Card Factory Share News (CARD)

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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Carnival, up 2.8%. The cruise ship operator on Monday reported growth in profit in the third quarter of its financial year, and said it is on track to deliver 25% earnings growth in the full year. Carnival said its pretax profit in the three months ended August 31 grew to USD1.47 billion from USD1.25 billion in the same period the year before, as revenue rose to USD5.10 billion from USD4.88 billion. It said this was its strongest ever quarterly earnings. Carnival said revenue during the peak summer season was bolstered by strong performances in both its North American and European brands, and across all major deployments including the Caribbean, Alaska and Europe. Shore Capital was impressed with the company's outlook statement, saying it was "encouraging". Fellow travel stock TUI Group was up 0.9%.

Sky, up 1.0%. The pay-TV company was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Keppler Cheuvreux, according to traders.

United Utilities Group, up 1.0%. The water company said trading in the half-year to the end of September has been in line with its expectations and said underlying profit for the period will be slightly higher due to lower spending. Revenue for the half will be slightly lower year-on-year, the group said, reflecting the accounting impact of the Water Plus joint venture that it sealed with blue-chip peer Severn Trent in June. Underlying operating profit for the first half will be marginally higher year-on-year, however, due to slightly lower infrastructure renewal spending, though this is due to increase in the second half.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Wolseley, down 3.4%. The building materials supplier reported increases in both profit and revenue during its recently completed financial year, though it noted there will be job cuts in its UK division. Wolseley reported pretax profit of GBP727.0 million for the year ended June 30, up from GBP508.0 million a year earlier, and driven by a 9.0% rise in revenue to GBP14.43 billion from GBP13.30 billion. The strong revenue growth came largely within Wolseley's US division, where there were good US residential and commercial markets. The group announced a turnaound and re-positioning strategy in its UK division, with 80 branches and one distribution centre to be closed, resulting in up to 800 job losses. Liberum said the start to the new financial year was slower than expected. Davy noted that, beyond the US, there is little growth or opportunity to generate excitement on Wolseley. Moreover, "failure to return excess cash for the first year in four is, however, likely the real culprit for investor displeasure," Accendo Markets analyst Mike Van Dulken added. Fellow builders' merchant Travis Perkins was down 2.4%.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Card Factory, up 2.3%. The greeting card and gifts retailer reported growth in profit in the first half of its financial year on higher revenue and it said it is on track to meet full-year expectations. The company said its pretax profit in the six months to the end of July rose to GBP27.0 million from GBP24.0 million the year before, as revenue grew to GBP169.2 million from GBP161.4 million. Card Factory said its results were boosted by improvements in the quality and range of both card and non-card categories, with good ongoing growth in average spend, helping like-for-like sales to grow by 0.2% year-on-year. It did say, however, that sales growth from its stores was slightly lower than normal due to softer footfall. Total sales were also boosted by the opening of 34 new stores, taking the total estate to 848 stores.

Indivior, up 2.3%. The drugmaker said 35 US states and the District of Colombia now have filed a civil complaint alleging violations of state and federal antitrust and consumer protection laws. Indivior shares had fallen on Friday after the company had highlighted the plans by the states to file the complaint. Indivior said the complaint alleges that the company switched its Suboxone Film opioid addiction treatment from a tablet to a film in order to prevent or delay the introduction of generic alternatives. "The company continues to take these allegations seriously, intends to defend this and other related actions, and will continue to cooperate with the relevant US government agencies in their investigations of the company," Indivior said.

CYBG, up 2.0%. Goldman Sachs started coverage of the challenger bank with a Neutral rating. The investment bank cut UK peer Metro Bank to Sell from Neutral. Metro Bank shares were down 1.9%.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Mitie Group, down 2.6%. Investec cut the facilities management and outsourcing firm to Hold from Buy after its profit warning last week. Mitie had said lower rates of economic growth in the UK and changes to worker legislation has hit trading. Mitie had warned in its annual results in May on the introduction of the National Living Wage, effectively a minimum wage for over-25s in the UK. "Our forecasts are reduced modestly at the top line (FY17 -2.4%), with profit falling more significantly (adjusted [earnings-per-share] - 21.7% for FY17)," said Investec analysts.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Immedia Group, up 34%. The in-store music and communications solutions provider said it has signed a new three-year contract with "a major UK retailer", which it did not name. The company said further information about the deal will be provided when client confidentiality is lifted. No financial details on the agreement were disclosed. Immedia had first announced the potential contract back in August. Immedia noted the contract had been won following its statement in August that its contract with Top Shop owner Arcadia Group will expire at the end of 2016.

Redx Pharma, up 20%. The drug development firm said it has discovered a series of compounds which could create the first novel class of broad-spectrum antibiotics in more than three decades. The company said its scientists have identified novel bacterial topoisomerase inhibitors which function as antibiotics against drug resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Further testings has shown the company has discovered compounds which could prove highly-effective against drug resistant strains of Gram-negative bacteria, which may have implications for drug-resistant infections such as e.coli and pseudomonas, which in turn are responsible for pneumonia, blood poisoning, and urinary tract and abdominal infections.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Greka Drilling, down 21%. The oil and gas drilling company reported a wider pretax loss for the first half of 2016 following a slump in revenue as it struggles against weak activity levels in the oil and gas market. Greka said it made a pretax loss of USD5.5 million in the half-year to the end of June, compared to USD4.8 million a year before, as a substantial fall in costs offset revenue declining 78% to USD2.6 million from USD11.9 million. Greka said, in line with the guidance it gave earlier in the year, activity levels were "very limited" in the first half. It drilled a total of 10 wells in the first half, compared to 28 in the comparable period in 2015.

Cellcast, down 17%. The chat and adult interactive channel operator said pretax profit shrank in the first half of 2016 on flat revenue but a weaker gross margin. Cellcast said pretax profit for the half-year to the end of June was GBP77,989, down 69% from GBP255,642 a year prior. Revenue slipped slightly to GBP5.7 million from GBP5.8 million, but its gross margin dropped to 6.6% from 11.0% a year before. The company said its UK interactive broadcast revenue declined to GBP5.3 million from GBP5.6 million a year before and revenue from its newly-launched overseas gaming services failed to offset the decline. Cellcast said it does not anticipates a near-term recovery for its core interactive TV business, but does intend launching a new cable TV platform and new paid-for online content in order to try to arrest the slump.

Universe Group, down 12%. The point-of-sale, payment and online loyalty systems provider issued a profit warning on Tuesday due to delays experienced with the roll out of new products. Universe Chairman Robert Goddard said its new products were successfully piloted with its customers in the first half of 2016, but there will be a delay in starting the full-scale deployments due to issues experienced as the products are made ready for client requirements. In particular, this will effect the roll-out of new products with three large customers, and that trio will now be launched in 2017 rather than in 2016, as originally envisaged. Due to this, Goddard said Universe's financial performance for 2016 will be "slightly below" the company's expectations, though it remains confident on its outlook given its robust pipeline.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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