The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) had another bad week last week, falling a further 79 points to finish the week on 6,413. That’s the fourth losing week in a row for the UK’s biggest index, and it was hard to find many shining lights in the darkness. But even with the FTSE on a mini-slump, there were some shares that rewarded shareholders and look like they might have more to offer.
Here are three from the FTSE 100 that bucked the overall trend:
Petrofac
Oil services firm Petrofac (LSE: PFC) brought us a positive first-half report on 27 August, and it helped send the firm’s shares up 121p (9.6%) over the course of the week, to end on 1,385p. The company recorded a 12.5% fall in revenue to $2.8bn, with earnings per share (EPS) dropping 25% to 70.7 cents, but told us it is “On course to deliver a strong second half resulting in modest growth in net profit for the full year 2013“.
The weaker first half was put down to the phasing of project deliveries, with the full year expected to be significantly weighted towards the second half.
Fresnillo
Precious metals miners have been enjoying something of a resurgence of late, and Fresnillo (LSE: FRES), which delves for silver and gold in Mexico, has done well out of it. After a big slump since late last year, Fresnillo shares have been on a recovery, picking up 80p (6.5%) last week to end on 1,303p.
First-half results on 6 August showed a drop in profits, as the firm’s average realised silver price fell 20.3% to $24.7 per ounce with gold down 10.6% to $1,472. But since the start of August, the prices of both shiny metals have been appreciating again, after various fears have been driving sentiment away from shares once again.
G4S
Some sort of recovery appears to be on the cards at G4S (LSE: GFS), after shares in the troubled security firm climbed 14.2p (5.8%) over the week to 260p. The reasons behind the rise were twofold, with the company producing a reasonable set of first-half figures showing a 7% rise in turnover, although underlying EPS fell 13% to 7.6p.
But the massive debt that has accumulated was the real worry, and new chief executive Ashley Almanza has been shaking that up since his appointment. Now G4S is to place a new issue of up to 140.9m shares, representing up to 9.99% of the company, in order to get the debt down. Does that make it an attractive recovery prospect? It just might.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
