Wednesday tips round-up: BG Group, Synthomer

While BG Group waits for its new chief executive, Chris Finlayson, to arrive next spring the company’s financials are heading in the wrong direction. A case in point, underlying earnings for the third quarter were off sharply, falling by nearly 30% to $759m. Over the first nine months of the year they were down by 4%. Even before the fall in global energy prices – which will make itself felt in the fourth quarter - the company was already dealing with multiple sources of worry, including difficulties in its Kazakhstan joint-venture, rising maintenance costs at its UK assets and lower volumes in Egypt.

The stock took a bit of a beating following the latest set of figures, but management stuck to its 2015 projections. Indeed, production from Brazil is ramping up and its long awaited Queensland LNG projects will soon be arriving. Likewise, there are high expectations for the incoming chief. Unfortunately, the shares have tended to be a victim of heightened expectations. “No need to chase,” says The Times’s Tempus.

Britain’s aqueous polymers champion Synthomer fell foul of Europe’s woes on Wednesday. The maker of those waterproof membranes which damp proof your house or the extra-thin latex gloves your dentist uses said as much. What with the European construction industry at a standstill and given its polymers unit being in Germany the company's profits took a hit.

In parallel, the firm was hurt on volumes at its nitrile latex unit, which goes into the making of rubber gloves, after deciding not to sacrifice margins. Hence, the share price is about back to where it was this past spring, when Synthomer warned of issues in the Far East. "Avoid", Tempus says.