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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on the main London indices midday Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - Winners
Barclays is up 1%. The bank is one of the biggest risers on the blue-chip index as it benefits from Societe Generale's decision to upgrade the stock to Buy from Hold. The bank saw its price target drop to 320 pence from 325p.
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FTSE 100 - Losers
Tesco falls 3.6% after investors react negatively to results. The company announced that pretax profit for the first-half of the year declined 23.5% to GBP1.39 billion. It said its net profit for the first-half was down 34% to GBP820 million, compared with GBP1.2 billion a year earlier. Tesco's disappointing results were compounded by Sainsbury's strong sales growth in its convenience store business and online sales.
Unilever, down 1.8%. The multinational consumer goods company continues to fall, albeit at a softened rate, after its warning Tuesday that it is now seeing weakness in its emerging markets. Subsequently, UBS has downgraded the company to Neutral from Buy.
WM Morrison, down 1.5%. The food retailer has seen share price decrease following the disappointing results from Tesco.
Wolseley drops 1.4% having been one of the top blue-chip risers Tuesday. The distributor of plumbing and heating products is retracing gains made on the back of strong full year reports. The company is still up on pre-announcement levels.
J Sainsbury sinks 1.3%. Despite outperforming its market rival, Tesco, Sainsbury's share price has fallen. Shore Capital is impressed by the grocers like-for-like growth, excluding petrol, rising 2.0%, ahead of management's full year guidance of 1.5% and at the upper end of Shore's expectations of 1.75% - 2.0%. However, Shore remains reluctant to alter its forecasts or upgrade its rating as Sainsbury's like-for-like and total sales were broadly in line with expectations.
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FTSE 250 - Winners
Domino's Pizza Group, up 4.9%, is one of the biggest risers on the FTSE 250. The company announced that sales rose in the third quarter. This rise was driven partly by a surge in orders being placed online and over mobile phones. The pizza delivery company reported a 10.4% increase in system sales to GBP140.9 million for the 13 weeks to September 29, with like-for-like sales up 4% compared with 3.7% a year earlier, but online sales outperformed with a 19.8% increase to GBP72.3 million while mobile sales more than doubled and now account for 29% of its online business. The company said it opened eight new UK stores in the quarter and has opened 23 so far this year. Domino's is well placed to meet analysts' expectations for its full-year results.
SOCO International has climbed 1.5% on the back of positive test results in Vietnam. The oil-and-gas exploration and production company said results from the TGT-10XST1 exploration well at its Te Giac Trang field exceeded all pre-test expectations. SOCO said the site tests found roughly 250 metres of net pay zones.
Electrocomponents, up 1.1%. The company reported that it had seen underlying sales growth of around 1% in its first half of the year, similar to that of the second half of last year. It said it had seen strong sales growth in September of about 4%. The electronics and maintenance products company said that its eCommerce sales growth in the first half was around 6%, which comprised about 57% of its total sales.
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FTSE 250 - Losers
Hochschild Mining, down 10%, leads the FTSE 250 fallers. Investors have reacted badly to the news that the mining company has proposed a USD280 million deal to acquire the remaining 40% stake in the Pallancata mine and Inmaculada project in Peru. The remaining interest in the sites are owned by International Mineral Corporation. The acquisition should reduce the average unit costs of the company, says Kate Craig, analyst at Liberum Capital. Liberum retains a Hold rating on the stock pending further analysis.
Ophir Energy, down 5.2%. Despite the company announcing that it had successfully completed the Pweza-3 appraisal well and flow test in Block 4, Tanzania, share price has fallen.
Dunelm Group, down 5.1%. Despite announcing higher sales for its first quarter, the company is suffering after it reported that growth slowed sharply from a year earlier and sales from stores open more than a year declined. The company blamed the hot sunny summer weather for cutting the number of customers entering its shops in the first four weeks of the quarter.
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AIM - Winners
Daniel Stewart Securities is up 30%. The stockbroker and wealth management firm has bounced from Tuesdays lows. The company reported Monday that it had swung to loss in its last financial year as revenues slumped, mainly due to a balance sheet mark down of the value of unrealised assets but also because its corporate advisory and stockbroking operations were hit by the economic downturn.
Proactis Holdings climbs 18% after strong results. The company raised its final dividend after increases in subscription deals boosted revenues and profits in the full-year ended July 31. The business software and support services company raised its final dividend of 1.00p from 0.75p in the previous year. It posted revenues of GBP8.0 million, up from GBP7.5 million.
Griffin Mining, up 7.8%. The company has increased its resource estimates at the Caijiaying Zinc-Gold Mine in China. The China-focused precious metal exploration and development company said there has been a 215% increase in measured resources for the current mining area of Zone III at Caijiaying. The company said its total resource increased to 49.9 million tonnes including 4.1% or 2 million tonnes of zinc, 0.4% or 212,000 tonnes of lead, 23.9 grams per tonne or 37.9 million ounces of silver and 0.5 grams per tonne or 825,000 ounces of gold.
Numis Corporation is up 7.2% on the back of Tuesdays report that its performance strengthened over the second-half thanks to an increase in its corporate client base. Numis said the increase in its corporate client base came about because listed companies are seeking it out as a broker and adviser because of its stability.
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AIM - Losers
Evocutis, down 53%, is the biggest faller on the AIM index. The company's shares have more than halved after it announced that it is to convene a general meeting after its net assets fell to less than half of its share capital. The company said that it was no longer in discussions with potential offerers in relation to a merger or sale of the company. The company will convene its general meeting on October 28th.
Albemarle & Bond Holdings, down 47%. The pawnbroking and jewellery business said it is in talks with its lenders about solving potential breaches of its debt covenants later this year after discussions with is largest shareholder about an equity raising failed.
Physiomics is down 20% as it retraces from Tuesday highs. The company's shares had jumped on the news that it had signed a contract with a pharma customer to supply cardiac toxicity risk modelling services. Despite falling sharply Wednesday, Physiomics is a long way from its share price prior to the announcement.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com
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