UK 06:05 Monday, 21 September 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
Hello Share Swallowers. The wiser investor pays attention to consumer trends. And to buy shares in a company which is at the mercy of food fashions can be a risky undertaking. We all found this out as the price war among supermarkets began. But here are a few other companies I think might be ‘sells’ because of changes in the most basic type of food we eat.
Hello Share Tweakers. If I were an investor in Associated British Foods (ABF) I would be getting a little nervous at the moment. It processes and sells food and has the very different business of Primark, the budget clothes stores. You’ve probably discovered that these shops are often stuffed with customers as their prices can be remarkably low.
Hello Share Scorchers. My family is addicted to Primark stores. They will travel 60 miles just to go to our nearest one in Swansea. But it’s not my favourite shopping experience because its establishments are usually absolutely chocker with buyers. Not that Primark is not well equipped to serve them well, with a workforce of 60,000 across 300 stores in 11 countries. You didn’t think it was that big, did you?
Hello Share Flickers. There are some firms which loom large in our ordinary humdrum lives. One, which is rarely covered on this website, and probably our lesser rivals, is Associated British Foods (ABF)
Back in January I was enticed into making a value call on AB Foods(ABF) versus Next (NXT), coming to the conclusion that Next, which does not have a sugar business, looked the better value on what looked like a less excitable more restrained valuation. I now note that the gap between AB and Next has narrowed to about the narrowest it has been for a year.
Associated British Foods (ABF) reported some mixed results today prompting investors to take money off the table. A good Christmas trading update from its Primark subsidiary was offset by a weaker than expected performance from its sugar products division. The stock was down 4% at 11am. Given the strong run in the share price since June last year, investors have reasons to take profits.
For the life of me, I cannot find any current fact to justify the share price of Associated British Foods (ABF) – 2204p.
When I lit up the screen to check the final trading statement from AB Foods (ABF) yesterday I saw that with a kind of historic romance, the shares price had met its Waterloo at 1815p. Last week, when I started looking at the equity to try to discover - unavailingly - why one major investment bank concluded it would ‘outperform’ the share price was above 1900p. Last seen, it had gone through 1815p to 1810p. It will get worse.
There was a report earlier this week that a big international investment bank has ranked Associated British Foods (ABF) shares as ones to outperform. So I have cast my eye over this equity. I took a preliminary look at the share price noting that the shares are not only way above the five year trend line support but that the share price pattern has formed what technical analysts call a double top; generally regarded as a harbinger of doom.
