BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------BP, up 4.5%. The oil major said it will make further asset sales over the next two years as it comfortably beat the market's expectations for its 2018 results. BP sold USD3.5 billion worth of assets in 2018, and plans to divest a further USD10 billion of assets over the next two years. The USD3.5 billion sold off in 2018 compares to USD4.3 billion in 2017. At a group level, BP's underlying RC profit came in at USD12.72 billion, up from USD6.17 billion in 2017. Market consensus had seen a figure of USD11.88 billion. BP increased its fourth quarterly dividend by 2.5% on the year to 10.25 US cents. It bought back USD355 million of shares in 2018, and plans to keep buybacks going, and to "fully offset the impact of scrip dilution" by the end of 2019. "Its colossal cash generative ability has enabled the share buyback programme to be an ongoing feature, whilst from an investment perspective, the dividend yield of 6.2% is the icing on the cake," said Interactive Investor's Richard Hunter. Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and 'B' shares were up 1.6% and 1.5% respectively. ----------WM Morrison Supermarkets, up 1.5%. Berenberg raised the supermarket chain to Buy from Hold.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------SEGRO, down 1.0%. Societe Generale downgraded the industrial property investor to Hold from Buy. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Greencore, up 6.6%. Jefferies resumed coverage on the sandwich maker with a Buy rating.----------CYBG, up 3.5%. Deutsche Bank restarted the lender with a Hold rating. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Indivior, down 10%. Shares in the drugmaker fell after a court in the US rejected its motion for a rehearing of its case against Dr Reddy's Laboratories. Dr Reddy's has been developing a generic buprenorphine/naloxone treatment, based on Indivior's Suboxone drug, with Indivior trying to halt development in court. Indivior had appealed against the removal of an injunction against Dr Reddy's plans, but this has been rejected by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Indivior plans on filing an emergency motion with the court while an appeal in Delaware goes on, with Delaware having decided Dr Reddy's has not infringed Indivior's patent. Indivior believes that if Dr Reddy's launches its generic product, it will lose up to 80% of its market share "within a matter of months". ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Water Intelligence, up 11%. The leak detention services provider said it has bought a Canadian franchise, sold a US one, and provided financing to another in the US. The company bought a franchise in Ontario, Canada and sold its Youngstown, Ohio franchise to a current franchise owner who is also "a leader" within the American Leak Detection System. Furthermore, the firm has entered a deal with a franchise in Idaho to provide financial support in order to jump-start the franchise's expansion from leak detection to repairs and municipal. Lastly, trials of a sewer diagnostic technology "have gone well" and commercialization of the product is on schedule. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Maestrano, down 39%. The cloud business integration platform company reported a widened loss in the first half of its current financial year and expects it to widen further on a slowdown in end-user subscription revenue. The company said its loss widened in the six months to the end of December to GBP1.3 million from GBP705,000 reported the year before, despite revenue rising 29% to GBP444,000 from GBP345,000. On a constant currency basis, revenue climbed 35%. Operating expenses doubled over the period to GBP2.0 million from GBP1.0 million, as the company increased headcount in order to deliver major projects and support future growth. Looking ahead, the company expects its adjusted loss for 2019 to come in materially behind market expectations, as Maestrano's major client, an undisclosed US bank, has taken "a much more cautious approach" to the ramp up of end-user subscription revenue. ----------Numis, down 11%. The corporate advisor said trading over the past four months has been hampered by material declines in UK equity indices due to a challenging domestic political situation. In its annual general meeting statement, the broker revealed it completed approximately 25% fewer deals at the start of its current financial year, compared to the first four months of the prior year. The company said that despite the difficult conditions in the market, it is committed to execute its strategy and to provide "access to high quality and insightful advice" to its clients. ----------