Market report: Jupiter thrown off course after star player Alexander Darwall quits to go it alone

NEIL Woodford might be the UK’s most famous fund manager but in the City, Alexander Darwall is close behind.

Today shares in money manager Jupiter sank after Darwall — who heads up the European equities team — announced late yesterday that he is off to establish his own boutique fund called Devon Equity Management. Darwall wants to fulfil a long-held ambition to launch a small investment management business.

Brokers in the City described the move as a “huge loss for Jupiter” as Darwall is one of the shining lights of the firm and the industry. Analyst Ryan Hughes at AJ Bell said investors could follow Darwall from Jupiter to his new fund, although he urged caution given the recent Woodford fiasco. He warned that investors must check risk and governance is in place when a fund manager leaves to set up a boutique. “It’s something that’s possibly become a lot less palatable in the past few weeks.” Jupiter shares fell 29.1p, or 6%, to 402p.

In a session that saw some heavy fallers, Dialight shares were hurtling in the wrong direction.

The LED lighting firm crashed 156p, or 31%, to 339p after it revealed it is still paying the price of a disastrous move to outsource manufacturing to a contractor in Mexico. The move was designed to cut costs but has severely backfired. Dialight recently moved production back in-house but this session it warned there’s still a backlog of orders to fulfil. It also said its chief executive Martin Rapp would be stepping down, to be replaced by chief financial officer Fariyal Khanbabi.

Amid the blue-chips, bank and fund managers made gains for a sixth straight session despite scepticism that US and China would make a breakthrough in trade talks any time soon. HSBC gained 2.1p to 663p and 3i climbed 11.5p to 1139p.

Oilers also pushed ahead as crude prices benefited from Opec extending supply cuts until next March. BP was up 3.2p at 561p and Shell climed 10p to 2612.5p Overall the FTSE 100 rose 13.63 points to 7511.13.

Insurers Admiral and RSA Insurance also climbed higher. Reinsurance broker Willis said property reinsurance rates rose by up to 25% in the latest renewal round in areas of Florida hit by hurricane. Admiral was up 22p at 2251p and RSA gained 1.6p at 588p.

But chemicals firm Croda was rooted to the bottom of the leaderboard after UBS downgraded the the stock and Citigroup cut its price target. Shares are on course for their seventh straight session of losses and fell 208p to 4888p.