LONDON – 9 December 2025
As traders in the United Kingdom look ahead to Tuesday’s session, the latest completed trading day on the London Stock Exchange — Monday 8 December 2025 — delivered a clear set of standout winners across the UK market. While the FTSE 100 itself was described as “subdued” amid rising gilt yields and a softer pound, a handful of mid‑cap and small‑cap names surged on stock‑specific news, analyst upgrades and insider buying. [1]
Using data from TipRanks’ “Stock Market Gainers Today” dashboard for the UK, along with London market reports and company announcements, the five biggest percentage gainers among widely‑traded UK shares at the close on 8 December were: [2]
- Saga plc (LON:SAGA) – up 8.36% to 317.50p
- Kainos Group plc (LON:KNOS) – up 6.65% to 1,155.00p
- Empire Metals Ltd (LON:EEE) – up 5.98% to 37.20p
- PayPoint plc (LON:PAY) – up 5.13% to 461.00p
- CRH plc (LON:CRH) – up 4.88% to 9,494.0p [3]
Below, we break down what moved each of these names, plus other notable UK risers, and how analysts are reading the outlook as of 9 December 2025.
UK Stock Market Today: Quiet FTSE, Noisy Stock‑Pickers
Macro news on Monday painted a cautious picture for UK assets:
- Gilt yields rose as investors sold UK government bonds, pushing up borrowing costs.
- The FTSE 100 “remained subdued”, reflecting macro jitters rather than a broad risk‑on rally. [4]
Yet beneath the index‑level calm, stock‑specific stories drove large moves, especially in travel & leisure, software, resources and payments. This divergence between a flat index and sharp single‑stock moves is exactly the environment where stock‑pickers (and news‑driven traders) tend to shine.
1. Saga plc (SAGA): Hedge Fund “400% Upside” Call Keeps the Cruise Going
Move:
- +8.36% to 317.50p, making Saga the single biggest UK percentage gainer in Monday’s session, on volume of around 1.2m shares. [5]
What happened?
An Alliance News “small‑cap winners” roundup flagged Saga as the top riser among London Main Market small caps, noting the shares were up 8.1% at 316.75p by late morning and sitting at the very top of their 12‑month range (111.6p–316.75p). [6]
The catalyst: a bullish call from UK hedge fund Kernow Asset Management, which recently argued Saga’s share price could rise by more than 400% over the coming years and valued the business at roughly £2.2bn, implying potential upside of about 468% from previous levels. [7]
Kernow frames Saga — an over‑50s‑focused travel and insurance group — as “materially undervalued” given:
- Rebounding demand for cruises and long‑haul travel among affluent retirees
- Debt reduction progress after a multi‑year balance sheet clean‑up
- The potential to monetise strong brand recognition in financial services and healthcare for older customers [8]
How does the market see it now?
- Saga is trading near its 12‑month high and has more than doubled from the bottom of its 1‑year range (111.6p). [9]
- Ownership data show a meaningful institutional presence, including Kernow, Hosking Partners and Aberdeen, alongside a large employee share ownership plan. [10]
Key risks: Saga is still a high‑beta turnaround story: it remains highly sensitive to consumer confidence, travel trends and capital markets access. Anyone following the Kernow thesis is effectively betting that management can deliver multi‑year execution and that the “silver pound” structural story translates into cash flows, not just headlines.
2. Kainos Group (KNOS): Big Bank Upgrade Ignites UK Software Star
Move:
- +6.65% to 1,155.00p, with a gain of 72p on the day and closing spreads around 1,156p/1,157p according to UK quote data. [11]
Catalyst: Bank of America turns bullish
Bank of America (BofA) upgraded Kainos from “underperform” to “buy”, lifting its price target from 960p to 1,290p — roughly 12% upside from Monday’s close. [12]
In its note, BofA argued that:
- Growth momentum in Kainos’s digital transformation and cloud services business can drive further re‑rating.
- The new target multiple of 27x 2026 earnings aligns with Kainos’s five‑year median, even though the stock currently trades at about 24x next‑twelve‑months earnings, a 10% discount to its own history. [13]
- Free cash flow is projected to grow at around 12% CAGR between FY26–28, with FCF yield rising from roughly 4.4% to 5.7%. [14]
Why it matters:
- Kainos has outperformed the FTSE 250 by roughly 28% year‑to‑date, yet still trades at a discount to its historic valuation band, a combination brokers view as supportive for further gains if growth holds up. [15]
- The company remains a pure‑play UK software and IT services name, with exposure to digital government projects and large enterprise cloud programmes — themes that investors still see as long‑term secular winners even as they rotate away from mega‑cap US tech. [16]
Watch‑out: At these valuation levels, Kainos is priced for continued execution. Any slowdown in public sector budgets, delays in large contracts or margin pressure could quickly compress multiples.
