Market Report: Perform jumps as turnaround plan 'on track'

The digital sports rights group Perform jumped up yesterday: Oliver Slipper, the chief executive, said the turnaround plan was on track.

The company, which runs websites for Premiership clubs including Chelsea and Fulham, took part in a discussion hosted by Credit Suisse on “digital disruption” in media.

Perform has had its fair share of that, with shares halving in December after the company warned profits would be 75 per cent lower, due to slower than expected growth in advertising. But Mr Slipper reassured investors at the meeting. He said Perform had done “most of the heavy lifting” in terms of restructuring, with benefits starting to come through, helping the group up 13.9p to 260.9p.

Solid enough US job numbers saw investors pile into cyclical stocks, with miners adding 9.99 points to the blue-chip index and banks contributing 5.65. The FTSE 100 closed 46.41 points higher at 6,695.55.

RSA was in favour, rising 3.15p to 94.15p. Speculation continues to swirl around Cevian Capital’s intentions with the insurer. The Swedish investor disclosed a stake last week.

The takeaway tech success Just Eat made gains on its second day of trading, climbing 7.75p to 290.75p.

Marks & Spencer tumbled 9.7p to 461.9p after Goldman Sachs warned that the retailer, which reports next Thursday, will not be immune to the price crunch hitting supermarkets.

The satellite company Inmarsat put on 1.5p to 745p after announcing that its US partner had paid it $5m (£3m). But Inmarsat warned that future scheduled payments from LightSquared, which filed for bankruptcy two years ago, were “subject to significant uncertainty”.

The steel producer Evraz, controlled by Roman Abramovich, marched up 3.9p to 79.9p after offloading its Czech subsidiary for $89m to help it to pay down debt.

The small cap oil and gas producer RusPetro was 1p down at 18.5p after revealing widening losses for 2013, up to $74.2m from $28.1m a year earlier.

The Aim-listed explorer Wishbone Gold lost 0.12p to 1.62p over cash concerns. TCS Holdings was downgraded by JPMorgan and it fell 0.1p to 6.5p.