LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
Barclays, up 0.9%. The bank reported a rise in third quarter profit but year-to-date profit remained lower, dragged by litigation costs and conducts charges experienced earlier in the year.For the three months ended September, Barclays pretax profit increased sharply to GBP1.46 billion from GBP1.11 billion in the third quarter of 2017. The improvement was led by Barclays investment bank, which helped the Barclays International division to a 30% rise in profit. The group raised its third quarter dividend to 2.5 pence from 1.0p paid a year before. Barclays reiterated its intention to pay a total dividend of 6.5p for 2018.----------
International Consolidated Airlines Group up 1.5%. Deutsche Bank raised is rating on European Airlines sector to Overweight from Underweight.
easyJet was up 0.5%.----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
Fresnillo, down 2.7%. The gold miner revised its annual production guidance after having mixed results in the third quarter. The company said gold production in the three months to the end of September 30 declined by 3.5% to 225,000 ounces, while silver production increased by 6.3% year-on-year to 15.5 million ounces. However, Fresnillo said third-quarter silver production was not as high as anticipated and reduced its annual guidance for silver output to between 62.0 million and 64.5 million ounces from 64.5 million to 67.5 million ounces estimated earlier. Fresnillo now expects to produce between 920,000 and 940,000 ounces of gold in the full year, up from 900,000 to 930,000 ounces guided previously. Fellow gold miner Randgold Resources was down 1.7%.----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Equiniti, up 0.6%. The payments services provider won two pension administration contracts in the UK nuclear sector. Under the terms of the contracts, Equiniti's pension division, EQPaymaster, will support virtually all employees and former employees engaged in the UK nuclear industry. The contracts are for the UK Atomic Energy Authority and for the Combined Nuclear Pension Plan, covering 60,000 members in total.----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------
Metro Bank, down 7.9%. The challenger bank said it is experiencing continued competition in residential mortgages resulting in "slowed margin progress". Net interest margin fell by 15 basis points to 1.82%. More positively, Metro Bank reported lending growth of 52% in the first nine months to GBP13.12 billion from GBP8.61 billion, with commercial loans up 43% to GBP4.17 billion and residential mortgages up 59% to GBP8.72 billion. Underlying pretax profit multiplied to GBP39.2 million from GBP13.2 million, while statutory pretax profit jumped to GBP25.1 million from GBP7.8 million. At the end of the period, the bank's assets stood at GBP20.57 billion, up 41% year-on-year, while its loan to deposit ratio grew to 89% from 80%. Its Common Equity Tier 1 Capital ratio remained robust at 15.7% as at September-end. ----------
Stobart Group, down 5.4%. The infrastructure & support services company swung to a loss in the first half of its financial year, despite a 21% increase in revenue. For the six months to August 31, Stobart reported a pretax loss of GBP18.8 million compared with a GBP111.6 million profit in the same period a year ago. Interim revenue increased to GBP151.3 million from GBP124.6 million year-on-year. The company's profit was hurt by the lack of income generated by the sale of its 49% interest in the parent of Eddie Stobart, Greenwhitestar Holding Co 1, which resulted in a GBP123.8 million profit figuring in its interim balance sheet a year ago. ----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Photo-Me International, up 10%. The photo-booth operator maintained its annual guidance following the completion of restructuring of its Japanese unit. Photo-Me said it removed unprofitable machines and installed new ones with a "significantly" lower production cost. As a result, the company expects to have a 35% faster return on its Japanese investment. Photo-Me said its deployment of encrypted photo ID upload technology has "continued to progress well", with 2,700 photo booths in the UK now enabled for UK passport renewals. The company is now targeting the deployment of 4,000 enabled photo booths by the end of December.----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------
Yu Group, down 83%. The gas & electricity supplier said it expects a GBP10 million reduction in profit, which will send it to a loss, after discovering areas of concern in a performance review. One of the areas of concern for the group was the recognition of historic accrued income, which totalled GBP4.2 million for 2017 and GBP4.3 million for the six months to June. The level of trade debtors held also caused concern to the group, as if found that the level of non-payment being experienced is "significantly above that which has been previously provided for". Looking ahead, despite being "extremely disappointed" to reveal the profitability drop, Yu said it expects to achieve a profit in 2019. ----------
Scancell Holdings, down 15%. The biopharmaceutical company said the US Food & Drug Administration has asked for further information on its SCIB1 product's proposed trial. Scancell applied for an investigational new drug application to the FDA for SCIB1, which will be trialled in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with advanced melanoma. The trial is being carried out alongside Ichor Medical Systems Inc's TriGrid electroporation delivery system, and it is further information on this that the US regulator has asked for. The system, Scancell said, has been used on the previous SCIB1 phase 1/2 stud, which had favourable results.----------
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