MARKET REPORT: Lord Cruddas takes £80m hit as CMC shares tumble

Tory peer Lord Cruddas and his wife saw their wealth wiped out by more than £80million after shares in CMC Markets fell a fifth.

The former Tory party treasurer and donor, who founded the trading firm in 1989, watched his paper fortune dwindle after the firm issued a somber trading update.

“February and March presented a more challenging environment, with lower equity volumes and a higher proportion of lower-margin institutional trading activity,” said a CMC spokesman.

Net operating income for the year to 31 March is expected to be between £280m and £290m.

However, that would be below the £304m expected by analysts. Operating costs should be around £215m to £220m, the company added.

At interim results in November, CMC said its operating expenses were “unchanged” at £215m. Shares plunged 20.6 percent, or 47.8 pence, to 184.2 pence.

This reduced the value of Cruddas and his wife Fiona’s 174.15 million shares by £83 million. Her 62 per cent stake is now worth £320million.

Thungela Resources’ shares tumbled after the miner warned that its supplies would fall for a second straight year amid ongoing problems at South Africa’s largest coal exporter.

The company, which was spun off from blue-chip mining giant Anglo American in 2021, revised its forecasts for this year and did not provide an outlook for 2024. Shares fell 5.1 percent, or 45 pence, to 835 pence.

Thungela attributed much of his troubles to the sluggish performance of state-owned South African operator Transnet Freight Rail (TFR).

It has suffered a series of breakdowns, from stolen cables preventing its electric trains from being used to a shortage of locomotive spares.

The turbulence at TFR means Thungela is expected to ship between 10.5 and 12.5 million tonnes this year – well below last year’s production of 13.1 million tonnes.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Thungela, however. Sales almost doubled last year to £2.26 billion. Profits increased to £800m for 2022 from £300m the year before.

Such results provided handsome returns for shareholders, who were paid out £610m last year.

Across the sector, mining stocks struggled for direction. Fresnillo (up 1.5 percent or 11.2 pence to 721.4 pence), Endeavor Mining (up 0.05 percent or 1 pence to 1859 pence) and Rio Tinto (up 0.4 percent or 21 pence to 5232 pence) were all in the red while Anglo American (down 0.04 per cent or 1 pence to 2539 pence), Glencore (down 1.6 per cent or 6.9 pence to 449.6 pence) and Antofagasta (down 0.2 per cent or 3 pence to 1520 pence).

On a positive start to the week, the FTSE 100 was up 0.9 percent or 66.32 points to 7471.77 and the FTSE 250 was up 0.2 percent or 35.79 points to 18529.62.

Burberry was among the biggest blue chip climbers after JP Morgan raised the luxury retailer’s price target to 2250p from 2000p.

The broker said it issued the upgrade to reflect faster reopening in China and better-than-expected demand in Europe. Shares rose 1.7 per cent, or 40p, to 2383p.

Wetherspoons rose a further 2.6 per cent, or 17.5p, to 677.5p after the group returned to profitability late last week following its trading update. That means shares in the pub chain are up more than 50 percent this year.

WPP has made its fourth acquisition this year after buying New York-based social influencer marketing agency Obvious. Shares rose 1.3 percent, or 12.2 pence, to 929.6 pence.

Business was looking good for Belvoir after the real estate franchise group said its mortgage activity has grown by around a fifth since the last three months of 2022.

The group’s revenue rose 14 per cent to £33.7m in 2022, while profit fell 2 per cent to £9.1m. It increased its dividend for 2022 by 6 percent to 9 pence per share.

Shares rose 5.1 percent, or 8.5 pence, to 174.5 pence.