Market report: Bwin owner GVC creates doubt despite full house

Online betting firm GVC ensured investors who turned up to today’s capital markets day arrived with smiles on their faces after an “impressive” trading update drove the shares to new highs.

The FTSE 250 company, which owns Bwin.party, Sportingbet and Foxy Bingo, revealed daily net gaming revenue jumped 13% in the first quarter and was up 16% so far in the second quarter. Overall net gaming revenues surged 12% to €240 million (£207 million).

“This is an impressive start to the year from GVC, with strong momentum from the bwin.party integration continuing,” analysts at Canaccord Genuity said.

The shares rose 27.45p, or 3.6%, to 792.45p, a record, as investors bet the strong performance would continue.

Canaccord is not so sure, however. It added a note of caution by warning that beating the previous year’s performance would become more difficult without any major football tournaments for punters to have a flutter on.

The FTSE 100 threatened to reach new highs, following records on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve minutes showed a rate rise could be on the cards next month.

However, the UK’s index quickly lost early gains and was down 7.32 points to 7507.58 in tentative trading before the Opec meeting.

Canaccord upgraded its target price for 3i Group, topping the share price up by 14.68p to 855.18p and lifting the private-equity giant to the top of the blue-chip index.

“We believe the full effects of 3i’s turnaround and capital management strategies are now fully apparent with a marked pick-up in new business,” the broker argued.

Several FTSE stocks went ex-dividend, trading without the right to their latest shareholder payout. Supermarkets group Morrisons fell 3.1p to 242.5p and Costa Coffee and Premier Inns owner Whitbread dropped 15p to 4233p.