Mitchells & Butlers has overtaken Greene King to become the company with the highest market capitalisation within the M&C20, following a well-received presentation to city analysts.
M&B’s share price rose by 4.6% to 447p this week to take its equity value to £1.837bn, while Greene King’s advanced by 0.8% to 837p on the back of its own positive trading update, taking the value of its issued shares to £1.827bn - £10m less. Back in May the differential was £241m in Greene King’s favour.
It was a significant week for the M&C20, as 15 of its 20 constituent stocks posted increases, taking the index up 2.1% to a new high of 1,183.
By contrast, the FTSE All Share index posted a more modest 1.2% increase to 1,011, meaning it now lags the M&C20 by 17%.
M&B was among the highest climbers, along with Domino’s Pizza (up 6.5%), Young’s (up 4.9%) and Adnams (up 3.9%).
Spirit’s shared advanced by 3.1% following a positive fourth quarter trading update, in which the company which reported like-for-like net sales up 4.1%.
Shares in its former stablemate Punch Taverns slipped by 6.3% after it reported fourth quarter sales growth of 0.4% and sought to reassure investors that “consensual financial restructuring” would take place before the end of the year.
Cineworld was the other big faller, off 5.3%, despite suggestions that it could imminently be promoted to the FTSE250.
