OCADO buys 2 robotic companies for £222.3m amid lockdown

The FSTE100 helped by leaks on Friday, managed to shrug off much of bad news as investors who have seen what happened to company earnings last time lockdown, are buying supermarket and selling travel shares.

Both Tesco and Sainsbury had a excellent session up 5p to 210.6p and 5.5p to 207p respectively.

Kingfisher the DIY giant selling outdoor heaters put on 8.9p to 296p, with the hope that people will be doing their houses as they’re spending too much time at home.

The Work from Home boosted Just Takeaway and Gear4Music  both up 303p to 8871 and 50p to 670p respectively.

Aeroengines maker Rolls  Royce lost some of its recent gains  tumbling a penny to 70p as investor took fright at  the travel ban. British Airways owner IAG  tumbled 2.4p to 94p  and Easyjet  lost 12.7p to 494p.

Gambling giant GVC lost 18p to 948.2p as it  put  a cost on locking down it betting shops £43m if the current rounds of closures across Europe go on for another month like the English one.

Ocado  which has 1.8  per cent share of Britain’s grocery market consolidated  its position as a big winner from the pandemic as it raised its full-year profit target and announced purchase of two US robotics companies for £222.3m ($287M), as it consolidates its reputation as a world leader fro robotically operated warehouses. Its 1.5 billion tie up with Marks & Spencer  replacing long term partner Waitrose has seen strong sales since its September launch, as the lockdown bringing in a stampede to  online grocery shopping.

Shares in Ocado shot up 9 per cent up 2.07p to 2489p giving the company market capitalisation  to £19 billion.

Tim Steiner CEO said “We are seeing very strong demand but customers are  not particularly stockpiling toilet roll ot anything like that. We are continuing to trade at peak volumes everyday which is which is a very strong sales pattern” as demand has grown in recent days  ahead of impending lockdown