If you'd invested in: Ocado and Galliford Try

Online retailer Ocado is soaring despite being heavily shorted, but construction firm Galliford Try is suffering in the wake of the Carillion collapse.

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If only

882_Good-Ocado

Online grocery retailer Ocado (LSE: OCDO) is among the UK's most shorted stocks, but its shares have rocketed since November, when it announced plans to build a warehouse for and license its technology to French supermarket chain Groupe Casino. Two weeks ago it announced another deal to help Sobeys, one of Canada's largest food retailers, build a warehouse outside Toronto and allow the chain to use its e-commerce platform. And this week, despite announcing a profit warning and a pre-tax loss of £500,000 in 2017, it placed £143m of shares with investors, representing around 5% of additional share capital.

Be glad you didn't

882_Bad-Galliford-Try

Construction firm Galliford Try (LSE: GFRD) has suffered following the collapse of Carillion. In January the firm, which is working with Carillion and Balfour Beatty on the £550m Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route road, said it may have to fork out an extra £30m-£40m to complete the project. Earlier in April its shares also plunged when it abandoned an effort to buy rival builder Bovis Homes, following a £1.2bn approach. To add insult to injury, Bovis, having rebuffed Galliford's advances, hired one of its former CEOs.

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Alice Gråhns

Alice grew up in Stockholm and studied at the University of the Arts London, where she gained a first-class BA in Journalism. She has written for several publications in Stockholm and London, and joined MoneyWeek in 2017. 

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