Digital Barriers Share News (DGB)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Thursday.

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

Capita, up 5%. The British outsourcing company said its 2013 pretax profits fell by 24% largely as a result of the disposal of its insurance distribution businesses, but said it has made a strong start to 2014 with contract wins totalling GBP588 million. It made a GBP215 million pretax profit for 2013, down from GBP281.4 million in 2012, while revenues rose by 16% to GBP3.90 billion. The difference resulted from lower gross profit due to a bigger increase in cost of sales against revenue growth, as well as a rise in administrative expenses to GBP756.2 million from GBP604.9 million. Capita also increased its total annual dividend to 26.5 pence from 23.5 pence.

Whitbread, up 3.6%. The hospitality brand owner reported strong sales growth for the last quarter of 2014, with trading by its brands boosted by a strong Christmas trading period and favourable weather in January. Whitbread said like-for-like sales for the 11 weeks to February 13, 2014, were up 6.8%, with total sales up 14% for the period. The group said it is now "on track to deliver full-year results towards the top end of the range of current expectations."

British American Tobacco, up 0.3%. The tobacco company has reported higher profits for 2013 as sales of its key brands continued to grow and it managed to raise prices, though unfavourable exchange rate movements took a chunk out of the profit gains. It reported a pretax profit of GBP5.80 billion for the year, up from GBP5.59 billion in 2012, as revenues grew to GBP15.26 billion, from GBP15.19 billion, and it further boosted margins through cost cutting. Its closely watched profit from operations grew to GBP5.53 billion, from GBP5.37 billion. The group will pay a final dividend of 97.4 pence, meaning the total 2013 dividend is 142.4 pence, up from 134.9p in 2012.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

Royal Bank of Scotland, down 8.7%. The bank has reported its sixth consecutive annual pretax loss, and its biggest since 2008. It reported a GBP8.24 billion pretax loss for 2013, widened from GBP5.28 billion in 2012, after incurring GBP3.84 billion in provisions and GBP4.82 billion in impairments and other losses.

WPP, down 5.1%. Despite reporting a near 20% rise in pretax profit in 2013, WPP is amongst the index's leading fallers. Following the release of the group's full-year results, which show a foreign exchange impact on margin growth, Numis Securities has lowered its 2014 earnings per share estimates for the advertising and media group to 82 pence from 87 pence. Numis estimates that organic growth will be 4% in 2014, with a further 2% added from acquisitions. However, there is likely to be a 5% negative impact from foreign exchange, leaving just 1% reported growth.

RSA Insurance, down 3.5%. The insurer has unveiled a plan to raise GBP1.08 billion in order to plug a hole in its balance sheet, while also reporting a swing to a 2013 pretax loss following mounting claims from weather losses and the effects of an accounting scandal at its Irish business. Pretax losses amounted to GBP244 million, compared with a GBP448 million pretax profit in 2012, after a surge in weather-related claims because of severe flooding in parts of southern and south-west England, bad weather across Europe and losses from the Irish business. Meanwhile, the capital raising plan is made up of a planned GBP775 million rights issue, representing 20% of its market value, and a plan to raise GBP300 million from business disposals. RSA also scrapped its final dividend and said any dividend at the half-year would be "modest".

Standard Life, down 2.3%. The group reported a 13% decline in pretax operating profit in 2013, as results in 2012 were inflated by a number of gains. It made an operating pretax profit of GBP751 million in 2013, compared with GBP867 million the year before. Although this was slightly ahead of market expectations, the group is one of the biggest blue-chip losers.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

Kazakhmys, up 16%. The mining company shares have rocketed despite announcing that it swung to a pretax loss in 2013. It posted a pretax loss of USD681 million in the year from a pretax profit of USD151 million in 2012 as revenues fell 7.5% to USD3.10 billion from USD3.35 billion in 2012. The company also announced that its segmental earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation, which includes earnings from its now-sold German MKM GmbH and excludes a range of special items, fell to USD873 million from USD1.36 billion in 2012. However, the fall in revenues and EBITDA were less severe than analyst expectations. According to analyst consensus figures provided by Kazakhmys, revenue was expected to decrease 11% for the company to USD2.99 billion from USD3.35 billion in 2012, and its EBITDA was expected to fall to USD772 million. Alongside this, Liberum Capital believes that the company's potential restructuring plans would be a "significant benefit" to the business and estimates that Kazakhmys operating margins would double.

Man Group, up 12%. The hedge fund said it swung to a profit in 2013, net outflows halved, client redemptions declined and its investment performance improved. It reported a pretax profit of GBP56 million for the year, compared with the GBP748 million loss it reported in 2012 when it booked large goodwill and impairment writedowns. Client redemptions fell 2% to USD19.7 billion in 2013, from USD20.1 billion in 2012, while net outflows decreased to USD3.6 billion, from USD7.3 billion, and even turned into a USD0.7 billion in flow in the fourth quarter of the year.

Bodycote, up 4.6%. The thermal processing company has reported an increase in profit and revenue for 2013, boosted by acquisitions in the face of mixed market conditions. It posted pretax profit of GBP98.4 million for 2013, up from GBP90.0 million a year earlier. Group revenue rose to GBP619.6 million from GBP587.8 million in 2012, an increase of 5.4%. Acquisitions accounted for 5.5%, with organic revenues down 2.5% and foreign exchange rate movements having a positive impact of 2.4%. The firm declared a final dividend of 9.1 pence, up from 8.3 pence a year earlier, bringing its total dividend to 13.5 pence per share, up from 12.3 pence 2012. Additionally, Numis has upgraded the company to Add from Hold.

