The Independent: “Andy Burnham, the new prime minister, has not ruled out a 10 per cent “death tax” on all estates to fund his proposed social care reforms. Mr Burnham is expected to outline his plans for a new National Care Service, estimated to cost up to £18.7 billion annually, later this week.”
Comment: Why can’t the individual be responsible for their own care? Don’t we already pay for social care via National Insurance et al? So council tax and stamp duty will stay and we shall have the double, triple, quadruple death tax on top? The main downside of having 7 prime ministers in 10 years is that we have to pay extra for each new one.
Unilever (ULVR) announced its 2026 First Half Results. Strong, volume‑led growth – underlying sales growth (USG) of 4.8%, with 4.2% volume and 0.6% price; acceleration in Q2 to USG of 5.8% and 5.5% volume growth. Power Brands (78% of turnover) leading growth – 6.0% USG and 5.4% volume growth. ULVR said, “We have delivered a strong volume-led performance in the first half, with a significant step-up in the second quarter – the best volume quarter at Unilever in over a decade. Our Power Brands continued to outperform, with all Business Groups delivering volume-led growth. Emerging markets showed momentum – India, Indonesia and Latin America all delivered strong growth – while North America again outperformed its market.”
Comment: With ULVR it would appear that we are in a situation where elephants can gallop in terms of growth on a fundamental basis. Indeed, the surprise here is that the share price has / is attempting to recover from spring lows, as if the market simply did not believe that the company was gathering momentum.
Barclays (BARC) announced its Half-year Financial Report. Barclays delivered a return on tangible equity (RoTE) of 14.8% in H126, announced £2.3bn total capital distributions, and is on track to deliver its 2026 and 2028 targets. C. S. Venkatakrishnan, Group Chief Executive, commented “I am pleased with another strong quarter for Barclays. Income for Q226 is £8.3bn, up £1.2bn from the same quarter last year. Profit before tax is £3.3bn, up 31% in the same period. Our earnings per share (EPS) has increased 43% to 16.7p, and our cost: income ratio improved to 54% from 59% a year earlier. We have a robust common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 14.3%, above our 13% to 14% target range.”
Comment: It would be unfair to suggest that in the current environment even Coco the Clown could deliver success at Barclays, or any of the other High Street banks, but it would also be true. High interest rates, an ongoing cartel, even with the challenger banks, and Bob’s your uncle for a near one third profits jump, Easy peasy.
Man Group (EMG) announced Half Year results for the period ended 30 June. The company said Strong investment performance and net inflows across our diversified range of strategies. Record AUM of $253.6 billion as at 30 June 2026 (31 December 2025: $227.6 billion). Positive investment performance of $19.8 billion, +0.4% relative to peers[KPI], with continued strength from our multi-strategy. Net inflows of $7.1 billion, 3.4% ahead of the industry.
Comment: Given how much banks continue to rip off customers on deposit, it is perhaps not surprising that hedge fund group EMG is flourishing in terms of record AUM. However, despite the gift that keeps on giving every few weeks in terms of the TACO trade, one should not presume that the easy ride here will continue indefinitely.
Oxford BioDynamics Plc (OBD), the international biotechnology company advancing personalised healthcare through precision clinical diagnostic tests, announced that it has signed its first commercial agreement for the use of EpiSwitch® Orion, its cloud-based 3D genomics platform that translates 2D genomes into 3D interactions and mechanistic understanding for researchers, pharma and biotech partners, as part of a translational biomarker discovery programme in psoriatic arthritis (PsA). OBD has entered into its first commercial agreement for the use of EpiSwitch Orion, marking the first time a third party has paid for access to the platform.
Comment: Commercial agreement? What? Really? Why now? It has been a long journey of just talking about sales / business, rather than just being a science experiment. Sorry, you mean someone is actually stumping up cash? Wouldn’t it just be easier to raise more cash?
Coats Group plc (COA), the world’s leading industrial thread and footwear components manufacturer, announces its unaudited results for the six months ended 30 June 2026. COA noted “Good strategic progress in H1 with ongoing market outperformance, Full year outlook unchanged.”
Comment: COA is one of the unsung heroes of the stock market, so unsung that even the company itself is shy about blowing its own trumpet. Nevertheless, one appreciates what David Paja and the team have done in recent months, even if the share price is only just catching up.
