August Market Overview
We are pleased to supply the Monthly Market Overview for August. You will find, as well as a brief comment on the market, the top 25 most actively traded securities, figures for the turnover by sector, top 25 Aim companies by market cap, distribution of equity and finally admissions and cancellations.
IN BRIEF
It is disappointing to report that the FTSE AIM All-Share Index fell again in August as it drifted down to 802.4, a decline of some 2.5% over the month. This was especially disappointing given the fact that the FTSE All Share showed a useful increase of 4.2% and the FTSE 100 Share Index rose by the same amount to 5636.6.
As is only to be expected during the holiday month of August, trading in AIM shares was pretty thin and volumes of shares traded were well down on July, which in itself was well down on June. The value of shares traded has fallen from £5.5bn in June, to £4.5bn in July and just £2.7bn in August. This has also been reflected in the number of transactions on the market, with these totalling just under 266,000 in August compared with over 416,000 in July. As we stated last month, the result of this has been a widening of share price spreads and increased volatility and this situation has continued even into the first trading days of September.
A number of AIM companies reported good results in August, among them being Stadium Group, which we have mentioned in our ‘Company to Watch’ section. However, even the publication of good results does not mean that your shares will respond positively and although Stadium shares have gone up, they remain well below the year’s high of 71.5p. One positive factor that investors can draw from share prices remaining relatively low is that they do encourage corporate activity with companies such as 1st Dental Laboratories and Xpertise Group being on the receiving end of bid approaches. At least this prompts some positive share price movement in the shares and, as proof that some share prices are ridiculously low, the share price of Xpertise Group when the offer was announced was 77p – the offer, which is in cash, is worth 165p per share! The conclusion that can be drawn from the latter situation is that at least some companies on AIM are undervalued and investors who search prudently for bargains could be well rewarded!
The full Market Overview for August, which includes more detailed facts and figures is available to download below. We hope you find this information useful and gladly appreciate any comments or feedback.