Character Share News (CCT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS
----------
Whitbread, up 1.3%. The owner of the Costa Coffee and Premier Inn hotel chains was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight. Barclays said hotel revenue data for London and the UK regions has been "exceptionally strong" recently and expects Whitbread to provide positive commentary on its fourth quarter so far. Whitbread is scheduled to issue a third-quarter trading update next Thursday. Barclays analyst Vicki Stern expects "excellent Q4 commentary", given the strong revenue per available room data for London, and positive updates from companies in the restaurant sector, which should bode well for Costa.
----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS
----------
Royal Mail, down 3.0%. The postal delivery company was extending its losses after closing down 5.4% on Thursday. Royal Mail reported flat revenue for the first nine months of its financial year, showing a familiar pattern of rising parcel revenue offset by the ongoing secular decline in letter volumes on Thursday.

Tesco, down 1.4%, J Sainsbury, down 1.3%. The supermarket chains were downgraded by Exane BNP. Sainsbury's was cut to Neutral from Outperform and Tesco to Underperform from Neutral.

GKN, down 0.9%. The engineering company was cut to Sell from Hold by Liberum on end markets fears in GKN's Aerospace and Automotive divisions.
----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS
----------
Synthomer, up 11%. The speciality chemical company said it expects its pretax profit for 2016 to be ahead of 2015 and of market expectations, boosted by a better-than-expected performance across its divisions and a boost from the weak pound. The firm said positive trends it had seen in Europe and North America in the first three quarters of the year had continued into the fourth quarter, leading to an overall performance ahead of its original expectations. Shares hit an all-time high of 438.80p in early trade.

Ultra Electronics, up 1.4%. The defense and aerospace group was raised to Buy from Hold by Liberum. The broker said it expects free cash flow and return on invested capital to improve after a difficult past few years. "The portfolio should be loaded with recovery potential as defence and security markets improve," Liberum noted.

Close Brothers Group, up 1.1%. The merchant bank said it is confident ahead of its interim results and on its full-year outlook. Close Brothers said in the five month period to December 31, 2016, its loan book grew by 2.3% to GBP6.60 billion from GBP6.40 billion. That puts the loan book up by 9.3% year-on-year. Close Brothers said its market-making business Winterflood also delivered a "good performance" in the period, seeing strong retail trading throughout.
----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS
----------
Pets At Home Group, down 1.7%. The pet products and pet-related services provider was cut to Hold from Buy by HSBC. The company on Thursday reported growth in revenue in the third quarter of its financial year thanks to continued good growth in its services division, but shares sank as the merchandise business showed signs of deterioration.

Meggitt, down 1.3%. The defense and aerospace group was downgraded to Sell from Hold by Liberum, for similar reasons to GKN on fragile end market concerns, to which adds poor cash conversion and high debt.
----------
MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
----------
Abzena, up 62%. The biopharmaceutical company said it signed a licensing agreement with an undisclosed San Diego-based pharmaceutical company for its ThioBridge antibody drug conjugate linker technology. The ThioBridge technology links antibodies and other proteins to drugs, and the agreement covers the use of this technology in up to ten antibody drug conjugates across a wide range of indications. The group said it had entered into a master services agreement enabling multiple progress of work to be undertaken over an extended period, related to Abzena's chemistry services.

BrainJuicer Group, up 14%. The market research agency said its profit growth regained momentum in 2016. BrainJuicer said it traded strongly in 2016, "regaining momentum" after modest growth in the preceding two years. BrainJuicer said its gross profit was up by 27% to approximately GBP25.6 million, or 15% excluding currency movements. The company said it therefore expects pretax profit for 2016 to increase by around 37% to GBP6.2 million, from GBP4.5 million in 2015. BrainJuicer also noted it was "highly cash generative" in 2016, ending the year with a cash balance of GBP7.8 million, up from GBP6.4 million in 2015, with no debt.

SDL, up 7.0%. The language translation and content management company said all of its businesses performed well in 2016, with a "sound underlying performance". SDL said its continuing operations revenue and pretax profit, excluding amortisation and one-off costs, are anticipated to be slightly ahead of market expectations. SDL noted it faced a foreign exchange tailwind to its top line, due to sterling weakness and much of its costs coming in foreign currencies, but said its adjusted profit margin is anticipated in line with market expectations.
----------
MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
----------
Character Group, down 6.4%. The toys and games maker said it is confident it will achieve market expectations for its full financial year, but noted that first-half results will be lower year-on-year. Character Group said sales in the four months to December were "marginally" lower than the same period in 2015, while UK gross margin was "adversely affected" by the devaluation of sterling. However, steps taken to mitigate the reduction in margin are "starting to take effect" and will be fully implemented in the second half, the company said, adding that it expects both international and domestic sales to grow in the remainder of the financial year.
----------
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

Copyright 2017 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.