November was a tough month for the FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE), as the UK’s top-flight index shed 81 points (1.2%) to end the month at 6,651. The month was one of confusion regarding US stimulus policy, with doves and hawks at the Federal Reserve making suggestions alternating between leaving things loose for a while longer and tightening up policy sooner than expected.
And December looks like it could end up even worse — in less than two market days since the start of the month, the FTSE is already down a further 102 points to 6,549.
But which individual shares did well in November? Here are three from the indices that had a good month:
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Aberdeen Asset Management
Aberdeen Asset Management (LSE: ADN) shareholders had a very nice time in November, with their shares climbing 49.4p (11.2%) to 492.3p to top the FTSE 100 table. Over the past 12 months the price is up more than 40%, and there was a 4.2% dividend yield thrown in too.
The reason for the success? Well, with the economy recovering there’s been a rush of investment cash back into Aberdeen’s safekeeping — for the year to 30 September, assets under management rose by 7% to £200.4bn.
Net revenue was also up, by 24% to £1,078.5m, with underlying pre-tax profit up 39% to £482.7m and underlying earnings per share (EPS) up 44% to 32.5p.
Telecom plus
Moving out of the top index, Telecom plus (LSE: TEP) pulled off a bit of a coup during the month. The multi-utilities supplier snapped up Npower’s Electricity Plus Supply and Gas Plus Supply for a combined total of £218m — and there’s an accompanying 20-year energy supply deal with NPower that should “substantially increase the energy margins available to Telecom Plus, and enable it to provide even more competitive tariffs to its customers“.
First-half figures were impressive too, revealing a 17% rise in revenue, a 10.1% rise in pre-tax profit and an 11.5% boost to adjusted EPS. The interim dividend was lifted 23% to 16p per share.
The share price? Up 335p (21.7%) to 1,878p, even after a 16p ex-dividend date, and up nearly 110% over 12 months.
Halfords
And we’ve seen a bit of a recovery from Halfords Group (LSE: HFD), whose share price is up nearly 40% over 12 months after getting a 64.9p (15.3%) boost during November to 488.4p.
A first-half report released early in the month showed a 7.7% rise in total revenue to £490.6m with like-for-like revenue up 6.2%. Pre-tax profit before exceptionals rose 6.4% to £44.6m with EPS on the same basis up 8.6% to 17.6p. Net debt fell by 46.7%, and the interim dividend was cut by 35% as expected.
It’s still early days in the firm’s recovery plan, but this looks encouraging.
