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.

By Alice Gråhns
published

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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