MARKET REPORT: Vodafone thrives as it sells Italian arm to Swisscom for £7bn

It may have been a new year, but the biggest corporate news of the first session of 2025 came from a slew of old deals completed.

Vodafone said it had finalized the sale of its Italian operations to Swisscom for £6.6 billion.

As part of the agreement, the British mobile telecommunications company will continue to provide some services to Vodafone Italy for up to five years.

Vodafone said the proceeds would be used to reduce net debt with the aim of returning up to £1.66bn to shareholders after the buyback program ends. It gained 0.9 per cent, or 0.58p, to 68.88p.

Meanwhile, FTSE 250-listed John Wood has announced the completion of the sale of its 51 per cent stake in Ethos Energy Group – a joint venture with Siemens Energy focused on rotating equipment – ​​to One Equity Partners for £110m in cash.

The oilfield investor and engineering services provider was cheered by news that £33.7m of previously planned loans had been replaced by additional cash compensation on completion. Wood Group rose 2.6 percent, or 1.7 percent, to 67.3 percent.

The new year began in the same erratic way as the last. At the close, the FTSE 100 was up 1.1 percent, or 87.07 points, at 8,260.09, while the FTSE 250 was up 0.1 percent, or 17.62 points, at 20,640.23.

As investors braced for a deluge of post-Christmas retail trading news, Marks & Spencer stood out, gaining 3.7 per cent, or 13.8p, to 389.3p on speculation it enjoyed a strong festive period thanks to top food and drink.

But retail chain Kingfisher lost 0.5 percent, or 1.3 pence, to 247.4 pence, due to uncertainty in the DIY market.

Strength in heavy commodity issues was a mainstay for blue-chips.

Precious miners found support in the higher gold price, with Fresnillo up 4.5 percent, or 28 pence, to 649.5 pence and Endeavor Mining up 4.9 percent, or 70 pence, to 1,495 pence.

However, banking problems were an obstacle. Barclays fell 0.5 percent, or 1.25 pence, to 266.9 pence, while HSBC fell 0.2 percent, or 1.9 pence, to 73.2 pence.

Among small-caps, Roquefort Therapeutics gained 3.7 percent, or 0.15p, to 4.2p, after revealing plans to sell its Lyramid subsidiary to Pleiades Pharma for at least £8m.

Mission Group rose 12.5 per cent, or 3p, to 27p, as the digital marketing and communications firm closed the sale of its April Six subsidiary to Marketbridge for a total of £17.4m, with the net proceeds going towards debt repayments.

Victoria added 7.3 percent, or 5 pence, to 73.6 pence, following a flurry of share buying from directors including Gavin Petken, non-executive director of the royal carpet supplier.

Before Christmas, Saqib Karim, managing director of the Victoria branch, increased his stake to more than 5 per cent.

Meanwhile, Emmerson rose 19.7 per cent, or 0.12p, to 0.73p, after the Morocco-focused potash developer signed a deal with a specialist litigation finance firm to secure funding from 8, 8 million pounds, with funds earmarked for its dispute with the Moroccan government.

Contango Holdings took 12 percent, or 0.15 pence, to 1.4 pence, after the Zimbabwean coal producer received a fee of 160,000 pounds.