A new year, and a record week for the M&C20 Leisure Index, which leapt 5.3% to a new high of 1,232 – driven by stellar share price performances from some listed pub and restaurant companies.
The sector outperformed the market by a full five percentage points, as the FTSE All Share Index limped ahead by just 0.3% to 1,051.
Leisure sector hero stocks were led by The Restaurant Group, whose shares rocketed by 11.4% on the back of well-received full year results in which it reported like-for-likes up 3.5%, turnover up 9% and a strong pipeline of new site openings.
Analyst Nick Batram of Peel Hunt reported: “A strong finish to the year (despite tough comparatives) means that the company has once again over delivered. Few companies in the sector can match The Restaurant Group’s consistency and, with a growing pipeline, economic recovery and high returns on investment, there is more to come.”
Enterprise Inns continued its remarkable recovery, its shares leaping 10.8% to 163.5p – 67% higher than its price in May 2013. The company had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by Deutsche Bank this morning in a note issued to investors on Friday. Investment analysts have a 205p price objective on the stock, indicating a potential upside of 29.66% from the current price.
Cineworld was up 8.8% to 411p after announcing a deal to buy about 100 multiplexes in eastern Europe and Israel from Polish-based Cinema City International (CCI) in a cash and shares deal worth about £500m.
JD Wetherspoon’s shares reached a year high of 808.5p (up 6.5%) – it’s market capitalisation breaking though the billion pound mark. Twelve research analysts rate the stock with a hold rating and four have a buy rating on the company.#
Only the London pub companies Fullers (down 2.7%) and Young’s (down 1.0%), and the Wildwood and Dim-T operator Tasty (down 3.7%), bucked this week’s upward trend.
