Shares in clothing company French Connection (LSE: FCCN) have risen by around 9% today, Friday, despite there having been no significant news flow having been released by the company. This brings their rise since the turn of the year to 28%, which indicates that investor sentiment in the turnaround play could be gaining in strength.
Of course, French Connection’s near-term outlook is rather disappointing. It is expected to report a loss for its financial year just ended, while a further loss is forecast for the current year. However, investors may be feeling positive about French Connection’s price to book (P/B) ratio of just 0.9, which indicates that an upward rerating could be on the horizon. And with a cost reduction and store closure programme apparently on-track, margins at the company could be due for an improvement.
However, with there being a number of other retailers that are highly profitable and that trade on appealing valuations at the present time, it may be prudent to watch rather than buy French Connection right now.
Also rising sharply today is digital audio platform Audioboom (LSE: BOOM). Its shares are up by around 7%, and this week has been a rather positive one for the business, with it having been selected by Google to be a content provider for its Google Play application in the US. Audioboom was the only non-US partner chosen among ten others and this bodes well for its long term profit potential.
Clearly, Audioboom is a relatively high-risk business, being relatively small, and therefore it may only be of interest to less risk-averse investors. However, with Audioboom set to move into the potentially lucrative Indian market via a partnership with film company Eros, it could be a stock to watch in 2016.
Shares in W Resources (LSE: WRES) have also been among the major movers today, falling by around 5%. That’s despite the company releasing a positive update with regard to its mineral resource estimate at its La Parilla project in Spain. In fact, the total resources estimate for La Parilla has increased to 51m tonnes, which represents a rise of 16% in tungsten trioxide and a 29% increase in tin. Importantly, the quality of the resource definition has also increased, which is clearly positive news for the company’s investors.
With W Resources forecast to post a pretax profit in 2016 following five years of losses, investor sentiment in the company could begin to improve. Certainly, it remains a relatively high risk mining play and with there being many other profitable stocks within the same space offering low valuations, W Resources may have standalone appeal to less risk averse investors, but it could be worth looking elsewhere due to the relative attraction of its peers.