MARKET REPORT: Bonmarche makes spectacular debut on AIM less than two years after being bought out of administration

Over-50s fashion retailer Bonmarche strutted its stuff as it staged a spectacular debut on the junior AIM market less than two years after being bought out of administration.
Placed at £2 a pop by broker Investec, shares of one of the UK’s largest women’s value retailers focused on selling affordable, premium quality clothing and accessories to women over 50, closed at 220.5p for a 12 per cent premium.
The flotation marks a significant turnaround for the retailer after its parent company Peacocks was forced to call in administrators last year.

Bonmarche was founded in 1982 in Doncaster but ran into trouble as it tried to chase young customers and opened a chain of stores across the country.
Private equity firm Sun European Partners bought Bonmarche from administrators and has sold 40pc of the shares in the float.


Tim Mason, the former deputy chief executive of Tesco who headed its Fresh & Easy venture in the US is chairman, while Beth Butterwick is chief executive.
Another spectacular AIM debutant was Applied Graphene Materials, a producer of speciality graphene materials.
Its shares left the 155p placing price miles behind as buyers chased the stock up to a close of 216p, for an opening premium of 39 per cent.
The £11m raised will help fund growth and enable the company to begin the next phase of development and strengthen relationships with its partners.
Profit-taking on concerns that Fed minutes of the October FOMC meeting – due after-hours – may contain key clues about the likelihood of a December taper, left the Footsie 16.93 points easier at 6,681.08.
Wall Street edged up 17 points in early trading on hopes that the minutes would confirm that the Fed’s stimulus measures would remain in place for the foreseeable future. Aberdeen Asset Management jumped 16.8p to 492p after the City warmed to its £550m acquisition of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership from Lloyds Banking Group.
Satellite TV broadcaster BSkyB rose 10p to 835p after chief executive Jeremy Darroch, at a Morgan Stanley conference in Barcelona, revealed the advertising market has been better-than-expected. He also said that he is keen to sign a mutual wholesale deal with BT (3.7p easier at 376.1p) so both groups can offer customers the full range of live sports. BSkyB lost the rights to show Champions League football to BT earlier this month.
Reflecting reports it is losing out to discount supermarket Aldi and upmarket Waitrose in the lead up to Christmas, J Sainsbury lost 6.9p to 404.8p.
Asda also revealed it has teamed up with Transport for London to enable customers to pick up shopping ordered online from six London Underground station car parks.
Kentz Corporation advanced 13p to 555p after announcing the award by Qatar Petroleum for the engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning for wellhead industrial control systems, alongside corrosion protection, for about 775 wells across the Dukhan Oilfield, Qatar. Liberum Capital lifted its target price to 650p from 610p.
Parcel delivery company UK Mail rustled up a gain of 30p at 615p after a positive half-year report.
Group revenue was 8 per cent with operating profits ahead of expectations, up 63pc following a strong performance in the Parcels business. Parcels revenue was up 19 per cent.
Another day, another bullish trading update from Judges Scientific, 45p higher at 1775p. The AIM-listed scientific instruments group said that full-year profits for 2013 will now exceed forecasts.
Broker Shore Capital increased its 2013 earnings per share forecasts by 5 per cent to 90.5p. Shares of Plus500, the leading online service provider for retail investors to trade Contract for Differences (CFDs) internationally, soared 29.5p or 16 per cent to 213p after the company said that trading had already exceeded market expectations for the year ending December 2013.
International Personal Finance, the home credit business, improved 14p to 590p as buyers approved the appointment of Adrian Gardner to its board as chief financial officer. David Broadbent, who has been finance director since 2007, is to become chief commercial officer.
Demand on the back of an upbeat trading statement helped field service management firm ServicePower Technologies climb 1.5p or 41 per cent to 5.12p. Strong growth in revenue recorded in the first half has continued into the second half of the year.
Set-top box maker Pace gained 2.9p to 313.4p despite founder David Hood selling 10m shares to reduce his shareholding to 3.2 per cent.
Broker Killik says the prospective yield on UK equities at 3.69 per cent is currently ahead of both the 20-year average of 3.25 per cent and well ahead of returns on cash and the 10-year gilt yield of 2.72 per cent.
With interest rates remaining low for some time and strong corporate balance sheets providing the flexibility for companies to pay progressive dividends, investors should buy Berkeley, BHP Billiton, HSBC, National Grid and Unilever for dividend income.