Road has faced ‘longstanding challenges’ and disruption

Further plans have been put forward to tackle continuous flooding on a major road to Manchester Airport. Less than 10 years old, the A555 has faced ‘longstanding challenges’, causing major disruption for drivers.

The road links Stockport and Manchester Airport to the wider network but after it opened in 2018, it has ‘experienced flooding during periods of prolonged and intense rainfall’ and was seriously affected in July 2019.

A review was carried out which found a number of issues and works were carried out. However due to the wider landscape, the road has still continued to flood despite measures being taken.

On New Year’s Day and New Years Eve between 2024 and 2025, there was ‘widespread flooding and disruption’ across the borough when a month’s worth of rainfall fell in a matter of hours and several rivers saw record water levels. The A555 also flooded and had to be completely closed to traffic with icy floodwaters having to be broken up by hand because gritting was ineffective.

In a new report, the council said: “Consistent with findings elsewhere across the borough, the flooding was not attributed to routine maintenance failures but instead reflected the exceptional rainfall intensity and the inability of drainage systems to discharge normally during periods of extreme river levels.”

After this, the council looked at what further measures could be taken with interventions to improve drainage around Woodford and work was completed in July this year. Drainage from the Highfield Parkway housing estate and Woodford’s Recreation Ground were diverted into Spath Brook.

In a report presented to Stockport councillors on August 3, council officers said: “The next stage of work is to undertake improvements to pumping infrastructure serving the A555 at Hall Moss Lane to increase the overall pump capacity, with the works planned to start later this year.

“The requirement for these upgrades was identified following on-site testing which confirmed that the discharge rate from the pumps was significantly less than the green field run off rate for the catchment area, resulting in the pump station becoming overwhelmed during periods of heavy and prolonged rainfall.

“These works include replacement of existing pump equipment and increasing pumping capacity to improve the rate at which water can be removed from the highway drainage system during extreme weather events.”

Going forward, the local authority said: “In the coming year, the council is looking at improvements to the pond capacity at the Oil terminal gyratory pond.

“Following the downstream improvements at the Hall Moss Lane pump station, it is proposed to increase the discharge rate from the ponds. An increase in discharge rate will reduce the drain-down time and allow for more flow to reach the pumping station outside of the critical storm event.

“This will mitigate the issue of the pond overtopping during periods of prolonged and heavy rainfall.”

At the meeting, Anne Nerney raised concerns about flooding at Spath Brook and Spath Lane fearing diverted water into the ‘small undredged brook’ could create issues. She asked the council for reassurance ‘my home will be safe and any future developments will not worsen this’.

Councillors said they had passed the matter onto their planning team.

At the same meeting, councillors also approved plans to upgrade Bramhall High School. This partial redevelopment looks to address issues caused by ageing buildings built with concrete that is prone to collapsing without warning.

To find all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your community, visit the Public Notices Portal.

FireTracking’s cameras are currently surveying a million hectares, mainly in France.

The cost? In the French département of Indre-et-Loire, the company has installed 11 detection sites.

“In all €1.2m [$1.4m; £1m] was spent to cover the whole 6,000 sq km area [2,300 sq miles],” says Chaudier.

It is mainly agricultural land. Crop fires are a huge and expensive problem with some 300 a year in this département alone, Chaudier says.

AI fire detection is going to get better over the coming years. The French civil protection service has a programme called Condor, for example, which is testing solar-powered drones that carry out continuous patrols with electro-optical cameras and AI.

There are also projects with sensors placed among the trees. Spain’s SenForFire, for example, which measures gases released before flames become visible.

As for drones, firefighter Guillaume Millet says they’re being tested in France for sea rescue, dropping lifebuoys and survival kits, but there’s no drone tech that’s reached that stage yet for firefighting.

“In fact, the usefulness of technology is very limited in this area,” Millet says. “It can help us with detection but it’s not technology that puts out fires; you need people to pull the hoses through the forest to attack them.”

Not even aircraft can replace that, he says.

“When a Canadair drops 6,000 litres of water on a wildfire it reduces its intensity but then firefighters on the ground have to finish what the Canadair started.”

The French are also getting used to the sight of Dash planes that spray fire retardant (ammonium phosphate in the form of an orange powder) in front of the flames to prevent the vegetation from catching fire too quickly.

But again, that’s no substitute for the brawn and water brought by troops on the ground.

Not yet, at least.

This article was written by

This article was written by

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of BL either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Shares of Advanced Micro Devices fell more than 7% on Wednesday after the chipmaker reported record second-quarter results powered by surging demand for artificial intelligence hardware, yet delivered a revenue outlook that left some investors wanting clearer evidence of accelerating returns from the multibillion-dollar AI spending wave.

AMD stock was last trading near $479.52, down about 7.53% or $39.06, after closing Tuesday at $518.58. The decline came after the shares had risen 7% in the prior regular session. The move was set to erase tens of billions of dollars from the company’s market value as traders digested results that beat Wall Street estimates but failed to fully satisfy elevated expectations built up during a strong year for the stock.

The Santa Clara, California-based company posted second-quarter revenue of $11.5 billion, up 50% from $7.69 billion a year earlier and ahead of analyst forecasts around $11.3 billion. On a non-GAAP basis, diluted earnings per share reached $1.66, exceeding the $1.62 consensus. GAAP diluted earnings were $1.38. Gross margin expanded to 54% on a GAAP basis and 56% non-GAAP.

Data center revenue more than doubled to $6.7 billion, rising 107% year over year and accounting for 58% of total company sales, up from 42% a year ago. The segment’s operating income reached $2.1 billion. Growth was driven by strong demand for AMD’s EPYC server processors and Instinct AI accelerators. Client revenue rose 23% to $3.1 billion on strength in Ryzen processors, while gaming revenue fell 31% to $779 million due to lower semi-custom sales. Embedded revenue increased 19% to $977 million.

For the third quarter, AMD guided revenue to approximately $13 billion, plus or minus $300 million. The midpoint implies about 41% year-over-year growth and a sequential increase of roughly 13%. Non-GAAP gross margin is expected to remain around 56%. The forecast topped the $12.52 billion analyst estimate compiled by LSEG, though some market participants had hoped for guidance closer to $14 billion.

“We delivered an excellent quarter, with record revenue and profitability as Data Center revenue more than doubled year-over-year,” said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD chair and chief executive. “We enter the second half with strong momentum as EPYC demand accelerates, Instinct deployments scale and Helios begins to ramp. More broadly, AI is driving a significant expansion in demand for compute across all of our markets, and our leadership portfolio and growing customer visibility position us exceptionally well to capture this expanding opportunity and deliver substantial revenue and earnings growth in the years ahead.”

Chief Financial Officer Jean Hu added: “Revenue increased 50% year-over-year to a record $11.5 billion, driven by continued strength in our Data Center business, which represented 58% of company revenue in the quarter. We expect Data Center sales to accelerate in the second half of 2026, driving stronger overall revenue growth and continued earnings expansion.”

On the earnings call, Su indicated that data-center revenue is expected to more than double by 2027, with total company revenue growth projected above the previously outlined target of more than 35%. She pointed to server CPU revenue growth of more than 70% in 2027 and described AI GPU growth as well over 100%, supported by the ramp of the Helios rack-scale platform and strategic customer relationships that include OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic.

Despite the strong numbers, investors focused on several points of caution. Capital expenditures rose sharply to $808 million in the quarter from $282 million a year earlier and $389 million in the prior quarter. Free cash flow came in at about $1.56 billion, a 14% margin, lower than the 25% seen in the first quarter as the company invested to support higher data-center demand. Inventory increased to approximately $8.5 billion. Analysts also noted that adjusted gross margins are expected to remain flat sequentially at 56%, offering limited near-term expansion after the stock’s substantial run-up this year.

AMD shares have more than doubled in 2026 on optimism that the company can emerge as a credible alternative to Nvidia in AI accelerators while defending and expanding its position in server CPUs against Intel. That rally raised the bar for quarterly results. Recent customer wins and platform announcements had further heightened expectations.

“We suspect expectations had moved higher following Intel’s results a couple of weeks ago, and the buyside already has a fairly bullish outlook,” said Stacy Rasgon, an analyst at Bernstein.

Other market observers described the results as objectively solid yet insufficient to reset the valuation for a stock that had been trading at elevated multiples of forward earnings. Some pointed to potential supply constraints in advanced process technology and packaging through 2027 as risks that could temper the pace of growth even as demand remains robust.

AMD has been expanding beyond discrete chips into full AI systems that combine processors, accelerators and networking. The company has highlighted the beginning of Helios shipments in the third quarter, with a larger step-up expected in the fourth quarter and continued growth into 2027. Management expressed confidence that current supply arrangements can support the outlined targets, though industry-wide tightness in certain process nodes remains a factor to monitor.

The broader semiconductor sector has been volatile as investors weigh the sustainability of AI infrastructure spending by hyperscalers and enterprises. Nvidia has maintained a dominant position in training and inference accelerators, while Intel has posted improving results that have drawn renewed attention. AMD’s ability to convert its growing customer visibility and product momentum into consistently accelerating free cash flow and higher margins will likely remain a central focus for the market in coming quarters.

Cash and investments stood at $13.1 billion at quarter-end. The company generated $2.4 billion in cash from operations during the period. Management reiterated that AI is expanding demand for compute across markets and that AMD’s portfolio positions it to capture a meaningful share of that opportunity over a multi-year horizon.

Trading volume was elevated as the stock reversed the prior day’s gains. For the year to date, AMD remains significantly higher even after Wednesday’s decline, reflecting the scale of the AI-driven re-rating of its business. Investors will now watch closely for evidence in subsequent quarters that the data-center acceleration and Helios ramp are translating into the faster growth trajectory management has outlined for 2027 and beyond.

The results underscored both the opportunity and the pressure facing AMD as it seeks to convert strong product demand into sustained outperformance relative to the high expectations already embedded in its share price.

The quick-service restaurant (QSR) sector in India has hit a sweet spot after facing significant market turbulence over the past few years, offering an attractive risk-reward profile for equity investors, according to domestic brokerage Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Underperformance creates attractive entry points

Listed QSR stocks have gone through a bruising phase over the last four years, with their combined market value falling by roughly 20% between FY22 and FY26. Over the past twelve months alone, the sector saw a sharp 25% drop as elevated inflation, subdued same-store sales growth (SSSG), and cautious consumer spending took a toll on operating performance and stock valuations.
However, Motilal Oswal believes these structural drag factors are now reaching a bottom. With valuation multiples cooling off from their historical highs and quarterly business updates showing initial signs of operational recovery, the brokerage sees a favourable margin of safety for investors looking to buy into quality consumer names.

Long-term consumption tailwinds intact

India’s organised food ecosystem remains heavily underpenetrated compared with global markets like China or Western economies, leaving substantial room for long-term growth. The domestic QSR market is projected to reach Rs 80,000 crore by 2027, up from Rs 18,800 crore in 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 23%.
The brokerage expects demand to pick up steadily through FY27, backed by stabilising urban consumption, softening input costs, and seasonal demand upticks. At the same time, shifting consumer habits toward digital ordering, delivery apps, and quick-bite options continue to help organised brands take market share from local, unorganised eateries.

Stock picks and investment rationale

Despite near-term margin pressures, major QSR players have pushed ahead with network expansion, opening new outlets across tier-two and tier-three cities to build scale. Operators are also tweaking store sizes, introducing value-oriented menus, and driving operational efficiency to protect store-level profitability.
Motilal Oswal remains selective, favouring companies with robust delivery footprints, lean balance sheets, and proven execution capabilities.

Key stock calls within the space

Jubilant FoodWorks: Motilal Oswal remains bullish on the Domino’s Pizza operator, rating it as a top pick in the QSR basket due to its dominant delivery infrastructure, deep supply chain, and steady store expansion pipeline.

Sapphire Foods India: The brokerage maintains a ‘Buy’ recommendation on Sapphire Foods with a target price of Rs 220. The call is supported by strong momentum in its KFC portfolio, improving store economics, and expectations of scale benefits from its proposed merger with Devyani International.

Westlife Foodworld & Devyani International: The brokerage also highlights Westlife Foodworld (McDonald’s operator in West and South India) and Devyani International for their focus on unit economics, cost optimisation, and footprint expansion in high-growth regional markets.

Motilal Oswal suggests that long-term investors should use current valuation levels to gradually accumulate quality QSR stocks as industry volume growth recovers.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)