This week the UK 100 broke back out of its 2-week sideways channel, giving bulls hope of a return to record highs. The index may only close the week 0.3% higher but blue-chip traders benefited from attractive share price moves of +/- 7%. As we write, the index has potential to see prior resistance turn supportive, serving as the platform for the next leg higher. That’s almost 3% upside for short term index traders; possibly more for individual constituents. Below, we look the top and bottom five performers for the week, many of which appeared in our Movers & Shakers and Another Level publications over the course of the week.

The week’s winners include Copper Miners (Glencore, Anglo American, Antofagasta & BHP Billiton; up 5-7%) which jumped to multi-month highs amid on hopes of tighter supply from mine strikes and after supportive Chinese growth data. The dollar-denominated commodity space also benefited generally from reduced odds of a US rate hike in Sept sending the Greenback Index to 10-month lows.

Telecom giant BT (+4.5%) got a new lease of life, its shares breaking above resistance on a combination of positive broker comments and a favourable update from OFCOM’s about monitoring the BT/Openreach split.

This week’s losers include publisher Pearson (-7.5%) hit by analyst concerns about dividend guidance after the sale of its stake in Penguin Random House. After rebasing the dividend earlier in the year, ear-marking surplus capital for an buyback is not what loyal shareholders will want to hear. The Marks & Spencer (-5.6%) Q1 trading update missed estimates, as falling sales for Home, Clothing and Food added to retail sector woes.

Micro Focus (-5.5%) suffered from poorly received FY results and a disappointing outlook, even with a dividend hike. Provident Financial (-4.8%) remains on a downer since its profits warning amid concerns about sub-prime lending and an over-leveraged UK consumer. Paddy Power Betfair (-4.1%) was sent further south by analyst updates adding to existing negative momentum.

The drivers for share price moves are not always immediately obvious. If they were, they would be priced in even more quickly, depriving you of tradeable opportunities and thus profits. It’s our job to decipher the markets and help you, the client, understand what the drivers are and the reasons for shares moving up or down.

Sometimes this is simple (stock specific news). It could involve looking for read-across from what’s happening with similar companies, not just in the UK but round the world too.

More often than not, though, it requires detective work looking at what’s happening in terms of commodities, currencies, bonds and central bank polies. Oh, and political happenings have become rather important too.

With that in mind, allow me and my team to help you trade/invest what you want (your choice), how you want (CFDs? SB? Shares?) and, most importantly, when you are ready. No pressure. Get access to our research and be fully informed before you hit ‘Buy or Sell’. New to trading? Benefit from our award winning research and service. Already trading? Sample the difference.

Mike van Dulken, Head of Research, 14 Jul 2017