(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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AVEVA, up 2.6%. The engineering software firm expressed confidence for the future following a swing to profit in the first half of its current financial year. AVEVA reported a pretax profit of GBP24.0 million for the six months to the end of September compared with GBP5.5 million loss a year ago, as revenue rose by 17% to GBP391.9 million from GBP336.5 million. Organic constant currency revenue grew by 12%. AVEVA explained that it benefited from business integration and actions taken to optimise performance. At the same time, AVEVA's investment in sales & marketing was increased. AVEVA increased its interim dividend by 11% to 15.5 pence a share from the 14.0p it paid a year earlier.
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Experian, up 2.3%. The credit checking firm upped its annual guidance and interim payout following earnings growth in the first half of its current financial year. Experian said pretax profit in the six months to the end of September improved by 2.1% to USD480 million from USD470 million, with revenue growing by 5.5% to USD2.50 billion from USD2.36 billion. Looking ahead, the Dublin-headquartered company said it now expect full-year organic revenue growth in the 7% to 8% range, at the upper end of previous guidance. First-half organic revenue growth was 7%. "We have started the year well," said Chief Executive Brian Cassin. "This reflects successful execution on big new addressable market opportunities, the global roll out of our innovative platforms and considerable momentum in Consumer Services as we invest in Experian Boost."
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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DCC, down 3.7%. The Dublin-headquartered company said profit in the first half of its current financial year was hurt by exceptional costs, but it still expects to deliver annual results in line with market forecasts. Separately, its Health & Beauty Solutions unit has acquired Ion Laboratories to enhance its service offering to customers in the US market. Ion Labs is a provider of contract manufacturing services, which is currently commissioning a new nutritional gummies manufacturing line. Nutritional gummies are chewable vitamins. The consideration was based on an enterprise value of USD60 million, most of which was paid in cash on completion, DCC said. The sales, marketing and support services provider reported pretax profit of GBP57.6 million for the half year to September 30, down by a third compared to GBP85.9 million it delivered a year ago, as revenue slid by 1.4% to GBP7.31 billion from GBP7.42 billion. On a constant currency basis, revenue fell by 1.7%.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Oxford Instruments, up 6.6%. The company, which provides tools for scientific research, said pretax profit for the six months to the end of September grew by 55% to GBP18.0 million from GBP11.6 million, as revenue climbed by 13% to GBP166.3 million from GBP147.0 million. On a constant currency basis, revenue advanced by 9.1%. First-half orders rose by 6.4% to GBP173.3 million from GBP162.9 million. It represents an increase of 2.8% at constant currency. The Abingdon-headquartered firm explained that the growth was driven by an increased volumes and the benefit from its improved business processes and commercial practices, combined with gains from its operational excellence programme. Oxford Instruments said its order book stood at GBP186.8 million at the end of the period, up 8.9% from GBP171.6 million a year prior.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Electrocomponents, down 12%. The electronics distributor boosted its interim dividend amid rising revenue, despite profit dipping on higher costs. For the six months ended September, pretax profit narrowed 4.3% to GBP89.0 million from GBP93.0 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 7.3% to GBP978.7 million from GBP911.8 million the year before. Electrocomponents proposed a 5.9 pence per share interim dividend, up 11% from the 5.3p reported the year prior. In the first six weeks of the second half of the financial year, Electrocomponents said it "continued to outperform" with modest growth despite weakness in some of its key markets.
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B&M European Value Retail, down 6.6%. The retailer reported a sharp fall in interim profit on the impairment of its German business. For the six months ended September 28, pretax profit fell by two-thirds to GBP32.2 million from GBP109.1 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 21% to GBP1.90 billion from GBP1.57 billion the year before. Profit performance at the FTSE 250-listed firm was hurt by rising administrative costs and a GBP59.5 million impairment related to its Jawoll business in Germany. The company said it will be carrying out a strategic review of Jawoll in order to determine its future.
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Trainline, down 4.9%. A shareholder in the transport ticketing platform has sold off its entire stake in the firm. Late Monday, JP Morgan said private equity firm KKR Victoria Aggregator, alongside some other shareholders, would be selling 68.0 million shares in the company, worth 13.9% combined. Following this sale, KKR and the other shareholders - including funds managed by Index Ventures, Ares, Alven Capital - now own no stake in Trainline. Before, KKR had held 12.4%, and the other shareholders 1.7% combined. This follows a similar move in September, when the parties sold a combined 65.5 million shares in Trainline at 435p each, netting GBP285 million, so this week's sale was at a lower price. Trainline listed in London back in June at 350 pence per share.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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AdEPT Technology, down 11%. The managed IT services provider said it delivered a first half revenue rise, helped by a trio contributions of fresh acquisitions, though profit fell. In the six months to September 30, revenue climbed 26% to GBP30.8 million from GBP24.4 million. A rise in costs however led to a 6.3% pretax profit decline to GBP2.4 million from GBP2.6 million last year. Amortisation costs grew by 44% to GBP2.9 million from GBP2.0 million, depreciation expenses more than doubled to GBP681,000 from GBP229,000 and AdEPT booked GBP236,000 in restructuring fees, against none last year.
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By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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