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(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Rentokil, up 2.9%. The pest control business recorded its highest level of quarterly organic growth in over a decade, with the company on track to meet expectations for 2019. Revenue from continuing operations, or ongoing revenue, for the three months to September 30 increased 14% year-on-year to GBP723.0 million, with organic revenue rising 5.5% versus 4.1% a year ago. Acquisitions in the quarter contributed 4.3% to ongoing revenue. Reported revenue for the third quarter grew 13% year-on-year to GBP727.2 million. Rentokil's core Pest Control business recorded 12% growth in quarterly ongoing revenue, with 5.9% organic growth, driven by good performances in both growth and emerging markets.
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Unilever, up 2.0%. The consumer goods giant said emerging markets have performed well, though Europe, North America and China remain weaker. Anglo-Dutch firm Unilever owns brands such as Dove soap, Hellman's mayonnaise, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and hair product Brylcreem. For the three months to September, Unilever's underlying sales growth was 2.9%, with revenue reaching EUR13.25 billion. Volumes increased by 1.4%, and prices by 1.5%. Unilever said the Emerging Markets segment was particularly strong, with quarterly underlying sales growth of 5.1% to USD7.8 billion. By contrast, Developed Markets sales fell 0.1% to EUR5.5 billion. Unilever's nine-month underlying sales growth figure was 3.4%, with revenue at EUR39.33 billion, with volume growth at 1.3% and price growth at 2.4%.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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BAE Systems, down 3.5%. The defence firm went ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest payout.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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WH Smith, up 6.5%. The books and stationery retailer unveiled plans to expand further in the US with the purchase of travel retailer Marshall Retail for USD400 million, or around GBP312 million. Marshall Retail operates 170 stores in North America, with 59 of these inside airports. WH Smith intends to raise GBP155 million, representing 7% of existing share capital, via an accelerated bookbuild to part fund the deal. This acquisition comes almost exactly a year after WH Smith announced the purchase of US-based travel retailer InMotion Entertainment for USD198 million. Turning to annual results, revenue for the year to August 31 rose 11% to GBP1.40 billion from GBP1.26 billion, while pretax profit edged up to GBP135 million from GBP134 million. Travel total revenue was up 22%, or 8% higher when stripping out InMotion, and 3% higher on a like-for-like basis.
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Domino's Pizza, up 4.2%. The pizza delivery franchise owner said it will be exiting international operations after continued "disappointing" performance. Domino's said it has been reviewing operations abroad over the past six weeks, and has decided to pull out from the four countries despite them being "attractive" markets. Domino's currently trades in Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. International system sales for the 13 weeks to September 29, the company's third quarter, fell 2.7% to GBP25.3 million, and were flat organically. Group system sales for the period were 3.4% higher at GBP313.5 million, and organically rose 3.5%. The core UK & Ireland segment delivered 3.9%, and 3.8% organic, system sales growth to GBP288.3 million.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Moneysupermarket.com, down 11%. The price comparison website said revenue growth in the third quarter slowed significantly from the pace set earlier in the year. For the three months ended September, revenue rose 4% on the year prior to GBP100.9 million. This was driven by robust 3% growth in Insurance revenue to GBP49.9 million. Home Services revenue advanced 21% to GBP17.7 million, helping to offset a 5% fall in revenue from Money products. The firm said the Money unit underperformed amid "continuing challenges in product availability". For the nine months ended September, revenue grew 11% on the year prior to GBP300.2 million. This was after Money revenue grew 40% on the year prior and Home Services up 41%, with Insurance reporting a 3% increase in revenue.
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Grafton Group, down 11%. The builders merchant warned that 2019 profit will be lower than market forecasts, after trading slowed sharply during the third quarter. For the three months ended September, reported revenue expanded 4.5%, with like-for-like revenue 0.9% higher on the year prior. The Dublin-based firm explained that after an "encouraging" start, "trading towards the end of the quarter and more recently has been impacted by a softening in activity". For 2019, Grafton now expects operating profit to be between 4% and 8% lower than the GBP206.4 million post-IFRS and GBP193.5 million pre-IFRS consensus market estimates.
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Rathbone Brothers, down 10%. The wealth manager posted modest growth in managed assets amid difficult markets, and said that it intends to make investments in the business over the next two to three years to enhance organic growth. As a result of new investments, the company is targeting to operate closer to a mid-20s underlying operating margin to create long term growth opportunities, improve client services and deliver productivity gains. In 2018, underlying operating margin stood at 29.4%. The company's total funds under management & administration increased 4.4% to GBP49.4 billion at September 30 from GBP47.3 billion a year ago. The core Investment Management business saw assets rise year-on-year to GBP42.4 billion from GBP41.3 billion, while the Unit Trusts business assets totalled GBP7.0 billion versus GBP6.0 billion.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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EVR Holdings, up 26%. The virtual reality entertainment content creator has entered into an exclusive UK partnership with Telefonica UK, which has more then 25 million customers in the UK. The partnership, which launches on Thursday, will see MelodyVR unveiled as the exclusive music partner of O2's 5G UK launch. Telefonica-owned O2 will provide customers of its new 5G network in the UK with a 12-month unrestricted access to the MelodyVR platform, redeemable via the MelodyVR app on smartphones or virtual reality devices, when they upgrade to an O2 5G plan. O2 will remunerate MelodyVR for each of their customers that utilise the promotion and will guarantee a minimum number of subscribers during the course of the first 12 months.
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Capital & Regional, up 18%. Johannesburg-listed real estate investment trust Growthpoint Properties has agreed to invest around GBP150.4 million for a 51% interest in Capital & Regional. The first part of the investment is for Growthpoint to acquire 219.8 million existing shares in Capital & Regional for 33 pence per share, at a total of GBP72.5 million. The price is at a 55% premium to Capital & Regional's closing price in London on Wednesday of 21.25 pence. The 219.8 million shares to be acquired directly make up 30% of Capital & Regional's currently issued share capital. The second part is for Growthpoint to subscribe for 311.5 million new Capital & Regional shares, at a price of 25p each to raise GBP77.9 million before costs for the company. Capital & Regional said that at least GBP50 million of the proceeds raised through the subscription will go towards reducing leverage and funding capital expenditure.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Petro Matad, down 29%. The oil explorer revealed mixed results from recent drilling at Block XX in eastern Mongolia. Petro, when conducting drilling and logging at operations at the Gazelle-1 well, found no economically recoverable hydrocarbons at the Lower Tsagaantsav target. The company explained: "The Lower Tsagaantsav reservoir objective was encountered at 2,280 metres, 20 metres deeper than the pre-drill prognosis. The interval penetrated was shale dominated and no hydrocarbon pay was identified on the logs." Casing is now being run at Gazelle-1, which will be suspending as Petro conducts further evaluation.
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By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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