Sharewatch: Future Results Spark Price Rise

Preliminary results released by specialist magazine publisher Future Publishing yesterday appeared to spark interest from city investors, with the company adding 9.06% to its stock price to close at 69źp.

The company’s reported strong performance in the year to to 30 September saw it succeed in a number of acquisitions, as well as a strengthening of its management team (see Future Appoints Marketing Head For Aggressive Strategy).

Rival publisher Emap also saw a rise, inching up by 0.84% to close at 838˝p. This morning saw the Advertising Standards Association issue a ruling on the publisher’s claim for Zoo magazine, stating that the strapline “The Biggest Men’s Weekly” was false and should not be used in the future (see Emap Finds Size Does Matter In Nuts Contest).

Elsewhere global advertising firm WPP continued to see a downturn in share price, losing 0.78% to close at 569˝p. Chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell was optimistic on the company’s future earlier this week, stating that he expected a 15% growth in earnings during 2004, and that growth in 2005 and 2006 could be between 10% and 15%.

UBC Media fared better, climbing by 4.17% to 25p after stating that it would benefit from the BBC’s decision to double the number of broadcast hours dedicated to independent radio commissions (see Thompson Spells Out His BBC Vision).

The FTSE 100 regained ground yesterday, adding 5.9 points to close at 4,728.7 while the FTSE 250 performed admirably, climbing by 26 points to 6,661.5.

The closing prices of media company shares on Tuesday were: