ABC.L Share News (ABC)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Unilever, up 2.3%. The maker of consumer products reported a drop in profit in the first half of 2015, although revenue grew in each of its Personal Care, Foods, Refreshment and Home Care divisions. It reported a 14% drop in pretax profit to EUR3.6 billion from EUR4.2 billion in the first half, although revenue grew 12% to EUR27 billion from EUR24.1 billion. Both are at reported currencies. At constant currencies, revenue grew 1.8% and pretax profit fell 21%. On an underlying basis, which strips out the impact of currency movements and any acquisitions or disposals, sales grew 2.9% which according to Shore Capital was slightly ahead of the 2.7% consensus, while second quarter underlying sales growth, also of 2.9%, beat consensus of 2.6% growth.

Fresnillo, up 0.8%, and Randgold Resources, up 1.5%. Gold miners are benefiting from the rise in the gold price, which is at USD1,104.63 Thursday morning. After a huge sell-off earlier this week, the yellow metal touched a low of USD1,073.40 but has slightly recovered since.

Kingfisher, up 1.6%. The DIY retailer reported a rise in sales on a constant currency basis in the second quarter of its financial year, as it demonstrated growth in each of the regions in which it operates and as it continues with its strategy to create a unified 'ONE' Kingfisher. It said that total sales in the 10 weeks to July 11 grew 4.8% on a constant currency basis, while like-for-like revenue rose 3.5%.

RELX Group, up 0.7%. The business information provider, also formerly known as Reed Elsevier, reiterated its outlook for 2015 as it posted a flat pretax profit for its first half, in its first results as a consolidated group. The company recently transferred the assets of its UK and Dutch parent companies into a new single group entity called RELX Group.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Aberdeen Asset Management, down 6.2%. The company said its assets under management dropped in the third quarter of its financial years amid outflows related to volatility in Asian and emerging markets. The asset manager said its assets under management fell to GBP307.3 billion at the end of June, down from GBP330.6 billion at the end of March. Aberdeen attributed the fall to market conditions and foreign exchange movements.

SSE, down 4.4%. The energy provider said production across most all of its divisions, except coal, rose in the first quarter of the financial year, but it reported a fall in customer accounts and average customer consumption. It said the number of retail electricity and gas customers at the end of March had fallen to 8.49 million from 8.58 million at the end of March 2014. Average customer consumption of electricity in the first quarter fell to 822,000 kilowatt hours from 853,000 kilowatt hours a year earlier. However, average gas consumption experienced a small lift to 75 therms per customer from 68 therms.

Ashtead Group, down 3.7%. Shares in the industrial equipment rental company are taking a hit after US peer United Rentals reported weak number in its last update. United Rentals reported second-quarter net income of USD86 million, down from USD94 million from last year.

SABMiller, down 0.6%. The brewer said its reported net producer revenue dropped in the first quarter of its financial year, but said it grew on a constant currency basis, as volume growth was mixed in different geographic regions. The maker of Grolsch, Peroni and Coors beers said that reported net producer revenue in the quarter to June 30 declined 10% due to the depreciation of some currencies against the US dollar, but grew 3% on a constant currency basis.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Acacia Mining, up 2.3%, Lonmin, up 1.3%. The miners are benefiting from the rise in gold prices.

Halma, up 0.5%. The safety, heath and environmental technology group said it has seen constant currency revenue growth in all of its divisions in the first quarter. Halma said its order intake has been ahead of revenue in the quarter to July 4 and said it looks well positioned to meet its expectations for the second half of the year.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Howden Joinery Group, down 3.6%. The kitchens and joinery products manufacturer hiked its interim dividend on the back of a rise in pretax profit and revenue in the first half of 2015. It said its pretax profit in the half to the end of June was up to GBP59.2 million from GBP57.2 million, with growth held back somewhat by higher selling and distribution costs and administrative expenses, as the group continues to invest to expand its operations. However, N+1 Singer analyst Matthew McEachran says that, "with significant cost increases, partly from volume and partly investment in capability/capacity, the first half results were slightly behind [N+1 Singer's expectations] and upgrades of any significance look unlikely."

Britvic, down 2.0% to 720.50 pence. The company said it has bought Brazilian soft drinks company Empresa Brasileira de Bebidas e Alimentos for GBP113.6 million, partly financed by a share issue. Britvic said it will place up to 12.4 million shares, 4.97% of its current total, through an accelerated bookbuild process in order to raise GBP90 million to fund its acquisition of ebba, which would equate to 725.81p per share. Britvic also reported that revenue grew 1% in the third quarter of its financial year to GBP322.3 million.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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Atlantic Coal, up 10%. The company reported a large rise in sales in the second quarter after it began selling run of mine anthracite coal at the start of 2015, and the company said it has beefed up its stockpiles in preparation for the winter. The US-based coal miner reported a 12% rise in run of mine anthracite production in the second quarter of 160,583 tonnes from the 136,981 tonnes produced in the first quarter.

Victoria Oil & Gas, up 7%. The gas utility company said both gas production and sales more than doubled in the second quarter of 2015. Average gas production in the second quarter was 12.6 million standard cubic feet per day. That is more than double the 4.5 million cubic feet produced in the first quarter of 2015 and the 2.6 million produced a year earlier. Gas sales also leapt to 1.12 billion standard cubic feet from only 404.5 million cubic feet in the previous quarter and from 281.1 million cubic feet a year earlier.

Abcam, up 5.1%. The life science research tools supplier said it expects to post revenue growth of over 12% for its recently ended financial year to end-June. Abcam said its gross margins for the year are likely to be in line with those it saw in its first half, and slightly increased from its previously financial year.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
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Angle, off 5.7%. The company posted a widened pretax loss for its recently ended financial year, as it continued to progress its Parsortix cell separation system towards commercialisation. For the year to end-April the company posted a pretax loss of GBP3.9 million, widened from a pretax loss GBP2.2 million a year before, due to an increase in operating costs, as it increased investment in developing its key product Parsortix.

Elektron Technology, down 5.5%. The company said that revenue in its first half is expected to be marginally lower than in the previous year, as it continues to see declines in markets for some of its legacy products. However, for the half year to end-July trading for the company's established business is expected to show a "significant improvement" over the previous year.
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By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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