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Now, let's take a look at some stocks on the move today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined by Bloomberg's Breaking News editor Louise Moon. Now, Louise, we're going to start with the energy sector and BP.
Yeah, WELLBB had an update this morning on their first quarter, saying the oil trading has been exceptional, in their words, exceptional, so they're essentially benefiting from the one Iran war jolting the energy markets. Obviously, prices have surged and BP has essentially signaled that its traders have profited from that, and this kind of echoes a similar sentiment from Shell last week they also signaled the same. So it's been a strong first quarter four pp in particular for oil trading
for them. This comes at quite a significant time. So this is their first update since their new CEO, Meg O'Neill joined. She's on a mission, as BP has been, on this long standing mission to return it to its core of oil and gas, divest in clean energy assets that the kind of low returning assets and make it a more lean organization, all under pressure from activists, investor
Elliott and other shareholders after years of underperformance. So it's quite significant timing and a positive first update from her on the back of the conflict. Shares however, are down this morning. There. Investors are focusing on oil prices. They're tracking the fallen oil obviously on the news that US and Iran are weighing more talks and Shell is the same. So oil prices and energy majors actually falling on that news despite that, in BP's words, exceptional first quarter.
Okay, yeah, interesting to layer some of the individual company news against the broader energy market moves as well, Alouise, but we're going to try. Next to the tobacco company, Imperial Brands, their shares doing sharply in London this morning.
They are yeah, over six percent, as much as six point four percent this morning, saying they're expecting to lose market share. Obviously, this kind of comes on the back of these wider trends changing consumer habits for tobacco companies that they've been grappling with that for a while now. But one thing I kind of really want to focus on for Imperial is that their mention of the Middle
East warps. They say that there's been no material impact operations so far, but they are flagging that the rest of the year is quite uncertain, and this is being seen in quite a few company updates. It's kind of starting to feed through that uncertainty and the lack of predictability for the companies. So we've had Page Group, the recruiter in London saying similar this morning as well, very similar wording. Shares also down, and then you're also seeing it,
you know, feeding through across industries. So you've had LVMH that they're saying that they're so has been disappointing as the conflict is wearing on demand shares also down. So it's just interesting to see how this is becoming obviously a key topic for companies across a broad range of fields and playing out in different ways. As I say, you know, oil tracking in other directions, but yeah, playing
through in company updates the morning. So Imperial Brands, Page Group, Elvia make sure some of those examples.
And next to a company we don't hear from very often, Intertech, which are a products safety tester. They're the best performing share in the stock six hundred this morning.
Why they are, Yeah, shares off as much a fourteen percent, the most since twenty twenty. Essentially, what they've done this morning is they've initiated a strategic review, so they might potentially separate their business into so one half being testing an assurance and one half being energy and infrastructure. So they're going to review this and that will all be concluded, wrapped up and implemented if it is by mid twenty twenty seven. It's being welcomed by analysts as a potential positive.
You know, some are saying that they could trade at a higher rate as separate businesses could be easier for them to for the overall group to allocate capital for growth, you know, could unlock value by creating two more simple assets, a more attractive on a standalone basis. So is being welcomed that that potential move to separate the business. Intertech's been lagging way behind peers for the part in terms
of share price for the past year or so. So Yeah, being welcomed by the market and shares shares up as much as fourteen percent.
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