(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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Tesco, up 4.9%. The UK's largest supermarket chain confirmed the potential sale of its Asian business, though noted a review of options remains in the early stages. Tesco, which has operations in both Thailand and Malaysia, said the review of the business began after receiving "inbound interest" from potential buyers. The statement from the grocer came after the Times earlier on Monday had reported the company is mulling a potential sale worth up to USD9 billion. "If Tesco were to sell the business, it would need to be at a lumpy premium, and while any proceeds would be a nice cash windfall, one would have to question the long-term strategy of management in adopting such a move, in what could well be a strong business in the years ahead, given how increasingly competitive the UK market is likely to get," commented CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Croda International, down 1.0%. Barclays downgraded the speciality chemicals company to Equal Weight from Overweight.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Senior, up 5.6%. The engineer confirmed speculation regarding a review of its Aerostructures business, but said there can be no certainty over any transaction for the business following the review. The Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire-based company added that the Aerostructures review is in line with Senior's policy to review its portfolio and evaluate all its operating businesses in terms of their strategic fit within the group. The Aerostructures business, part of Senior's aerospace unit, manufactures structural parts for original equipment manufacturers in the large, business and regional jet markets. In 2018, the aerospace unit contributed GBP760.4 million to group revenue which totaled GBP1.08 billion.
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Marks & Spencer, up 3.5%. Goldman Sachs double upgraded the food, clothing and homewares retailer to Buy from Sell.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Tullow Oil, down 57%. The oil and gas company suspended its dividend, "reset" its future production guidance, and said Chief Executive Officer Paul McDade resigned with immediate effect. Following underperformance from its main oil producing assets - the TEN and Jubilee fields in Ghana - Tullow said it needs to reset its forward-looking guidance. For 2020, group production is forecast to average between 70,000 and 80,000 barrels of oil per day and group production for the following three years is expected to average around 70,000 bopd. Further, in 2020, Tullow expects to generate underlying free cash flow of at least USD150 million at USD60 a barrel after a capital investment of USD350 million. Considering the level of expected free cash flow, Tullow decided to suspend its dividend. "The appetite for risk which served it well when exploring for oil and gas arguably left it in a perilous position when it had too much debt heading into the oil price crash in 2014. Despite efforts to reduce borrowings, this remains an issue for the company, with net debt totalling nearly USD3 billion," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Deepmatter, up 78%. The software firm said it will be collaborating with blue chip pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca in a digital technology venture, designed to speed up the drug delivery process. As part of the collaboration, Astra will assess Deepmatter's DigitalGlassware platform, which enables chemists to share the details of their experiments from anywhere and in real-time. DigitalGlassware works by placing a sensor in a chemical reaction vessel, allowing it to monitor changes in temperature, pressure and UV light levels. The platform also has another probe, which monitors existing environmental conditions. AstraZeneca was down 0.3%.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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