MARKET REPORT: Prudential stock boosted by Hong Kong sales drive

Shares in Prudential rose after it hailed a boom in business following the end of Covid restrictions in China and greater demand across Hong Kong.

The FTSE 100 Asia-focused insurer, which spun out its UK business into M&G (up 1.5 per cent, or 3.1p, to 205.1p) four years ago, reported a 29 per cent rise in sales to £1.23billion ($1.55billion) in the first three months of the year. And its profits rose 26 per cent to $743m (£593m).

The insurance giant said this was driven by a growth in Hong Kong where trading soared – thanks to higher sales to domestic customers and the reopening of the border with mainland China.

Prudential added that business had remained bright in Hong Kong since the end of the first quarter. The firm focuses solely on Asia and Africa, having sold its US and UK arms. Shares gained 4.2 per cent, or 48.5p, to 1211.5p.

The London stock market ended the final trading session in April on a high, with the FTSE 100 up 0.5 per cent, or 38.99 points, to 7870.57 and the FTSE 250 gaining 0.9 per cent, or 177.13 points, to 19425.14. The closely watched Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust rose 2.1 per cent, or 13.2p, to 628.8p following positive results from US tech giants. The FTSE 100-listed tech backer, flagship of the Baillie Gifford fund empire, is a favourite of retail investors who want easy access to the US tech scene.

It has holdings in Tesla, Netflix and Amazon, which on Thursday posted sales of £102billion for the first three months of the year – 9 per cent higher than in 2022 and above the £100billion predicted by analysts.

The world’s biggest online retailer also swung to a £2.6billion quarterly profit, having made a £3billion loss in the same period of 2022. Further down the league table and the boss of Morgan Advanced Materials insisted his company’s ‘recovery is on track’ after a cyber attack in January hit sales and profit.

Pete Raby said the group, which makes ceramics for metal smelting factories, still expects its full- year profit to be around 10 per cent to 15 per cent below previous estimates.

The cyber attack also forced the group to delay publishing its results for 2022. Revenue rose 17 per cent to £1.1billion last year while profit soared 21.3 per cent to £151m. Shares gained 3 per cent, or 9p, to 306.5p.

Smurfit Kappa remained hopeful that business would improve throughout 2023 after its revenue slid 1 per cent to £2.6billion in the first three months of this year while profit increased by 7 per cent to £297m. Shares rose 3.4 per cent, or 96p, to 2942p.

At Computacenter, the IT group cheered a positive performance across Europe and North America during the first quarter of 2023. As a result, it expects higher profits this year compared to 2022. Shares rose 0.5 per cent, or 12p, to 2296p. Hikma Pharmaceuticals upgraded its full-year forecasts for its generics business, which makes the substances used in nasal sprays and dry powder inhalers, following a better-than-expected start to 2023.

Sales at the division, which made up 27 per cent ($672m) of group revenues last year, should grow by nearly 20 per cent compared to a previous outlook of at least 10 per cent. Shares rose 4 per cent, or 71p, to 1841p.

Alphawave, an Anglo-Canadian semiconductor company, will ask for its shares to be suspended from trading on Tuesday after it was set to miss the deadline to publish its results for 2022.

The delay came because KPMG asked for more time to complete its audit. Shares tumbled 14.9 per cent, or 17.8p, to 101.4p.

Tech group Wandisco said an independent probe into potentially fraudulent irregularities in its finances found that one employee was responsible for falsely adding £103m of revenue and sales bookings to its 2022 results. Shares remain suspended.