3. Empire Metals (EEE): Speculative Miners Back in Fashion
Move:
- +5.98% to 37.20p, after closing at 35.10p on the previous session, with intraday trading between 35.00p and 39.00p and volume above 2m shares. [17]
What’s driving the rally?
Analysis from technical research site StockInvest notes that Empire Metals surged 5.98% on Monday 8 December, is up about 27.4% over the past two weeks, and has risen in six of the last ten trading days. Rising price with rising volume is flagged as a positive technical signal. [18]
Fundamentally, Empire Metals remains a high‑risk exploration play, with investor focus centred on its Pitfield titanium and critical minerals project in Western Australia. Recent company communications about Pitfield, including plans to present project updates at investor events and the appointment of Canaccord Genuity as joint corporate broker, have kept the story in front of speculative resource investors. [19]
Context and risks:
- Over the last year, Empire’s share price has traded between 6.20p and 82.50p, underlining just how volatile the name can be. [20]
- The company does not yet generate stable cash flows, so the share price is tightly linked to exploration newsflow, commodity sentiment and financing risk.
For traders, Monday’s move is part of a broader swing back toward junior miners as metals like copper and silver hit record or near‑record highs on tightening supply and strong industrial demand. [21]
4. PayPoint (PAY): Bouncing from a Fresh 12‑Month Low
Move:
- +5.13% to around 461.00p at the close, according to both TipRanks and UK retail broker data. [22]
The twist: this rally came on the same day the stock printed a new 52‑week low.
- Mid‑day trading saw PayPoint hit GBX 438.50, marking a fresh 12‑month low before recovering into the close.
- A MarketBeat note highlights that roughly 328,910 shares traded, with the stock last seen at 461p during that intraday recovery. [23]
Despite Monday’s bounce, PayPoint has had a brutal year:
- One‑year performance: roughly ‑47%, with a 52‑week range of 451.50p to 878.12p. [24]
Yet analysts remain strikingly optimistic:
- Panmure Gordon has reiterated a “buy” rating with a 1,100p price objective, more than double current levels. [25]
- MarketBeat data show a consensus “Buy” rating and a GBX 1,100 target, alongside insider purchases totalling 31,579 shares in the past 90 days, including 25,000 shares bought by CEO Nick Wiles. [26]
Investment angle:
PayPoint’s core business — providing payment services, ATMs and parcel pick‑up points for convenience retailers — is relatively defensive, but the company is grappling with:
- Competitive pressure in payments and e‑commerce logistics
- Mixed investor sentiment after previous strategy shifts
Monday’s move looks partly like short‑term bargain hunting and short‑covering off deeply oversold levels, underpinned by ongoing insider confidence and bullish broker targets rather than a sudden, new fundamental catalyst.
5. CRH plc (CRH): S&P 500 Inclusion and Buybacks Fuel Gains
Move:
- +4.88% on the London line, closing at 9,494.0p with intraday highs near 9,684.0p and volume of over 720k shares. [27]
- In New York, the CRH ADR closed up about 5.90% to $126.54 on Monday, with volume exceeding 23m shares. [28]
Key drivers: S&P 500 entry & ongoing buybacks
CRH is benefiting from two powerful technical supports:
- Inclusion in the S&P 500:
- S&P Dow Jones Indices has confirmed CRH will join the S&P 500 in its next quarterly rebalancing, effective before the market opens on 22 December 2025.
- An Investopedia note highlighted that CRH shares rose around 6% on the announcement, as index trackers prepare to buy the stock. [29]
- Aggressive share buybacks:
- CRH has an active $300m buyback programme running through February 2026, regularly announcing “transaction in own shares” updates as it repurchases and cancels stock. [30]
Fundamentally, CRH remains one of the world’s largest building materials groups, with guidance pointing to FY 2025 earnings per share between $5.49 and $5.72, and recent quarterly revenue up roughly 5.3% year‑on‑year. [31]
The combination of:
- Index inclusion (forced buying)
- Ongoing buybacks
- Solid earnings momentum
is a classic recipe for strong technical support, explaining why CRH is making fresh all‑time highs in the US and putting in one of the strongest performances among large UK‑listed names.
