Last week was yet another downer for the FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE), which shed a further 112 points to close Friday on 6,440 — that’s six losing weeks in a row now, with the prospects of the FTSE ending the year above 6,500 disappearing fast.
But it doesn’t mean investment in shares was a complete waste last week, as there were plenty of individual winners. Here are three:
BAE Systems
BAE Systems (LSE: BA) (NASDAQOTH: BAESY.US) shares had been slipping back a little from their recent peak, but regained 18.2p (4.4%) last week to close on 434p.
That’s good news for the Fool’s Beginners’ Portfolio, which added BAE at 332p a little over a year ago — BAE has helped us to a 64% gain since inception, with its shares up about 28% over the past 12 months compared to the FTSE’s 9%.
Looking forward, forecasts put BAE shares on a prospective P/E of 10.1, and there should be a twice-covered dividend yield of 4.9%.
Supergroup
Supergroup (LSE: SGP) shares have had a great 12 months, climbing nearly 120% following a summer surge.
The price was given another boost last week, up 55p (4.5%) to 1,280p, after the SuperDry fashion-brand owner announced a 21% rise in first-half revenue to £192m. Underlying pre-tax profit was up 22% to £17.9m with underlying earnings per share up 28% to 16.3p.
After such a bullish year, Supergroup shares are not bargain-priced — forecasts put them on a P/E of over 22.
CSR
Electronics developer CSR (LSE: CSR) gave us one of the biggest gains of the week, with a jump of 80.5p to 586p — that’s a whopping 15.9%.
The firm told us that it is to discontinue the development of its camera-on-a-chip technology, and instead focus on growth markets including wearable electronics and Bluetooth. Chief executive Joep van Beurden blamed “weakness in the digital still camera market” for the withdrawal, but described the firm’s core end markets as “strong“.
There’s earnings growth of 66% currently forecast for the full year, with the current price putting the shares on a P/E of 21.
