Ocado looks like it will close above its flotation price for the first time since it controversially joined the stock market last July.
The online retailer - whose main business is an agreement to sell products from upmarket grocer Waitrose - was forced to drop its IPO price from an initial range of 200p-275p to 180p and, until now, has never reached even that reduced level. But ahead of a trading update due on Monday, Ocado is now sitting 15.3p higher at 193.6p, making it the biggest riser in the FTSE 250 and providing flotation investors with a profit for the first time.
Recently the company has been tipped as a possible takeover target for a larger supermarket group such as Morrisons, and traders also believe a bear squeeze - with people shorting the stock needing to cover their positions - could be helping to drive the price up. More fundamentally, Goldman Sachs last month raised its target price on the business from 200p to 224p.
