Market Report: Blur Group makes rare leap after predicting smaller than expected losses

Philip Letts the company's founder and chief executive sold £3.6m of shares at 400p each before the company’s value soared to almost £400m

The former AIM tech star used to claim its business crowdsourcing site had “reinvented commerce” (Rex Features)

Even a dead cat will bounce – so the saying goes – and so it proved for Blur Group. The former AIM tech star, which used to claim its business crowdsourcing site had “reinvented commerce”, managed a rare leap, rising by 3p, or 27 per cent, to 14p after saying it would probably make a smaller than expected loss in 2015.

Blur also trimmed its underlying cash burn from $3.6m (£2.5m) in the third quarter to $1.5m in the final three months of the year. In 2013, its founder and chief executive, Philip Letts, sold £3.6m of shares at 400p each before the company’s value soared to almost £400m. But shortly afterwards it issued a series of revenue warnings before admitting to having booked in revenues before they had been paid – and in some cases never were – leading to a ticking-off by the accounting watchdog.

On the wider market, the FTSE 100 put on another rally as the oil price rebounded, climbing by 78.91 points to 5,990.37.

The accounting software group Sage streaked ahead on the blue-chip leaderboard, climbing 42.5p to 610p on the back of a strong first-quarter performance. Organic revenues grew by 6.6 per cent thanks to good growth in Europe.

Travis Perkins, 29p better off at 1,820p, was also among the winners, as broker Panmure Gordon upgraded the builders’ merchant to hold, arguing that the shares had fallen too far in recent weeks.

Nomura used the same reasoning for lifting its recommendation on Cineworld, which surged by 16.5p to 498.2p. The broker conceded that the recent trading update was disappointing despite box office smashes including the Star Wars reboot, but said the cinema operator tended to underperform in “blockbuster-heavy years”.

Morgan Stanley left a sour taste for backers of Just Eat as its downgrade, based on increasing competition from rivals such as Deliveroo, triggered a 41.1p fall to 379.4p.

Meanwhile, on AIM, delays to the feasibility study for Sirius Minerals, which last year was granted approval to dig potash from the North York Moors National Park, sparked a rush for the exit; its shares slumped by 1.75p to 12.25p.