LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Royal Mail, 3.6%. The postal service was upgraded to Sector Perform from Underperform by RBC Capital.
ARM Holdings, up 1.8%. The chipmaker's shares were in demand boosted by reports that US tech giant Apple has warned suppliers that orders for the new iPhone 7 will be higher than expected. Citing the Economic Daily, Bloomberg said Apple asked suppliers to get ready for between 72 million to 78 million unit orders of the iPhone 7 by the end of 2016, the highest target in about two years. The Economic Daily cited unidentified suppliers it surveyed in China. The new iPhone 7 is likely to be released in September. New York-listed Apple ended up 1.1% on Friday. ARM was also benefiting from a price target increase by Deutsche Bank to 1,050p from 1,000p, keeping a Hold stance.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Inmarsat, down 3.1%. The satellite communications company was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight by Morgan Stanley.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Weir Group, up 2.4%. HSBC upgraded the engineer to Buy from Hold.
Mitie Group, 2.3%. The outsourcer said pretax profit more than doubled in its recent financial year thanks to lower one-off costs, as the group launched a share buyback. However, Mitie's underlying profit only edged higher in the year to the end of March, and its order book for the new year is slightly weaker than a year prior. Mitie handles facilities management and advises clients on how to cut energy usage. It said its pretax profit more than doubled in the recent year to GBP96.8 million from GBP41.5 million the year earlier, mainly due lower one-off costs. Mitie declared a final dividend of 6.7 pence per share, up from 6.5p, taking its total payout for the year up 3.4% to 12.1p from 11.7p. In addition, Mitie announced a GBP20.0 million share buyback to return cash to shareholders.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Sports Direct International, down 5.4%. Goldman Sachs cut the sportswear retailer to Neutral from Buy.
ICAP, down 4.3%. The interdealer broker was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform by Credit Suisse.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Stride Gaming, up 7.8%. The online bingo operator said half-year pretax profit was slashed by one-off costs, but revenue nearly doubled and the group declared its maiden interim dividend. Stride said pretax profit in the six months to the end of February was GBP228,000, down from GBP1.6 million a year earlier. This was primarily due to the group having had to make around GBP3.0 million in share-based payments and contingent remuneration on its recent acquisitions. Revenue in the half grew to GBP21.6 million from GBP11.7 million a year earlier, boosted by acquisitions, while pro-forma net gaming revenue grew to GBP21.6 million from GBP17.9 million. Stride said it will pay an interim dividend of 1.1 pence per share, its first interim payout.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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DDD Group, down 71%. The imaging and 3D services company proposed cancelling its listing on AIM as the company's pretax loss widened on a big fall in revenue. DDD said shareholders will vote on its proposed AIM cancellation on June 29 at the company's annual general meeting. Chief Executive Chris Yewdall said the costs related to its listing on AIM had become "excessive" for a company of DDD's size and said the listing does not help the group generate any more revenue or profit. The announcement came as DDD said its pretax loss for the year to the end of December was USD3.1 million, compared to USD1.7 million a year earlier, caused primarily by revenue declining to USD706,000 from USD2.5 million.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
4 Jul 2016 09:21