Barratt Developments, up 4%. The housebuilder reported a 162% increase in profit in its recent half year, boosted by growth in consumer confidence in 2013. It posted pretax profit of GBP120.4 million for six months to the end of 2013, sharply up from GBP45.9 million a year earlier, while revenue rose to GBP1.26 billion from GBP951.1 million in 2012.

Jupiter Fund Management, up 3.5%. The group has reported a 55% increase in 2013 pretax profits and raised its dividend, after stronger net inflows boosted revenues. It said pretax profit rose to GBP114.1 million pretax profit for 2013, compared with GBP73.6 million in 2012, boosted by an 18% increase in net revenue which outpaced the 11% increase in administrative expenses to GBP142.1 million. It raised its total 2013 dividend by 43% to 12.6 pence. Assets under management, which directly benefits revenues, rose to GBP31.7 billion, up from GBP26.3 billion after strong net inflows of GBP1.2 billion over the year.

Spirent Communications, up 4%. The communications technology company signalled confidence in its new strategy to return to high single-digit organic growth in 2014 as it raised its full-year dividend, despite seeing pretax profit decline in 2013. Spirent saw pretax profit of USD32.7 million, down from USD79.4 million, as revenue declined to USD413.5 million from USD472.4 million in the previous year. However, it posted a total dividend of 3.54 cents, up 9.9% from 3.22 cents in the previous year.

Howden Joinery Group, up 2.8%. The group's pretax profit for the 52 weeks to December 28, 2013, rose to GBP138.4 million, up from GBP112.1 million in 2012, with revenue jumping to GBP956.5 million, up from the GBP887.1 million. It recommended a final dividend 4.5 pence per share, resulting in a full-year dividend of 5.5p per share, up from the 3p per share paid for 2012.

UDG Healthcare, up 2.1%. The healthcare services provider said it will buy the healthcare communications business of KnowledgePoint360 for USD144 million in cash, a deal that will boost earnings immediately and sets it up to further expand its healthcare communications business outside the US and Europe.

RPS Group, up 1.9%. The energy resources and environmental consultancy said its pretax profit increased in 2013 as revenues rose, buoyed by consultancy sales to the energy sector, and it expects a good performance in 2014 driven by the acquisitions it made. Its pretax profit increased 8.5% to GBP43.6 million, up from GBP40.2 million in 2012, as revenues increased 2.1% to GBP567.6 million from GBP555.9 million in 2012. Additionally, RPS increased its full year dividend by 15% to 7.36 pence from 6.40 pence the previous year, which it said marked the twentieth consecutive annual increase of this scale.

Domino's Pizza Group, up 0.9%. The company reported lower pretax profit for its last financial year due to the costs of restructuring its German business, but excluding these, profits rose as it continued to grow quickly and report higher sales from existing stores, particularly in the UK. The company reported a pretax profit of GBP21.6 million for the 52 weeks to December 29, down from GBP42.4 million for a 53 week period a year earlier, as it booked GBP26.0 million in exceptional costs, up from GBP4.0 million in 2012. Excluding these exceptional costs, Domino's reported another year of strong growth as it sold 65.5 million pizza's across its operations in 2013. Pretax profit excluding the exceptional costs rose to GBP47.6 million, from GBP46.7 million, as revenues rose to GBP268.9 million, from GBP240.5 million.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

Kier Group, down 2.3%. The construction and property group reported a 90% increase in profit for the recent half year, boosted by the acquisition of May Gurney and recovery in the UK construction market. The shares opened higher but have since turned negative in a falling market, with the whole sector down 1%. The net cash position is a little weaker than expected, but these are generally positive results, says Liberum Capital William Shirley.

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AIM - WINNERS

Totally, up 30%. The company has announced that its health unit was awarded a deal by the Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group to undertake a clinical health coaching programme focused on the management of long-term conditions, a deal it hopes will lead to further contracts.

Snoozebox Holdings, up 24%. The company has been given planning permission to build a 240 bedroom portable hotel for the TT races on the Isle of Man on a permanent basis. It will deploy a 160 bedroom hotel to the races in May of this year, having sold almost all the packages it is offering for the 2014 event. However, the planning permission from the Isle of Man government means it can have an even bigger portable hotel at the event going forward, on a permanent basis.

Clear Leisure, up 12%. The company has announced that it will pay a special dividend worth GBP4 million if the Italian courts allow its Mediapolis SpA subsidiary to complete a proposed debt restructuring, allowing Clear Leisure to sell its stake in the unit to one of two bidders.

SolGold, up 11%. The gold exploration company said latest results from drilling at its Cascabel copper-gold porphyry exploration project in Ecuador have shown further exceptional grades.

Zytronic, up 9.2%. The group said trading in the first half its financial year has so far been considerably ahead of a year ago. It said improving orders and sales of touch sensors meant revenues and margins so far in the first half of the year were at similar levels to the second half of last year and in line with management expectations.

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AIM - LOSERS

Digital Barriers, off 18%. Shares in the surveillance technologies company have plummeted after it warned that its full-year pretax loss will be around 40% wider than the previous year, as revenue is expected to drop "slightly". Revenue has been hit by delays in procuring customers and in releasing new products to meet demand. It said that it now expects revenue for the year to be below the previous year, when it posted revenue of GBP23.3 million. It posted an adjusted pretax loss of GBP7.6 million in the previous year.

Plus500, down 10%. The founders of group has decided to sell another 17.4% stake in the contracts-for-difference trading platform, after the shares hit a record high Wednesday, giving it a valuation of over GBP600 million, or USD1 billion. It said founders and shareholders Alon Gonen, Gal Haber, Elad Ben-Izhak, Omer Elazari and Shlomi Weizmann had decided to sell 20 million existing shares in the business at 500 pence each, potentially raising them a further GBP1 billion and leaving them with a combined 35.6% stake in the business.

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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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