Shaftesbury plc (LON: SHB), Workspace Group PLC (LON: WKP) and Wandisco PLC (LON: WAND) all please the market with good news.
The FTSE 100 looks set to end the week below the 6,300 level, standing 24 points up on the day at 6,252 points as I write. It's been up to 6,270 during the day, but is currently 103 points down from its recent 52-week high of 6,355.
Western markets were boosted by overnight Asian gains, but other than that there's little to drive share prices anywhere but sideways at the moment.
But there are individual shares that are beating the FTSE today. Here are three that have risen on good news:
Shaftesbury
Direct property investment can be a hit-and-miss affair, but one way to minimise the risk is to go for a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). And if you'd put some money into Shaftesbury (LSE: SHB) any time over the past few years you'd have done well. The price is up from a 2009 low of 252p to 565p today, after today's interim update sent it up a further 7.5p (1.3%).
For the period from 1 October to 8 February, Shaftesbury has seen strong demand and letting activity at its West End villages, telling us that "available vacant space is at an exceptionally low level" with a number of overseas retailers looking for shop and restaurant space.
Workspace
There was further good news for the REIT sector in the form of an update from Workspace Group (LSE: WKP), which has also reported strong demand for space. The firm's like-for-like rent roll is up 1.4% in the third quarter and 4.5% on the year to date, with like-for-like occupancy standing at 89.6%. The value of the company's London portfolio is up 3.6% to £799 million since March 2012.
And the share price? Up 14.3p (4.5%) today to 331p, and up more than 40% over the past 12 months.
WANDisco
WANDisco (LSE: WAND), a provider of software and service to the software development business, today announced the release of a new product platform which apparently constitutes the "world's first production ready Apache Hadoop 2 Distribution platform for Big Data". The key claimed benefit for this platform is that it can guarantee 100% uptime, even in the event of network and server downtime.
The share price gained 61.25p (9.1%) on the news, hitting 734p. That takes the price up 3.6-fold over the past 12 months -- and that's with no profit expected before 2015.
Finally, coming out of a recession when depressed share prices are rising, the odds can be tipped in favour of growth investors. But finding the best growth shares is not easy.
If you want some help with the task, I recommend you get yourself a copy of our latest BRAND-NEW report, "The Motley Fool’s Top Growth Share For 2013", which is the result of a bit of serious brain-work by the Fool's top analysts.
It's completely free of charge, but it will be available for a limited period only. So click here to get your copy today.
> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
