with a further $100 million annual savings expected over the next 18 months -- and forecasts suggest that business will be picking up by then.
One thing that does seem bizarre is Man's insistence that it will pay a dividend of $0.22 for the full year for a yield of 18.5%. That's cash that will come straight off the market cap.
Pace (LSE: PIC.L)
Pace climbed 12% to 128 pence on the release of interim figures. Though sales and profits were down at the Pay TV product maker, partly due to severe disruptions to the world's hard-disk supply caused by flooding in Thailand, the firm lifted its full-year guidance and boosted its interim dividend by 15% to $0.0144 per share.
While pretax profit fell from $29.4 million to $21.4 million, net debt was reduced by $78.4 million to $243.3 million, with operating costs falling and cash generation rising. The shares, while flat over the year, have nearly three-bagged since November's low of 44 pence.
Globo
AIM-listed mobile communications specialist Globo released an expectation-busting interim trading update, leading to a 9% spike in the share price to 19.5 pence.
Revenue for the first half to June 30 was up 29% to 25.2 million euros, and pretax profit is expected to be "substantially higher." The firm, which successfully raised 9 million pounds in a placement in April, ended the period with net cash of 12.3 million euros and reported improved cash flow.
The shares peaked in early April at more than 30 pence before slumping back to 16.5 pence, but today's news suggests we might be looking at an operational turnaround point for the company.
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