Rolls-Royce is cementing its status as a stock market darling following yet another upgrade from the City.
Shares in the engine maker rose 2.6 per cent, or 7.6p, to 296.9p, their highest level since mid-2019.
The stock has gained more than 200 per cent this year, making it the best performing company in the FTSE 100 index.
The rally marks a triumph for chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic, who took over in January.
At the time, he described Rolls as a ‘burning platform’ but has since led the company through a stellar turnaround in fortunes.
Turnaround: Rolls -Royce shares rose 2.7%, or 7.8p, to 297.1p, their highest level since mid-2019. The stock has gained more than 200% this year
This culminated with a bumper capital markets day last month that saw Erginbilgic raise the company’s profit targets.
Analysts appear convinced that Rolls is heading in the right direction. In the latest boost, Citi upgraded its rating on the stock, hailing the company’s ‘very strong cash generation’ and ‘sustainable’ targets set out last month.
On the wider market, the FTSE 100 inched down 0.1 per cent, or 9.58 points, to 7544.89 and the FTSE 250 edged up 0.3 per cent, or 48.4 points, to 18750.39 points.
Bitcoin – the world’s largest crypto-currency – tumbled as much as 7.5 per cent as traders took profits having seen it top $44,000 last week.
Prices have more than doubled this year having plunged below $16,000 in 2022.
Back on the stock market, Centrica was among the big blue-chip fallers as investors digested reports from Morgan Stanley and UBS.
Morgan Stanley cut its target price on Centrica shares from 190p to 180p while UBS raised its target from 145p to 165p.
Shares lost 3.8 per cent, or 5.7p, to 143.75p. The Government has reduced its stake in NatWest to 37.97 per cent from 38.53 per cent.
Stock Watch – Synectics
Security and surveillance firm Synectics raised its forecasts as business boomed.
The AIM-listed firm expects results for the year to the end of November to be ‘materially ahead’ of market forecasts due to a strong second-half of trading driven by increased demand from oil and gas customers.
It monitors the world’s largest gas-to-liquids plant, Shell Pearl, in Qatar.
Synectics also provides software and cameras to casinos around the world. Shares soared 28.6 per cent, or 30p, to 135p.
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It comes just weeks after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt vowed in his Autumn Statement to ‘get Sid investing again’ – a reference to the British Gas privatisation campaign in 1986 – with the sale of the bank’s shares to the public. Shares dropped 0.7 per cent, or 1.6p, to 218.9p.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs have urged clients to stop shorting UK property stocks following a recovery in the housing market and expectations of interest rate cuts next year.
The US investment bank upgraded British Land, sending shares up 3.1 per cent, or 11.7p, to 387.9p, while Land Securities rose 1.6 per cent, or 10.2p, to 654p.
Two bosses at Royal Mail will leave the delivery group in the new year. HR chief Zareena Brown is joining another company in March while operations head Grant McPherson is also set to advance on. Shares in International Distributions Services, Royal Mail’s parent company, fell 0.8 per cent, or 1.9p, to 242p.
There was little respite for Anglo American following Friday’s heavy losses when the mining giant suffered its worst day on the stock market since October 2008 after it outlined plans to slash production.
Shares, which plunged 19 per cent in the previous session, fell 0.8 per cent, or 13.6p, to 1789p, after a hat-trick of broker downgrades.
Vistry slid 2 per cent, or 15.5p, to 790p after the housebuilder launched a £55million share buyback programme.
Quartix Technologies slipped 4.8 per cent, or 7.5p, to 147.5p after the subscription-based vehicle tracking systems supplier warned it will take a one-off hit from a business it bought only three months ago.
It snapped up Konetik, which owns and develops the software used in Quartix’s product line called Evolve, for £3.4million.
But a review found business will become tough as demand for Evolve has been hit by the Government’s decision to push back the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035.
As a result, Quartix will record a hit of £2.5million linked to the Konetik deal on its balance sheet this year.
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