Other Notable UK Risers: Oxford Nanopore, Baltic Classifieds, Trustpilot and On The Beach
Beyond the top five, several other UK stocks delivered eye‑catching gains on Monday.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT): New CEO, Governance Outreach
- Move: Around +4.7% to roughly 131p, according to London Stock Exchange feeds. [32]
- The company confirmed the appointment of Francis Van Parys — a senior executive from life‑science giant Danaher — as its new CEO, with founder Gordon Sanghera stepping aside. [33]
- Oxford Nanopore also issued an AGM post‑meeting shareholder engagement update, signalling it had completed discussions following a contentious vote on Resolution 12 earlier in the year. [34]
Both moves are seen as attempts to reset governance and execution after a volatile period for the stock, which is central to UK ambitions in genomics and sequencing technology.
Baltic Classifieds Group (BCG): Insider Buying and Buybacks
- Move: Roughly +4.56% to 183.40p, putting the Baltic online classifieds group among the day’s stronger risers. [35]
- An RNS confirmed that Baltic Classifieds has been buying back its own shares, with a London filing noting transactions in its own shares on 8 December 2025 at an average price near 177.8p. [36]
- At the same time, director Edmund Williams disclosed the purchase of 222,326 shares at 180p, a transaction worth about £400,186.80, as flagged by several insider‑trading trackers. [37]
That combination of company buybacks plus fresh insider buying often acts as a strong positive signal for investors looking for alignment and confidence from management.
Trustpilot Group (TRST): Clawing Back from a Short‑Seller Hit
Trustpilot’s move on Monday was more modest in percentage terms (around +4.10% at the close), but it comes after a dramatic week: [38]
- On 4 December, shares plunged nearly 30–32% after short‑seller Grizzly Research alleged “mafia‑style” practices and selective review manipulation on the platform — claims Trustpilot strongly denied. [39]
- Since then, the stock has staged a partial recovery, including a 13.3% jump on 6 December following insider buying and a rebound in sentiment, according to MarketBeat. [40]
- A TR‑1 filing on 8 December showed JPMorgan Asset Management had crossed a major holdings threshold, adding another layer of institutional support. [41]
For now, Trustpilot remains a high‑controversy name, and Monday’s gain should be seen more as stabilisation than a clean bill of health.
On The Beach Group (OTB): Employee Trust Buyback Supports the Share Price
- Move: Around +3.95% to 223.50p, putting On The Beach in the UK top‑10 gainers by percentage. [42]
- The online travel group announced an EBT Market Purchase Programme: its Employee Benefit Trust will buy up to £5m worth of shares in the open market, funded by the company, to satisfy current and future share‑scheme awards. [43]
- Recent results showed rising profits and sales, though house broker Shore Capital remains at “hold”, reflecting a more balanced risk‑reward view after the stock’s recovery from pandemic‑era lows. [44]
Buyback‑style EBT programmes often provide technical support to the share price, especially in relatively thinly‑traded mid‑caps.
What Today’s Winners Tell Us About the UK Market
Looking across Monday’s biggest gainers, a few themes stand out:
- Stock‑specific catalysts dominate
- Hedge fund letters (Saga), big‑bank upgrades (Kainos), insider buying (Baltic Classifieds, Trustpilot, PayPoint) and boardroom changes (Oxford Nanopore) all drove sharp single‑stock moves, even as the FTSE 100 drifted sideways. [45]
- Smaller companies are where the action is
- Many of the top gainers sit in the FTSE 250, FTSE Small Cap or AIM rather than the FTSE 100, underscoring that liquidity is thinner but news sensitivity is higher in the mid‑ and small‑cap space. [46]
- Buybacks and index flows still matter
- CRH’s performance shows how index inclusion plus buybacks can turbo‑charge an already solid fundamental story. [47]
- Volatility cuts both ways
- Trustpilot illustrates how stocks can plunge on governance or business‑model fears and rebound on insider purchases and reassurances — but the underlying debate doesn’t vanish overnight. [48]
How Investors Might Read These Moves (Without Overreacting)
For readers following the UK stock market via Google News or Discover, a few general pointers:
- One big day doesn’t make a trend. Saga, Empire Metals and others have powerful narratives behind them, but multi‑bagger claims from hedge funds or speculative forecasts deserve careful scrutiny.
- Check whether a move is news‑driven or technically‑driven. Upgrades, insider buying and index changes are all real catalysts — but they can also fade quickly once the initial wave of orders passes.
- Liquidity and risk are linked. Many of today’s largest percentage gainers are smaller, more volatile names where spreads are wider and downside can be just as dramatic as the upside.
References
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