LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
Royal Mail, up 2.0%. HSBC raised the postal services company to Buy from Hold. ----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
Ocado Group, down 1.3%, J Sainsbury, down 0.6%. The grocers were lower following the latest UK grocery market share figures published by Kantar Worldpanel. Kantar - reporting survey figures for the 12 weeks to July 15 - said Sainsbury's was the worst performer among all major supermarkets with sales up 0.8%. It lost market share to 15.6% from 16.0% year-on-year. Ocado Group continued to see good sales increase up by 8.5%. It increased its market share by 0.1 point to 1.2%.----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
Britvic, up 2.6%. The soft drinks maker said revenue in its third quarter increased on last year, helped by the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, more commonly known as "sugar tax". For the three months to July 8, group revenue rose 3.4% to GBP366.9 million. However, without the sugar tax, it dropped 0.6%. For the year-to-date, revenue increased 4.2% - up 2.8% excluding to sugar levy - to GBP1.10 billion. In the UK third quarter revenue increased by 8% year-on-year to GBP221.6 million, while the company's Irish business saw revenue up by 11% to GBP42.2 million. However, the company said that the "well-documented" disruption to the supply of carbon dioxide in the UK and Ireland prevented it being able to "fully capitalise" on hot weather in the UK.----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------
Just Group, down 7.7%. The specialist pensions provider said it saw double-digit growth in new business sales in the first half of 2018, with the continued acceleration of its business that helps companies de-risk their defined-benefit pension schemes. The group reported total new business sales at GBP1.51 billion for the six months to the end of June, up 56% from GBP975.0 million the year before. Defined Benefit De-Risking sales were the main source of growth, more than doubling to GBP718 million from GBP296 million. This is due to market acceleration driven by employee benefit consultants managing the industry pipeline, reducing seasonality.----------
Spectris, down 6.8%. The precision instruments maker said sales in the first half of 2018 rose 3%, although it now expects the rate of growth to slow down for the rest of the year. Sprectris said sales for the six months to June 30 rose to GBP728.0 million from GBP710.0 million year-on-year. On a like-for-like basis, the increase was 5%. The company attributed its performance to "good demand" in its end markets, particularly in the automotive and pharmaceutical industries. Pretax profit for the half-year increased 6% to GBP67.4 million compared with GBP63.8 million the prior year. Spectris warned that the 5% organic sales growth is expected to "ease slightly" in the second half, given tougher comparatives, though it maintained its annual expectations unchanged.----------
Superdry, down 6.4% at 1,277.00p. The high street fashion retailer said co-founder Julian Dunkerton sold 5.5 million shares. Dunkerton sold the shares - representing a 6.7% stake in the company - via an accelerated bookbuild priced at 1,285p per share, raising GBP71 million. Following the sale to institutional investors, Dunkerton holds 15.1 million shares in the company or a 18.5% stake. Liberum cut the stock to Hold from Buy. ----------
PZ Cussons, down 2.5%. The personal care products maker said tough trading conditions in Nigeria led to an overall drop in annual profit and revenue. The group recorded a pretax profit of GBP66.6 million for the year ended May 31, down from GBP86.5 million in the same period a year ago, on a revenue of GBP762.6 million and GBP809.2 million, respectively. The drop in earnings was mainly attributed to lower volumes, prices and margins in Nigeria due to a sustained lack of liquidity at both consumer and trade level in the country. PZ Cussons has commenced group wide initiatives to strengthen brand portfolios and reduce cost base. It expects macro conditions to remain challenging in most of its operating markets. Commodity costs and exchange rates are also expected to remain volatile.----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------
Fevertree Drinks, up 12%. The tonic water maker posted an increased profit in the first half of the year, as a result of strong UK sales, promoting a 40% improvement to its dividend. In the first half of 2018, Fevertree posted a pretax profit of GBP32.6 million, up 35% from GBP24.1 million the year before. Revenue was GBP104.2 million, a 45% increase from GBP71.9 million in the first half of 2017. A total of GBP58.0 million of this was from its UK territory, a 73% improvement over its GBP33.6 million revenue the year before. Fevertree will pay an interim dividend of 4.22 pence, up 40% from 3.01p in 2017.----------
Countrywide, up 5.7%. The estate agent said it expects its half-year profit to be "slightly better" than previously anticipated after slashing forecasts in late June. For the six months ended June, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation was "slightly better" than it had previously guided. In late June, Countrywide had said it expected its adjusted Ebitda to be around GBP20 million below what it reported the year prior. It did not expect to recover this shortfall in the second half of the year. The firm added it had made "significant" progress in building up industry expertise and staffing levels in its sales and lettings business. This has resulted in a rise in the number of properties available for sale and the pipeline of agreed sales. It expects to continue to make progress in the second half of the year.----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------
Cenkos Securities, down 12%. The stockbroker warned that annual revenue will be materially below last year due to the absence of some unusually large fees and market volatility. The company said its second-quarter performance slowly improved; however several transactions which were expected to complete in June did not complete until July. At this stage, the revenue pipeline for August is encouraging and second-half performance is anticipated to be stronger than the first half's performance, Cenkos added. However, annual revenue is still expected to be "materially below" 2017. In 2017, the company recorded revenue of GBP59.5 million and pretax profit of GBP9.9 million.----------
