BTG Share News (BTG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Royal Dutch Shell 'B', up 3.6%, Shell 'A', up 3.2%. The oil major said the integration of BG Group is "essentially complete" as it maintained its dividend payment and reported significantly improved earnings in the third quarter of 2016. The oil and gas major reported income attributable to shareholders in the third quarter of USD1.37 billion, rising from USD1.17 billion in the second quarter of 2016. Compared to a year earlier, Shell turned from a USD7.41 billion loss. Once exceptional items are stripped out, Shell's current cost of supply earnings in the quarter totalled USD2.79 billion, more than double the USD1.04 billion reported in the second quarter and also higher than the USD2.37 billion in earnings reported a year earlier. Shell maintained its quarterly dividend of 0.47 cents per share as expected.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Standard Chartered, down 6.3%. The emerging-markets focused bank its profit and income levels remain unacceptably low, as the bank reported a year-on-year decline in third-quarter profit. Standard Chartered reported a statutory pretax profit of USD153 million for the three months to September 30, reduced from USD430 million year on year. However, Standard Chartered said its underlying pretax profit for the quarter was USD458 million, swinging from a USD139 million underlying pretax loss the year before. Standard Chartered's operating income for the three month period was USD3.5 billion, down slightly from USD3.7 billion the year before. "Q3 profits missed consensus," noted Accendo Markets analyst Mike Van Dulken, adding: "Management highlighting still-elevated loan impairments and expectations for markets to remain challenging is a message investors don't want to hear."

BP, down 3.5%. The oil major revealed it remained loss-making in the first three quarters of 2016, whilst underlying profit fell drastically, despite a better financial performance in the third quarter. BP's profit in the third quarter was higher than the second quarter, but was down significantly down from a year ago. BP also remained loss making in the first nine months of 2016 whilst underlying profits, which excludes exceptional items, more than halved. Replacement cost profit in the quarter amounted to USD1.66 billion to turn from a USD2.24 billion loss in the previous quarter. That was also higher than the USD1.23 billion profit made a year earlier. However, underlying replacement cost profit, which strips out exceptional items, totalled USD933.0 million in the third quarter, rising from the USD722.0 million profit in the second quarter. "The quarter's result was affected by a weaker price and margin environment. It was also negatively impacted by a number of mainly one-off and non-cash items in the upstream," said BP.

WM Morrison Supermarkets, down 1.3%. The supermarket chain was cut to Hold from Buy by Jefferies.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Moneysupermarket.com Group, up 8.5%. The price comparison website said insurance price comparison revenue grew strongly in the third quarter but said low interest rates depressed switching between savings accounts. The group reported revenue for the three months to September 30 grew 12% year on year to GBP84.9 million. Revenue for the nine months to September 30 was up 10% at GBP242.5 million. Moneysupermarket.com said it remains confident of meeting full-year expectations for 2016. Moneysupermarket.com noted strong growth in its Insurance arm, with revenue for the third quarter up 12% at GBP42.5 million compared to the year before. However in its Money offering, the company said low interest rates significantly depressed switching between savings accounts, leaving revenue in the third quarter flat at GBP19.6 million.

Hastings Group Holdings, up 2.3%. The motor insurer reported growth in gross written premiums and customer numbers for the first nine months of 2016 and said it has grown its share of the UK car insurance market. For the nine months to the end of December, Hastings said gross written premiums rose to GBP572.8 million, up 26% from the GBP454.3 million reported a year prior. Net revenue for the group in the period was GBP440.3 million, up 26% year-on-year from GBP350.2 million. Hastings said it had 2.29 million customers on its books at the end of September, up 16% from 1.97 million a year prior and said its loss ratio has remained below the target range set when it floated in London in October 2015.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Weir Group, down 4.6%. The engineer said its results for 2016 are set to slightly miss market expectations as trading conditions remained tough in the third quarter, though it said signs of improvement are emerging. The firm - which makes pumps, valves, crushers and wellheads for oil explorers, miners and industrial firms - said order input in the third quarter fell 7.0% year-on-year, hit by oil and gas order declines in the Middle East and lower original equipment orders, which offset growth in aftermarket sales.

BTG, down 3.7%. The pharmaceutical company was cut to Sector Perform from Outperform by RBC Capital.

Amec Foster Wheeler, down 3.0%. The oil services company was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight.

SEGRO, down 1.7%. The warehouse property investor was cut to Hold from Buy by Liberum.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Northern Petroleum, up 35%. The oil and gas company's shares were up after an independent reserves report estimated the company has 1.4 million barrels of proven oil equivalent reserves that hold a net present value of around USD16.4 million, more than double its market capitalisation. McDaniel & Associates Consultants compiled the independent update and said Northern Petroleum has 1.4 million barrels of oil equivalent in proven reserves with a net present value of USD16.4 million, equal to about GBP13.4 million. "This reserves update demonstrates the progress the company has made in Canada during the last two years, despite the extremely tough operating environment. The significant increase in reserves proves the strength of the company's production base even under current market conditions," said Chief Executive Keith Bush.

Paragon Entertainment, up 26%. The attractions design, production, fit-out and licensing business increased its revenue and earnings expectations for 2016, after it said it has been trading ahead of the board's expectations. The company said it has moved beyond the "distractions" of recent years, enabling staff and management to focus their efforts on the core 'design & build' business. Paragon added that "strength" in the current order book gives it confidence in continued growth for the year ahead. As a result, Paragon now expects full-year revenue to be GBP13.2 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be GBP1.0 million. Its previous guidance was for revenue of GBP11.0 million and Ebitda of GBP0.5 million.

Edenville Energy, up 5.2%. The coal exploration and development company said a technical assessment carried out on the Rukwa coal to power project in Tanzania has confirmed enough resources at the site for a larger power plant. Edenville said the assessment confirmed there are sufficient resources at Rukwa for a power plant at the site with 300 megawatt capacity, compared to an initial plan for a 120 MW plant. The firm said it will continue to focus on completing the phase one feasibility requirements for the 120 MW plant, but will now move forward in the knowledge it could pursue a phased expansion to increase the site of the power plant to 300 MW.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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URU Metals, down 9.1%. The miner said the South African Department of Mineral Resources has renewed the three prospecting licences that make up the Zebediela nickel project for an additional two years. Following this, URU has submitted an application to consolidate the three licences into one to reduce costs going forward. URU added that it has planned a new work programme for 2017, including drill testing potential extensions of the nickel mineralisation, infill drilling, metallurgical studies and the completion of an updated mineral resource estimate. In addition, it will investigate the potential for processing the by-product magnetite mineralisation. URU said it believes the potential magnetite resource in the oxide zone could generate revenue prior to nickel and magnetite production in the sulphide zone.

T Clarke, down 6.0%. The building services company said late Monday that investigations suggest over GBP2.8 million has been misappropriated by an employee of its wholly owned subsidiary DG Robson Mechanical Services Ltd over a number years. T Clarke said investigations indicate the incident is limited to DG Robson and does not impact the wider group, and any accounting adjustments should not have a "material adverse effect" on the group's results as a whole. It added that "overall, the group remains on track to meet market expectations for the year". The company said it has also taken appropriate action including appointing advisers to assist with investigations and "recover the stolen funds".
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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