Market Report: A bumper six months for Chime Communications

A bumper summer of sport has meant a bumper six months for Chime Communications, the marketing group whose fast-growing sports arm is chaired by Olympic legend Lord Coe.

Profit in the first half was £17.2m, up from £11.2m a year earlier, and chief executive Christopher Satterthwaite highlighted the Winter Olympics, World Cup and Commonwealth Games as key drivers of the success. Profit at its sports division leapt by an eye-watering 116 per cent, helping Chime soar 25.75p to 334.5p.

The FTSE 100 was flat, up just 7.90 points at 6,830.90. After tumbling yesterday on disappointing results, traders sniffing out a bargain helped oilfield-services company Petrofac add 26p to 1,149p.

Precious-metal miners performed well with Fresnillo up 16p at 928.5p and Randgold Resources 36p better at 4,941p.

Punters were talking up a potential deal for German drug maker Evotec, mentioned earlier in the year as an attractive target. GlaxoSmithKline, up 15.5p at 1,463p, is said to be duelling with Johnson & Johnson for the company, which has drug discovery alliances with AstraZeneca, Roche and Bayer.

Kenmare Resources became the second miner in two days hit by sliding metal prices. The Irish company, whose primary pit is in Mozambique, reported record production in the first half but revenue in the period flatlined and losses spiralled from $10.2m (£6.1m) a year earlier to $31.8m. Kenmare slipped 0.5p to 12p.

Lonmin’s chief executive Ben Magara sold£42,000 worth of shares in the South African-focused platinum miner as part of the latest tranche handed to him through the company’s retention scheme. Lonmin added 12.4p to 234.1p.

Rumours of a takeover bid for Asos from a US major such as eBay or Amazon, first reported in yesterday’s column, helped the online retailer rocket 436p to 2,804p. Other e-commerce companies also basked in the rumour’s glow, as traders re-evaluated a sector that has been sorely neglected over the last six months.

Ocado climbed 16.4p to 403.6p, Just Eat added 8p to 260p and AO World was 5p better at 231p.