Home Retail (LSE: HOME) and Punch Taverns (LSE: PUB) are both recovering.
The FTSE 100 (UKX) has been falling back this week, but that was arrested today and it's currently seven points up on 5,805 points. It's looking unlikely that its 52-week high of 5,989 points is going to be beaten this week.
But if the Footsie is stumbling, there are plenty of individual companies in the various indices that are doing fine. Here are three beating the FTSE today...
Home Retail
Home Retail (LSE: HOME) gained 3.7p (3.6%) to 1.8p on the day it released half-year results. The key interest focused on Argos, where online retail is going strong -- multi-channel sales accounted for 51% of all sales during the period. As Argos moves its focus further from catalogue shopping to online, at least 75 stores will be closed or relocated.
Overall "benchmark" operating profit was down 29% to £19m, but that was expected, and the progress at Argos looks like a further step in a hopefully successful recovery.
Punch Taverns
Preliminary results from Punch Taverns (LSE: PUB) lifted the shares 6.8% to 6.9p, as the figures were pretty much in line with expectations. Pre-tax profit is down 11% to £64m over last year, earnings per share down 16% to 7.2p. Net debt increased by £137m, but the firm's cash reserves stood at £264m at year-end.
So far, all of this seems to represent decent progress on the pub chain's restructuring.
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Condor Gold
Condor Gold (LSE: CNR) rose 5.5p (3%) to 188p after the precious metals explorer announced it has received approval from Nicaragua's Department of Mines to transfer the La Mojarra Concession to Condor's Nicaraguan subsidiary.
Condor, which also operates in El Salvador, has been on a good run of late, with the shares having more than quadrupled since their June low of 44p.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
