LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Smurfit Kappa, up 2.5%. The Irish paper and corrugated packaging firm raised its dividend on the back of higher annual revenue and earnings. For 2018, revenue was EUR8.95 billion, up 4.6% from EUR8.56 billion in 2017 and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation totalled EUR1.58 billion, versus EUR1.27 billion the year before. Consensus was for EUR1.53 billion. However, the company said it swung to a loss at the pretax level after the Venezuelan government seized its business there, amid political chaos. Smurfit's 2018 pretax loss was EUR404 million, swinging from a EUR576 million profit in 2017. On a pre-exceptional basis, Smurfit Kappa's pretax profit was EUR938 million, up 56% from EUR601 million the year before. The company declared a final dividend of 72.2 euro cents per share, bringing the total for 2018 up 11% to 97.6 cents from from 87.6 cents in 2017. Peers DS Smith and Mondi were up 4.4% and 1.5% respectively. ----------Rolls-Royce Holdings, up 2.5%. Credit Suisse raised the jet engine maker to Outperform from Neutral. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------TUI, down 3.5%. Shares in the Anglo-German travel operator were adding to their losses on Wednesday after the company reported on Tuesday a widened loss in the first quarter. Last week, TUI had warned on stagnating earnings going forward. The stock is down 28% over the past week. RELX, down 1.7%. The Anglo-Dutch information and analytics firm was cut to Hold from Buy by Deutsche Bank. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Galliford Try, up 6.5%. The construction company and housebuilder guided for its annual results to come in at the upper end of market expectations but also reported a drop in interim revenue and profit. For the six months to the end of 2018, Galliford's revenue fell to GBP1.34 billion from GBP1.40 billion in the comparative period a year ago. Pretax profit was down 4% year-on-year to GBP53.8 million. The company cut its interim dividend by 18% to 23 pence per share from the 28p paid to shareholders a year ago. During the half, Galliford reported a GBP26 million charge related to the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route, which was set back by the collapse of partner Carillion. Looking ahead, at a group level, the company reported an increase in total sales currently reserved, despite its current order book standing at GBP5.4 billion, lower than the same period last year at GBP5.6 billion. ----------Tullow Oil, up 5.9%. The oil and gas firm declared its first dividend since 2015 on Wednesday, as it swung to a significant annual profit. Tullow declared a dividend of 4.8 US cents per share for 2018, worth USD67 million in total. From 2019 onwards, it expects any dividends, paid twice a year, to be worth at least USD100 million. Tullow's pretax profit for 2018 was USD260.5 million, after a pretax loss in 2017 of USD285.9 million. Revenue climbed to USD1.86 billion from USD1.72 billion. In 2017, Tullow made a USD539.1 million impairment, compared to just USD18.2 million in 2018. For 2019, overall oil production is guided to be 93,000 barrels of oil a day to 101,000 barrels. With gas, the figure is estimated to be between 94,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day to 102,000 barrels. ----------Dunelm, up 3.4%. The homewares retailer said profit in the first half of its financial year jumped 24% on the back of a strong increase in like-for-like sales. For the six months to December 29, the retailer reported a pretax profit of GBP70.0 million, up from GBP56.3 million in the comparative period a year ago. Revenue, meanwhile, rose 1.2% to GBP551.8 million from GBP545.4 million. On a like-for-like basis, revenue was up 6.9% year-on-year to GBP506.7 million from GBP473.9 million. Store like-for-like sales were up 3.8% to GBP444.2 million while online surged 36% to GBP62.5 million. Dunelm upped its interim payout by 7.1%, proposing an interim dividend of 7.5 pence per share from 7.0p paid a year ago. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Great Portland Estates, down 1.2%, Derwent London, down 1.2%. Berenberg started coverage on the property development companies with Sell ratings. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Clinigen, up 17%. The pharmaceuticals firm announced the purchase of the rights to one of Novartis International's drugs. Clinigen is to paying USD210 million in cash to the Swiss firm for the rights to Proleukin in the US. Clinigen already owns the rights to the drug in the rest of the world. Proleukin is a treatment for metastatic melanoma, and metastatic renal cell carcinoma. It has the potential, Clinigen said, to become "an integral part" of cancer combination therapies, and is currently being used in around 80 active studies. Clinigen will pay an initial USD120 million, with USD60 million deferred over the next 12 months and then a further USD30 million depending on Proleukin's sales. Clinigen provided some guidance for its first half ended December. It expects adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation to be GBP41.8 million, from GBP34.4 million a year prior. ----------Polo Resources, up 16% at 4.76 pence. Phronimos Capital said it wrote to the natural resources investor in January requesting a tender offer to return 10 to 12 pence per share to shareholders. Phronimos said funds could be sourced from a sale of some or all of Polo's "successful" investment in Hibiscus Petroleum, with the entire stake double Polo's market capitalisation. Selling one-third of the Hibiscus stake, the advisor continued, could allow Polo to buyback 20% of its shares at 12p, a significant premium to its current share price. It believes there would be widespread shareholder support for the move. Phronimos does not dispute Polo's right to "generously" pay its leadership when they help create shareholder wealth, but it noted Polo's share price has fallen 80% over the past five years with no returns whatsoever.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------ASOS, down 4.8%. Merrill Lynch downgraded the online fashion retailer to Underperform from Neutral. ----------
7 Nov 2016 16:05
