EnQuest, ECO Animal Health and Concurrent Technologies

“The FTSE 100 opened in positive territory, as widely predicted, following Bank of England governor Mark Carney’s strong hint of a potential cut to already low interest rates after the 'Leave' referendum result. Asian and US markets also pushed higher overnight,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould. 

“EnQuest made early gains after it confirmed a new find in the central North Sea. EnQuest’s drilling programme in the first half has been excellent with the Scolty/Crathes development wells was completed ahead of schedule and under budget and has confirmed a discovery at the Eagle exploration well which was completed recently. This builds on EnQuest's outstanding North Sea drilling performance last year which also came in under budget. 

“ECO Animal Health Group was one of AIM’s standout performers in early trading after reporting record full year figures and a 20% increase in its total dividend. ECO’s sales rose by 21% in the year to the end of March and it has maintained this momentum. The recent weakness in sterling may benefit ECO as virtually all its sales and the majority of its costs arise locally in US dollars, Chinese renminbi or euros.

“Concurrent Technologies’ shares were also up after a review of its financial risk and trading plans following the sharp decline in the value of sterling against the US dollar. Concurrent’s exposure to exchange risk is mitigated to a large extent by natural hedging - the ability to offset receipts from sales against payments for purchases in the same currency - and its outlook for this year as a whole remains good.”

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