Investors fell back in love with dating website firm Cupid yesterday as analysts highlighted recent share price weakness as a buying opportunity.
INVESTORS fell back in love with dating website firm Cupid yesterday as analysts highlighted recent share price weakness as a buying opportunity.
Aim-quoted Cupid had seen its stock slump last week despite its ongoing share buyback programme, with some experts blaming a hostile blog article. Yesterday shares in the Edinburgh-based company recovered almost 10 per cent, up 12.75p at 148p.
Numis analyst Ivor Jones said: “The 25 per cent fall in the share price last week may create the impression that someone else knows more than we do. However, it brings the valuation to a 2013 estimated price/earnings ratio of below seven, which we believe is too low.”
With some Asian markets closed for holidays and no major economic news, London’s top flight shares struggled for direction. The FTSE 100 Index closed 13.1 points higher at 6,277.1.
Britain’s supermarket groups were making gains after French broker Exane BNP Paribas upgraded Tesco to “neutral” on a higher target price. It said the company was making progress after underperforming its peers for several years, and was now leading the “big four” in terms of sales growth alongside rival Sainsbury’s. Tesco shares added 1.5 per cent at 367.9p and Sainsbuy’s was up 0.6 per cent at 333.6p, but both were outperformed by Morrisons which was 2.4 per cent higher at 256.1p.
Randgold Resources was the biggest faller as the price of gold came under pressure from a stronger US dollar, the miner 2.6 per cent down at 5,845p.
Shares in eye-scanner maker Optos were higher after investor Aberforth Partners bought more than 500,000 shares, taking its stake in the Dunfermline-based company above 11 per cent. It was up 4.5p at 205p.
NEW YORK: Wall Street ended a quiet session little changed last night as investors found few reasons to keep pushing shares higher following a six-week advance, though the long-term trend was still seen as positive.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 22.58 points, or 0.16 per cent, to close at 13,970.39 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.96 points, or 0.06 per cent, ending on 1,516.97. The Nasdaq Composite Index clsoed down 1.87 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 3,192.00.
