LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
Micro Focus International, up 7.6%. The security, management and governance software developer reiterated its revenue guidance for 2018 financial year and said revenue for the first half is expected to be better than the management guidance. Micro Focus predicted a 9% to 12% year-on-year drop in revenue for the six months to end-April, on a constant currency basis. Micro Focus said the first half performance includes an unusually large licence deal of USD40 million, which closed earlier than expected. Excluding the deal, the company's underlying revenue still is estimated towards the better end of the guidance range. For the full 2018 financial year to end-October, the company expects 6% to 9% year-on-year drop in constant currency revenue. It also anticipates to record an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margin of around 37% for the period.
Paddy Power Betfair, up 5.5%. The bookmaker confirmed it is in discussions regarding a potential combination of its US business and FanDuel to create a combined entity to target the prospective US sports betting market. FanDuel is a US-based fantasy sports site. "Discussions are ongoing and there is no certainty as to whether agreement will be reached, or as to the terms or timing of any transaction," Paddy Power said. This comes after the US Supreme Court on Monday struck down a federal law banning the practice of legalised sports gambling in New Jersey.
Burberry Group, up 2.5%. The luxury fashion retailer said annual profit rose as revenue dipped slightly amid a year of "transition". Revenue declined 1% both at reported rates and constant currency to GBP2.73 billion, with comparable retail stores sales up 3%, as adjusted operating profit rose 2% at reported rates to GBP467 million. Adjusted operating profit benefited from a "positive" retail performance, GBP44 million incremental cost savings - with the cumulative total now standing at GBP64 million - and improved Beauty profitability due to reduced marketing and inventory charges. Pretax profit came in at GBP412.6 for the year, up from GBP394.8 last year. The group raised its total dividend 6% to 41.3p from 38.9p last year.----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
Centrica, down 4.0%. Morgan Stanley downgraded the British Gas parent to Underweight from Equal Weight.
BT Group, down 1.8%. The telecommunications company was cut to Market Perform from Outperform.----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
HomeServe, up 6.6%. The home emergency cover provider was raised to Buy from Neutral by UBS.
Tullow Oil, 3.2%. The oil and gas company was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight by Morgan Stanley.
National Express, up 2.6%. The transport operator said it recorded double-digit year-on-year growth in pretax profit for the first four months of 2018, and added that it remains on track to deliver on its revenue and profit targets for the year. For the four months to April-end, the company recorded 6.2% growth in constant currency revenue, with the North America division posting 9.0% growth and the UK business a 1.4% increase. The company's Spanish business ALSA recorded 6.3% growth, although its German rail business posted a 0.7% slip in revenue. Group reported revenue for the four-month period rose 1.7%.----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------
Crest Nicholson, down 15%. The housebuilder said it expects operating margins for its current financial year to be at the bottom end of its guided range. Crest Nicholson said that the experiences of flat pricing against a backdrop of build-cost inflation in the range of 3 to 4% will mean that operating margins for the full year are expected to be at 18%, at the bottom of the group's guided range of 18% to 20%. In addition, Crest Nicholson said although most of its sales outlets have performed well, sales at higher price points have been more difficult to achieve, reflecting the greater interdependency of higher-value sales with transactions in the second-hand market, where there is more subdued activity. As a result, margins for the next financial year are expected to be at a similar level to the current year. Midcap rivals Redrow and Bovis Homes were down 2.4% and 1.3% respectively, while blue chip housebuilders Barratt Developments, Persimmon and Berkeley were down 1.7%, 1.6% and 1.2% respectively.
Marston's down 7.0%. The pub operator said it swung to a loss in the first half of its financial year, despite double-digit growth in revenue, with the GBP55 million acquisition of Charles Wells Brewing & Beer Business in May 2017. Pretax loss for the six months to the end of March was GBP13.4 million, sinking from a profit of GBP36.7 million for the same period the year before, due to accounting adjustments relating to the estate valuation and changes in the fair value of interest rate swaps, leading to exceptional items totalling GBP49.7 million for the period. On an underlying basis, pretax profit rose by 7.7% to GBP36.3 million from GBP33.7 million, particularly through a strong performance from the Brewing and Taverns segment.
Mitchell's & Butlers, down 6.5%. The pub and restaurant operator said it saw a rise in like-for-like sales in the first half of its financial year, although profit fell despite revenue growth. For the 28 weeks ended April 14, Mitchells & Butlers reported a pretax profit of GBP69.0 million, down from GBP75.0 million the year before, due to higher operating costs and depreciation, amortisation and movements in the value of the group's property portfolio. Like-for-like sales rose by 1.6% for the first half of the year and up 1.4% for the 32 weeks to May 12. However, Mitchells & Butlers did note that the period was hit by poor weather, stating that like-for-like sales would have been up by 2.5% without the weather impact. The company added that it won't pay an interim dividend but will assess a payout at the end of the financial year.
Computacenter, down 2.8%. UBS cut the IT services company to Sell from Buy. ----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------
Allied Minds, up 5.5%. The technology focused investment company said its subsidiary Federated Wireless has alongside Verizon, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies successful tested 4G long term evolution technology over Verizon's Citizens Broadband Radio Services spectrum. For the deployment Verizon provided its licensed AWS and 700 megahertz spectrum aggregated with 50 megahertz of CRBS band 48 spectrum. The deployment involved outdoor and in-building systems, and with multiple antennas and quadrature amplitude modulation produced peak speeds of 790 megabytes per second. Devices that can access the CBRS spectrum are expected to be launched in 2018.----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------
Arrow Global, down 8.3%. Berenberg started coverage on the debt purchasing firm with a Sell rating. ----------
