Distil Share News (DIS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Evraz, up 3.9%. The Russian steelmaker reported mixed production results for the third quarter, but said it expects improvements in the final quarter of 2018 as it finalises maintenance and repairs at its plants in Russia. The company said crude steel output fell by 10% in the three months to the end of September to 3.1 million tonnes from 3.5 million tonnes produced in the second quarter of 2018. The result was hurt by lower pig iron production, which declined 11% quarter-on-quarter to 2.4 million tonnes from 2.7 million tonnes. Looking ahead, the company said it expects raw coal production to increase in the fourth quarter, driven by the launch of a new longwall in September at the Raspadskaya mine. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------WPP, down 17%. Around GBP2.10 billion was slashed off the marketing and advertising company's total market value after it reported a drop in third quarter revenue due to slowdown in its North American businesses. WPP reported a 0.8% fall in revenue for the three months to the end of September to GBP3.76 billion from GBP3.79 billion for the same period the year before. Revenue for the third quarter particularly declined in the company's North America businesses, down 1.5% on a reported basis, as client losses and spending reductions led to a slip in WPP's media and data investment, health & wellness and communications businesses. Due to the slow down in the third quarter, WPP has adopted a more cautious stance for the full year. It estimates like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs growth to be down 0.5% to 1.0% and operating margin to revenue less pass through costs to be down around 1.0 to 1.5 margin points.----------BT Group, down 2.8%. The telecommunications company's shares were lower as it named payment processor Worldpay's Co-Chief Executive Officer Philip Jansen as its own new CEO. Jansen will be replacing the outgoing Gavin Patterson, who will leave in January. At the end of September, Worldpay announced that Jansen will step down at the end of 2018, and Worldpay will move to a single CEO structure led by Executive Chairman & Co-CEO Charles Drucker. Sky News subsequently reported that Jansen was the preferred candidate to take over from Patterson at BT. Back in June, BT had announced that Patterson would step down later in 2018 once a replacement will be appointed. Jansen has served as co-chief executive of Worldpay since 2013 and navigated Worldpay through its flotation in 2015 and its combination with Vantiv in 2018.----------ITV, down 2.7%. The stock went ex-dividend meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------KAZ Minerals, up 8.6%. The Kazakhstan-focused miner said its copper production increased in the third quarter with a higher ore throughput at all its assets, saying this put it on track to meet full-year guidance. The miner's copper production in the third-quarter increased 2.5% to 77,200 tonnes from 75,300 tonnes a year prior. It also was up from 72,300 tonnes in the second quarter. The rise in output was attributed to the performance at the Aktogay mine, where copper production increased 12% to 34,900 tonnes from 31,200. The mine's increase was mainly due to a "seasonally higher oxide output". KAZ's third-quarter production means it is well positioned to achieve its full-year guidance of between 270,000 tonnes and 300,000 tonnes.----------Polypipe, up 4.8%. The plastic piping manufacturer said it has acquired UK-based plastic and metal products manufacturer Manthorpe Building Products Holdings Ltd for GBP52 million on a cash and debt free. The acquisition will be funded from existing cash resources as well as drawdown from existing debt facilities, and is expected to be earnings accretive in the first year of ownership. For the year to the end of April, Manthorpe Building Products reported earnings before interest, taxes, deprecation and amortisation of GBP6.3 million and revenue of GBP16.4 million. The acquisition is expected to be a good strategic fit for Polypipe, broadening the group's UK residential offering in the water and climate management sectors, with new and value adding products.----------CYBG, up 3.5%. UBS raised the lender to Neutral from Sell. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Hastings Group, down 11%. The insurer said it expects its loss ratio for 2018 to be at the lower end of its target range of 75% to 79%. The outlook is reinforced by the expectations that claims inflation is expected to continue to exceed premium inflation in an ongoing competitive market, due to falling average market premiums. The loss ratio is anticipated to move to the middle of the target range for 2019. Although, for the nine months to the end of September, net revenue rose by 7% to GBP574.1 million from GBP538.3 million for the same period the year before. Gross written premiums grew by 3% to GBP738.5 million from GBP714.3 million. Live customer policies at the end of September was 4% higher than the prior year at 2.7 million from 2.6 million.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Distill, up 16%. The drinks company swung to a profit on substantial revenue growth for the first half of its financial year on higher sales and volumes. For the six months to the end of September, Distil reported a pretax profit of GBP101,000, swinging from a loss of GBP21,000, on revenue that rose by 42% to GBP1.2 million from GBP818,000 a year before. Distil said its brands saw growth in year-on-year sales and volumes during the period, with sales revenue advancing 42% while combined case volumes grew 31%, with particularly strong performances in RedLeg Spiced Rum and Blackwoods Gin. This followed a 57% increase in spending on marketing and promotions to GBP312,000 from GBP199,000 in the prior year.----------Debenhams, up 11%. The troubled department store chain said it is to close a fifth of its stores after it swung to an annual loss. The retailer unveiled a plan to close 50 underperfoming locations within 5 years, five times more closures than what the chain had previously announced, as it hopes to "address structural challenge and drive profitable growth". Currently Debenhams trades from 240 stores. Furthermore, in a bid to save cash the department store giant will skip its final dividend. For the financial year ended September 1, Debenhams posted a pretax loss of GBP491.5 million compared with a GBP59 million profit the year before. Revenue for the year declined 2.6% to GBP2.28 billion from GBP2.34 billion. "Debenhams should be viewed as a recovery play for adventurous investors, with a tolerance for loss and the patience to see things get worse before they get better," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Laith Khalaf.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------RPS Group, down 29%. The energy and project management consultant said it expects a decrease in profit in 2018 as it shifts the business from a conglomerate of small units to a "truly global firm". RPS said fee income in the three months to the end of September totalled GBP139 million, down slightly from GBP141 million reported for the same period a year earlier. Pretax profit came in at GBP12.8 million, down from GBP14.3 million a year before and below RPS management's expectations. Pretax profit For the nine months ended September 30, declined to GBP40.1 million from GBP41.5 million. As a result, for the full year, RPS expects fee income to grow slightly year-on-year, with pretax profit falling slightly below the prior year's figure. In 2017, RPS recorded pretax loss of GBP1.6 million on fee income of GBP562.3 million. Looking forward, RPS said necessary investment will hit profit in 2019. RPS expects its costs to grew by GBP2.5 million year-on-year in 2019 and will incur one-off global brand relaunch expense totalling GBP2.0 million.----------Filtronic, down 21%. The communications equipment manufacturer warned against a number of variables "outside of its control" affecting sales of its Massive MIMO antennas. In its annual general meeting statement, the company said that trading in the first half of the year has been in line with its expectations. The antenna manufacturer said that successful market acceptance of its mMIMO programme "will be material in defining our near-term development". "Overall market endorsement of the benefits of mMIMO is apparent and we believe this technology will be a key driver of 4G/LTE network densification over the next two years and become a cornerstone for the development of future 5G networks," Filtronic explained.----------