Update: Charles Stanley shares rise 5% after firm returns to profit

Two years of losses

Charles Stanley shares are up 5% this morning after the firm announced a significant increase in annual profits following its restructure, after seeing two consecutive years of losses.

Shares in the wealth management company rose 5.1% to trade at 360p and are now up 23% since the start of the year.  In its results for the year to 31 March 2017, the wealth management firm said pre-tax profit was £8.8m, up from a loss of £300m a year ago. In 2015, the firm reported a loss of £6.1m. This was driven by strong financial markets and the transformation programme the firm has been undergoing for the past two years. This has involved disposing of non-core assets, streamlining the business and focusing on four client-facing divisions. However, the results stated this figur...