MT Tracker 28 August

The promise of a solid first half in its financial year did little to improve investor confidence in Stobart Group - because investors were already ahead of the curve. On 17 April it was trading at a year low of 76.5pence per share. Today its at its year high of 109.5p - proving that investors have faith in the direction Andrew Tinkler is taking the company.

Markedly though, are the noises that Stobart Group's chief executive is making: "We are now moving the business from investment phase into its value optimisation stage and we are making steady progress in this transition, in line with our four-year strategy.

“The management team is focused on delivering value to shareholders and we will continue to work on achieving the potential of each of our divisions,” he added.

Look at that in the context of what has happened in the boardroom in recent months at Stobart. It was heavily reported that former Autologic boss Avril Palmer-Baunack had the backing of Stobart's largest shareholder Invesco - who, it was believed - wanted to 'extract the value' from Stobart's various business units.

Tinkler clearly didn't want that, and however he did it, he is now pushing the firm into its "value optimisation phase" - that means shareholders seeing potential in all of Stobart Group's various divisions, and Stobart Group itself interlocking all of its pieces - road, rail, air, biomass and property.

Can it be done? Investors, on this evidence, are cautiously optimistic.

In the mean time the end of August, and the Bank Holiday did little to shift any share prices. The MT basket of shares remains unmoved at 2,022p.

As a result the market caps remains relatively unmoved.