The FTSE 100's
But wherever the index is going, there are always shares on the way up. Here are three doing well today.
Ocado
Online grocery store Ocado is enjoying a nice boost today: The share price has leapt 24% to 75 pence on the news of a new financing round. Ocado's bankers have agreed to extend the existing capital-expenditure facility for another 18 months, and Ocado now plans a new share placing to raise a further 35.8 million pounds at a premium to the "most recent closing market price" of the shares.
Current trading is improving, too, with a 13.7% increase in sales for the six weeks to Nov. 11. The big question is whether this extra capital will be enough to get Ocado, with its second distribution center, up to sufficient profitability to justify the share price -- which is still way below its flotation level.
Lamprell
Shares in Lamprell have soared 11.2% to 79.5 pence on the release of a somewhat mixed interim update. The oil and gas engineering company told us that 2012's losses will be significantly bigger than expected, and that caused an opening dip in the share price. But the firm's assurance that it is on the road to recovery appears to have overcome the negativity, and the price turned back up again.
We should now be seeing a total 2012 loss of around $105 million, but Lamprell expects to be back in profit in 2013.
Balfour Beatty
Battered construction firm Balfour Beatty enjoyed some respite today, as its share price put on 2.4% to reach 256 pence on the announcement that the firm has been named "best value bidder" on a contract to repair and rebuild river bridges in Dallas, Texas.
The job should be worth about $798 million and will require work on two major interstate bridges, among others. The share price is still way down on its pre-slump level, but it has recovered by about 12% since then.
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