LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
Randgold Resources, 1.8%, Fresnillo, up 1.4%. The gold miners were tracking spot gold prices higher, quoted at USD1,197.42 an ounce compared to USD1,188.56 at the London equities close Wednesday. Deemed a safe haven asset, the precious metal's price often rises during times of market turmoil. Midcap peer Centamin was also up 3.6%. ----------
Mondi, up 1.5%. The paper and packaging firm said its third-quarter profit jumped after price rises, operational improvements and contributions from takeovers boosted results despite cost pressures. For the three months ended September, underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation grew 30% to EUR466 million from EUR359 million a year prior. Ebitda was also 4.3% higher than the EUR447 million the quarter immediately before. The Johannesburg and London-listed firm explained good sales at its fibre packaging unit helped like-for-like sales volumes rise in the period. ----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
Hargreaves Lansdown, down 4.9%. The fund supermarket said it made a "solid" start to its new financial year with assets under administration and revenue increasing in the first quarter. The company's assets under administration grew by 2.7% to GBP94.1 billion at the end of the first three months of the financial year from GBP91.6 billion on June 30. However, Shore Capital said Hargreaves Lansdown's first-quarter update was weaker than expected, with net flows slowing from last year and downgrades to consensus now appear likely. Net inflows of GBP1.30 billion in the period were down 16% on last year. Shore noted that last year's first quarter inflows of GBP1.54 billion ended up accounting for 20% of full-year net flows.----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
Dunelm Group, up 5.0%. The homeware retailer said reported a good first quarter performance with like-for-like revenue growing 4.2%. For the first quarter to September 29, Dunelm's like-for-like revenue increased to GBP228.1 million, up from GBP219.0 million a year prior. Online sales jumped by 33% on a like-for-like basis to GBP26.5 million, including tablet-based in-store selling. Store sales were up 1.3% to GBP201.6 million. The company reformed its website by consolidating all product lines on one platform, closing the Worldstores and Kiddicare websites. Dunelm said it is "on track" to launch a new Dunelm.com web platform in the third quarter allowing a Click & Collect option and improved delivery options.----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------
Keller Group, down 27%. The geotechnical contractor's shares fell after it warned its Asia-Pacific division will post a loss, from an expected "small" profit. Keller said as a "consequence of the deteriorating southeast Asian market conditions", in particular Malaysia, the company expects its Asia-Pacific division to post a pretax loss of GBP12 million to GBP15 million for the year ending December. Keller had been expecting the division to post a "small" profit. The division posted a GBP16.5 million operating loss in 2017. The company said it is undertaking a strategic review of its southeast Asian and Waterway businesses, due to recent changes in management, and will update the market in "due course" on the outcome.----------
Hays, down 12%. The recruiter's shares were lower despite making a "good" start to its financial year with a record quarterly performance and retained a "positive" outlook for its international markets for the rest of the year. For the three months ended September, the company saw its net fees grow by 7% on a headline basis, with like-for-like growth of 9%. Hays said the relative strength of sterling against the Australian dollar and euro reduced its reported net fee growth. The best performers in the first quarter were the Germany and Rest of World segments, both increasing net fees by 12%, the company said. Although, the company expects a GBP5 million operating profit headwind for the full year on exchange rate movements.----------
WH Smith, down 12%. The books and stationery retailer said it will restructure its UK high street unit after disappointing annual results from the division. For the year to August 31, the unit's trading profit slipped to GBP60 million from GBP62 million a year prior. Total revenue decreased by 3% year-on-year. The retailer decided to close around six of its high street stores and take a "forensic" approach to its cost base to ensure the business remains "fit for purpose". It will also "wind down" non-core activities such as WH Smith Local and Cardmarket, a budget greetings card chain. For the year to August 31, the retailer posted overall pretax profit down 4% to GBP134 million from GBP140 million, after incurring a GBP11 million charge on restructuring and store closure costs. Despite the fall in profit, WH Smith hiked its total dividend by 13% to 54.1p per share from 48.2p after proposing a final dividend of 38.1p. ----------
Countryside Properties, down 9.1%. The housebuilder said it achieved a higher number of house completions in its recently ended financial year, but an adverse regional mix caused a fall in the private average selling price. Total completions by the FTSE 250-listed firm rose 27% to 4,295 homes in the financial year that ended September 30 from 3,389 homes the year before, with open sales outlets up 28% to 60 from 47, with 55 sites currently under construction, up from 41. However, the private selling price fell by 7% to GBP402,000 from GBP430,000 due to a change in regional mix in the Partnerships division, as Housebuilding division prices remained flat. The net reservation rate also saw a dip to 0.80 from 0.84.----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------
Mobile Streams, up 19%. The mobile content retailer's shares rose after it partnered with "one of the largest" payment gateway providers in India for its mobilegaming.com subscription service. The new "association" will enable customer in India to pay for mobile content via credit and debit card, e-wallets and mobile accounts. Mobile Streams launched its mobilegaming.com subscription service in 2016 and works with local telecom operators to charge customers via prepaid and post-paid mobile accounts. The company hopes the deal with the unnamed Indian company will allow it to generate revenue from customers on networks with no billing connection and users with low or zero balance prepaid wallets.----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------
N Brown, down 22%. The clothing retailer cut its interim dividend in half and warned on the same treatment to its final dividend. N Brown proposed an interim dividend of 2.83p per share, 50% down from 5.67p a year before, as exceptional items "have meant that distributions have not been covered by free cash flow". The company said that while it "understands the importance of dividends to investors", it also intents to reflect the 50% reduction in its final dividend. For the six months to September 1, N Brown's pretax loss narrowed slightly to GBP27.1 million compared to GBP27.6 million. Meanwhile, revenue increased 1.0% to GBP457.8 million from GBP453.4 million. As the company focuses on shifting to a fully online retailer, Online Power Brands revenue increased 8.6% in the half-year while there was a "significant decline in offline sales". Additionally, Jefferies cut the stock to Hold from Buy. ----------
Chariot Oil & Gas, down 53%. The oil and gas explorer said drilling at its Prospect S well offshore Namibia did not encounter a hydrocarbon accumulation. Chariot said the well, which has been drilled to 4,165 metres, penetrated water-bearing stacked target reservoirs. "Further analysis will be required to understand the implications of the well results on the prospectivity of the surrounding area," the company added. The well, which was operated by Chariot and drilled by the Ocean Rig Poseidon drillship, will be plugged and abandoned. Chariot owns 65% of the Central Blocks licence offshore Namibia of which Prospect S, forms part.----------
