Beazley Share News (BEZ)

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Mondi, up 3.6%. Mondi, which is listed in both London and Johannesburg, sees underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation for the six months to June "to be above" the EUR852 million recorded a year prior. Special item net charges after tax will be just EUR2 million, after EUR81 million booked a year ago. Basic earnings per share are guided by the packaging firm to be between 93 euro cents and 99 cents, which would be increases year-on-year of 28% and 37% respectively. Peers DS Smith and Smurfit Kappa were up 3.1% and 2.5% respectively in a positive read-across.----------Smith & Nephew, up 1.8%. Berenberg raised the medical technology company to Buy from Hold.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Tesco, down 2.1%. Kantar data showed all of the "Big Four" grocers, Tesco, J Sainsbury, Wm Morrison Supermarkets, and Asda lost market share in the 12 weeks to July 14. Tesco's sales declined 2.0% in the period to GBP7.49 billion, with market share slipping to 27.2% from 27.6%. Sainsbury's sales fell 2.3% to GBP4.24 billion, and market share reduced to 15.3% from 15.5%. Morrisons sales fell 2.6% to GBP2.85 billion, with market share declining to 10.3% from 10.5%. Walmart Inc's Asda sales were down 2.0% to GBP4.11 billion, and market share dipped to 14.9% from 15.1%. Ocado Group's sales rose 12%, the strongest of all grocers included in the survey, with market share rising to 1.4% to 1.2%. The two major discounters, however, Aldi and Lidl registered strong periods. Aldi sales climbed 6.7% to GBP2.04 billion, while Lidl's sales increased 7.0% to GBP1.48 billion. Shares in Ocado were down 1.3%, J Sainsburys down 1.1% and Wm Morrison Supermarkets down 0.9%.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Beazley, up 3.1%. The insurer reported a surge in interim profit, though underwriting has continued to be held back. Beazley's pretax profit came in at USD166.4 million for the six months to June, almost triple the USD57.5 million recorded a year prior, "buoyed by a strong investment return". Gross written premiums increased by 12% to USD1.48 billion, with net written premiums rising 11% to USD1.23 billion. Beazley's return on equity was 19%, from 6% the year before, with the combined ratio at 100% from 95%. The combined ratio is a measure of an insurer's operating performance, and is a ratio of total costs to total net earned premium, with a ratio of under 100% indicating an underwriting profit.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------FDM Group, down 2.6%. The IT consultancy and recruitment company said profit rose in the first half of the year as its 'Mounties' revenue continued to boost performance. FDM posted GBP24.9 million pretax profit for the six months to June 30 versus GBP22.9 million the year prior, an increase of 8.7%. The company has both freelance IT contractors and its own employees known as Mounties. The company has focused on growing Mountie numbers and revenue, while keeping freelancers "ancillary to the group". Revenue climbed 14% to GBP134.4 million from GBP117.8 million. Within this, Mountie revenue was up 16% at GBP132.6 compared to GBP114.6 million the year before. Contractor revenue, meanwhile, dropped 44% to GBP1.8 million from GBP3.2 million as part of a "managed decline".----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------GetBusy, up 16%. The document management and communication software firm said its pretax loss narrowed in the first half of the year with higher recurring revenue led by customer growth in both its Virtual Cabinet and SmartVault products. GetBusy posted a USD571,000 pretax loss for the six months ended June 30, narrowed from GBP666,000 the year before. This improvement was down to revenue, which grew 19% to GBP6.2 million from GBP5.2 million - including a 20% improvement in recurring revenue to GBP5.4 million from GBP4.5 million. The increase was the result of customer growth within GetBusy's Virtual Cabinet and ASmartVault products, with paid users up 12%.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Fevertree Drinks, down 8.6%. The tonic water maker boosted its interim payout by 23% following an "encouraging" first half. Fevertree, one of AIM's biggest companies and easily a member for the FTSE 250 were it on the Main Market, is paying 5.20 pence per share to shareholders for the six months to June, up from 4.22p year-on-year. Revenue for the first half climbed 13% to GBP117.3 million for the period, with pretax profit rising 7.0% to GBP35.0 million. Fevertree reported growth across all regions, and said it has continued to strengthen its position as the biggest drinks mixer firm in the UK. Looking ahead, Fevertree is "mindful" of the tough comparatives for the rest of the summer due to the hot weather in 2018, but is still confident on meeting 2019 expectations. ----------