Following the themes of recent weeks the big winner in the Motor Transport tracker is Hargreaves Group - even if the performance of its transport group is slightly off target.

On Thursday 28 February Hargreaves Group published its interim results for the six months ended 30 November 2012. Within its overall performance it noted that transport turnover  increased by £300,000 from £39.7m to £40m. However underlying operating profit decreased by £100,000 from £2.2m to £2.1m.

Hargreaves noted that its tanker and dry bulk fleets delivered a solid performance in the first half. It said that the dry bulk fleet continues to "trade strongly and is expected to exceed its full year target".

However its tanker business is expected to have a slower second half to the financial year and finish the year slightly behind our targets. This is due to what it describes as "the realignment of vehicles and contracts following the administration of Petroplus" (an issue reported on by our sister website Commercialmotor.com) and the "consequent loss of the associated contract just before the end of the last financial year".

Transport has wobbled slightly at Hargreaves, which just goes to show that its huge swing in share price is down to the other units of its overall business. Group turnover rose 19.3% to £385.1m for the six month period - but, and it is a big but, it made a pre-tax loss of £9.1m in the six month period from a £13m profit in the same six-month period in the previous year. It's not been enough to deter investors - as the loss was a one off due to the mothballing of its mine in Maltby and the fraud investigation at its Belgium operations.

Underlying pre-tax profit at Hargreaves rose by 8.8% to £22.7m. It's had an effect on the MT Tracker basket of shares...

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And an equally dramatic effect on Market Cap

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