Essentra (ESNT), a leading global provider and manufacturer of essential components and solutions, today announced its interim results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2026. ESNT said “Essentra delivered a strong first half, returning to organic revenue and order growth across all three regions. Performance was supported by volume recovery, disciplined pricing and continued momentum in our faster-growing target end-markets. Trading through the period was consistent with the encouraging trends seen as we entered 2026, resulting in 7.8% like-for-like revenue growth and performance in line with the Board’s expectations.”
Comment: The £300m market cap certainly puts ESNT in the growth stock bracket, even though the shares used to be multiples higher than where they are now. Therefore it seems appropriate to suggest we are looking at a recovery situation, with the main one year resistance zone to shoot for towards 120p by the end of the summer.
Staffline (STAF), a market leading recruitment group, announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2026.Staffline well positioned to deliver full year results towards the top end of market expectations. Delivered significant growth, with H1 revenue and operating profit up 15.2% and 57.6%, respectively. Retender and renewal activity remains high creating strong momentum into H2.
Comment: It has already been established via the Clem Chambers interview the other week that recruiters are having a purple patch in the time of AI. As can be seen this has filtered through to STAF and many of its peers, and we should expect another attempt on 2026 resistance at 52p even as soon as the end of next month.
Creo Medical Group plc (CREO), the medical device company focused on the emerging field of minimally invasive surgical endoscopy for pre-cancer and cancer patients, provides a trading update for the six months ended 30 June 2026. The Group has continued to make strong operational and strategic progress through the second quarter of this financial year. Revenue for H1-26 increased by 45% to £3.2m (H1-25: £2.2m). Trading for the period was in line with management expectations, supporting the Board’s confidence in delivering full year revenue growth in line with existing guidance of 50% to 60%. This full year guidance is underpinned by a strong order book carried into Q3-26, the Group’s usual H2-weighted revenue profile and continued expansion into new regions, particularly in LATAM.
Comment: Someone very kindly and very religiously sends me the latest RNS for CREO, and while in the old days this was something of an irritant, now one is delighted at the progress being made. Courtesy of the Covid vaccines pre-cancer and cancer is now a booming area, and while the shares remain above recent 13p support one would expect a retest of the best levels of 2026 by early autumn.
Restore plc (RST), the UK’s leading provider of secure and sustainable business services for data, information, communications, and assets, today announced its results for the half year ended 30 June 2026. Strong H1 performance with revenue up 21% and adjusted EPS up 24%; confident of delivering full year result at least in line with market expectations.
Comment: Although of course one of the most boring companies around, as we know from Warren Buffett, boring is good. It is also the case that after two years of trying we should see shares of RST break sticky resistance at 290p, with the next charting target being 2023’s 350p zone.
Georgina Energy Plc (GEX), a helium and hydrogen exploration company with strategic permits in Australia, is pleased to announce that the water well contractor is mobilising to site and will shortly commence the drilling of the water wells to support the Ensign 970 drill rig for the September Q3 2026 drilling work at the 100% owned Hussar prospect EP513.
Comment: I did note via a tweet a couple of days ago that GEX was set to hit 10p on a break of a recent resistance line on the daily chart at 6.5p. I also noted that the vindictive, malicious and deliberately designed to make fundraising difficult commentary regarding the company has recently stopped. Perhaps this is an acknowledgement that the bears have failed to bring the company down, and that it is on its way to deliver decent potential.
Ajax [AQSE: AJAX], the natural resources investment company, announced that its wholly owned Argentine subsidiary, Ajax Salta S.A. has entered into a binding preliminary agreement with Madero Minerals S.A. (“MMSA”) in relation to the proposed exchange of the Company’s Puna Metals S.A. portfolio, including the Eureka Project and the recently expanded La Escondida 1 and La Escondida 2 exploration licences, for the Rachaite Prospect in the Province of Jujuy and the El Salto Project in the Province of Salta, Argentina. The Proposed Transaction, should it proceed, would replace the conditional acquisition previously announced on 22 December 2025 regarding the Rachaite Prospect.
Comment: More deal making from AJAX, which in the recent past does not seem to have been greeted with the enthusiasm it perhaps has deserved. A large management stake in the company, a sugar daddy in the form of Appian, and only acquiring assets that have already have proven mineralisation, one which significant funds have already been spent. 4p or thereabouts looks like the floor in the stock.
