FTSE Live: Latest news, analysis and insight from the City team

Sales of gold bars jumped by 53% over Christmas, according to the Royal Mint, which has also witnessed a growing demand for the precious metal from millennials.

The Mint said sales of 1g and 5g gold bars increased by 53% year-on-year during November and December 2020 – perhaps suggesting an uplift in people giving gold as a gift.

In the last quarter of 2020, The Royal Mint introduced special edition 1g and 5g gold bars for Diwali and Christmas, which it said contributed to significant growth as consumers sought out investment gifts.

It also recorded a 32% increase in younger customers, aged 22 to 37 years old, buying gold during 2020 as the coronavirus crisis unfolded.

Gold is often seen as a “safe haven” investment, particularly in times of uncertainty and crisis, but as with other investments – prices can go down as well as up.

A slice of City history comes under threat today as the London Metal Exchange is said to be mulling the closure of its famous “open outcry” trading, where traders holler their buy and sell orders at each other face-to-face, communicating with hand signals.

The LME is the last bastion of open outcry trading in the City. 

Bloomberg said LME was thinking of ending the century-old practice of trading in “the Ring”.

It has been closed since March due to social distancing and the market is now considering moving trading electronic permanently, it said.

Cambridge Cognition, whose technology helps pharmaceuticals firms test patients’ brain health in drug trials, saw its shares surge by a fifth after reporting record sales for last year.

Order intake closed at £12.7 million, up 158% on the previous year’s £4.9 million. The current order backlog is £11 million, of which £6 million will be booked for 2021.

Covid meant some trials were temporarily suspended but it pushed companies towards more remote trials which should benefit CC’s cloud based products.

Results for the year were slightly ahead of expectations, driving the shares up 20.7%.

Building products group Alumasc’s shares are now up 24% after a strong trading statement for the past six months.

Chief executive Paul Hooper said the board was not considering resuming the pre-Covid dividend for shareholders in the light of double digit growth in revenues and return on sales.

He said the group was watching closely government plans for changes to the Help to Buy and stamp duty reliefs but that vaccines and mass testing should counterbalance any negative changes.

Aptitude Software, the financial management software group, said it had won two big service agreements with North American insurance companies and had a strong fourth quarter.

Annual recurring revenue jumped 11% to £31.2 million last year at the debt-free business and Aptitude said the coming year should be ahead of previous expectations.

Superdry shares are now down 18% after this morning’s financial results included a “going concern” notice on the company.

The group said “a material uncertainty exists and may cast significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern…”

Stores have been closed through the Covid crisis but the group said its directors had a “reasonable expectation” it had resources to continue operating.

Shares in Internet of Things tech provider Telit Communications fell 5% after it said revenues fell 10% last year and electronics giant Philips was suing it.

Philips is said to own patents used in certain Telit products and is suing in the US International Trade Commission and Delaware courts.

“Telit is reviewing these claims with its external advisers and will respond in due course,” it said.

CEO Paolo del Pino said the slightness of the revenue decline showed its resilience during Covid at a time of reduced consumer demand. 

Telit recently ditched early stage talks to be taken over by Swiss rival U-blox.

HSBC will close 82 branches across the country, the company has announced.

Sites will start shutting their doors permanently from April 23, starting with Edinburgh’s Princes Street branch, with approximately three closing each week until the end of September.

HSBC said the Covid-19 pandemic has seen a greater shift to online banking although insisted the closures were not entirely related to the lockdowns and restrictions introduced.

Staff in branches facing closure are also expected to be redeployed to other branches and sites within 15 miles of their homes, the bank said.

Tech manufacturer Microsaic raised £5 million in a share placing with new and existing investors that will save it from collapsing into administration.

The company makes mass spectrometers, which measure the masses of isotopes and molecules and are used in a wide variety of pharmaceutical laboratories to develop new medicines. It specialises in making particularly small instruments, and has more than 60 patents.

But it was hit hard by the Covid crisis as many customers’ sites were closed and investment decisions postponed.

It had warned in December that, after failing to find a buyer, it it could end up going into administration. That has now been halted thanks to the promise of the lifeline funding.

Gerard Brandon, a tech entrepreneur, is being brought in as chairman and has agreed to subscribe for shares. Dr Nigel Burton, a former banker and director of several other Aim firms, has also agreed to buy shares and become a non-executive director.

The road to recovery for infrastructure group Kier took it via the Blackwall and Rotherhithe tunnels today after its shares surged on the back of a major £200 million contract.

Its deal with Transport for London hands Kier responsibility for maintaining and managing pumping stations and 10 road tunnels in the capital over the next eight years from April.

The contract was revealed alongside a better than expected update on trading in the second half of 2020, having won places on long-term frameworks worth up to £11 billion in sectors including health and education.

It also highlighted progress towards annual cost savings of £105 million and said it was nearing a deal to sell its loss-making housebuilding division. According to Sky News, private equity tycoon Guy Hands is among the remaining bidders for the Kier Living arm.

A series of profit downgrades in recent years have dragged shares lower, hitting just 43p in November from 1,400p in 2017. They were 13% higher today, up 9.7p to 84.8p.

The improvement by FTSE All-Share stock Kier came during an upbeat session for the London market, with attention firmly focused on more details of Joe Biden’s fiscal stimulus plan and the resumption of Wall Street’s earnings season.

The FTSE 100 index climbed 11.12 points to 6,732.14, with HSBC 10.55p higher at 413.55p on hopes that it will soon resume dividend payments. The rest of sector was under pressure, however, with Barclays down 3p to 148.3p and Standard Chartered off 7.6p to 483.3p.

In the FTSE 250 index, strong figures from online appliances business AO World were offset by its warning of higher coronavirus-related costs. Shares fell 24p from their recent record high to 353.5p, even though UK sales jumped 67% in the Christmas trading period.