Easter is upon us, it’s a sunny day (at least where I live), and the FTSE 100 has at least paused its decline of the past few days — at a few points over 6,800, the markets clearly don’t think it’s ready for a sustained spell above 7,000 just yet.
But which stocks are giving the indices a boost today? Here are five of the early winners:
Innovation Group
Innovation Group (LSE: TIG) shares gained 5.2% to 25.5p in morning trading. However, that’s really just a bit of a rebound after a 14% fall on 1 April when the insurance software and services company released a disappointing update. We heard that,§ despite recent successful contract agreements, the slippage in some deals, coupled with the pleasant weather that is cheering the rest of us, will impact the 2015 bottom line.
We’re looking at a 31% fall over the past 12 months, so are the shares oversold now? With prospective P/E valuations of 11-12 this year and next and negligible dividends, I don’t think so.
Telecom Plus
Telecom Plus (LSE: TEP) fell 51% in the 12 months to 31 March, but it’s bouncing back a little and has regained 7.4% to 955p so far today. After the fall, shares in the multi-utility supplier are trading on a P/E of 14 based on expectations for the year ended March 2015, dropping to only around 10 on 2016 forecasts. With dividend yields potentially rising to 6.5% by then and forecasts suggesting attractive growth prospects, this is one that I do think is undervalued.
Centamin
What about Centamin (LSE: CEY), the Egypt-based gold miner? The shares have had a rough ride, losing 70% since their peak in September 2010 — a lot of that due to the sentiment-only nature of the value of the otherwise pointless yellow stuff. But we’ve had a 6.3% rise so far today, to 60.2p, coming just a week after full-year results revealed a higher-than-expected dividend yield of 3.3% despite a 40% fall in EPS.
Is Centamin worth buying now? That depends where you think gold is going, but if prices at least remain constant then the shares could be worth considering.
SOCO
What about SOCO International (LSE: SIA), whose shares gained 5% in early trading? Well, the price is back to 157p as I write, for a modest 1.5% gain on the day so far, but Soco could well have passed its bottom now — at 17 March the price was on a 12-month fall of 67%!
The trouble with oilies like this is that the erratic nature of their profits makes valuation difficult — we have a 5.4% dividend predicted for 2015, but that’s followed by just 2.9% a year later. For experts only.
Monitise
And finally Monitise (LSE: MONI), whose shares have slumped by a massive 82% over the past 12 months. There’s been a 5.7% rise to 14p today, so it’s very much a day of rebounds — though how many represent felines with life still in them remains to be seen.
The problem with the mobile payments processor is that it is yet to turn a profit, and there’s none forecast for this year or next. There might be some first-mover advantage, but that would need to turn into profit quickly and I just don’t see that happening. For me, a definite No.