ECM.L Share News (ECM)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Halma, up 3.1%. The safety and environmental analysis firm hiked its interim dividend by 7.0% to 6.11 pence per share, as profit and revenue both hit record levels. For the six months ended September, pretax profit widened 23% to GBP94.5 million from GBP76.8 million the year prior. This was after revenue rose 16% to GBP585.5 million from GBP506.3 million the year before, up 14% on an organic constant-currency basis. Revenue performance was helped by "robust" performances from all its four sectors and revenue growth in all regions. In particular, Halma emphasised the "very strong" performance in the US and "good growth" in the UK. ----------Compass Group, up 2.7%. The catering company reported revenue of GBP22.96 billion for the year ended September 30, up 1.7% from GBP22.57 billion a year ago. On an adjusted basis - excluding the impact of currency changes - the increase was 5.5% to GBP23.24 billion from GBP21.84 billion. Geographically, North America saw sales up 7.8% to GBP13.79 billion, Europe increased by 2.1% to GBP5.78 billion and RoW was up 2.9% to GBP3.67 billion. Pretax profit fell 2.6% to GBP1.52 billion from GBP1.56 billion. Compass increased its payout to shareholders by 13% to 37.7p per share from 33.5p paid a year ago.----------Reckitt Benckiser, up 1.5%. Exane BNP raised the hygiene and home products producer to Outperform from Neutral.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------easyJet, down 2.8%. The budget airline reported a 5.3% increase in the headline cost per seat excluding fuel to GBP43.4, mainly due to expansion into Tegel airport in Berlin, higher levels of disruption, and crew cost inflation. For the year to September 30, easyJet's pretax profit came in at GBP445 million, up from GBP385 million a year prior. This was on the back of revenue increasing by 17% year-on-year to GBP5.90 billion, with total revenue per seat up 6.4% to GBP61.94. "The reported gap between revenue and cost per seat indicates a wafer thin margin which could be upset by any number of factors, including ones outside of the company's control, such as the oil price, industrial action and flight cancellations arising from adverse weather. This is quite apart from the airline trading rules which may fall out of Brexit," Interactive Investor Head of Markets Richard Hunter noted. ----------Anglo American, down 2.1%. The platinum producer said its subsidiary De Beers' diamond sales fell 5.6% in ninth cycle to USD440 million from USD466 million year-on-year. The figure is likewise a drop on the eighth cycle, which reported sales of USD482 million. De Beers Chief Executive Bruce Cleaver said: "As the industry's focus turns towards the key end of year retail selling season, rough diamond sales continued to be in line with expectation during the ninth cycle of the year. While demand for smaller, lower quality rough diamonds continues to see some challenges, the latest cycle saw some signs of improvement in this area as factories in India begin to reopen after Diwali."----------Smiths Group, down 1.8%. On Monday, RBC cut the engineering company to Underperform from Outperform.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------BTG, up 34% at 822.50p. US medical devices manufacturer Boston Scientific said it has agreed to acquire UK rival healthcare company BTG for GBP3.3 billion. Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, Boston Scientific will pay 840p cash for each BTG share, a 37% premium the closing price of 615p per BTG share on Monday. BTG said its directors consider the Boston Scientific offer to be fair and reasonable and intend to recommend unanimously that BTG shareholders vote in favour of the merger agreement at a court meeting and general meeting. Boston Scientific has received irrevocable undertakings in respect of 128.0 million BTG shares, representing 33% of BTG's share capital, for its acquisition offer.----------Spectris, up 10%. The measuring devices maker said sales for the four months ended October grew 9% on a reported basis on the year prior. On a like-for-like basis, sales advanced 8% on the year before. The like-for-like sales performance was helped by a particularly strong performance in Asia, where sales rose 16% on the year prior, led by strong demand in China and Japan. Meanwhile, North American sales growth remained broadly in line with the year prior at 6%. Europe, however, saw sales growth performance moderate compared to the first half of the year at 2%. Despite this, Spectris emphasised, growth in orders have improved. In addition, Spectris's new chief executive, Andrew Heath, announced plans to tighten focus and operational performance at the firm.----------Telecom Plus, up 4.8%. The UK-based multi-utility supplier said revenue for the half year to September 30 rose 4% to GBP311 million, with pretax profit up 1.2% to GBP19.3 million. Telecom Plus raised its dividend by 4.2% to 25p per share. Organic customer and service growth was ahead of expectations, the company said, with positive momentum. Customer numbers for the period were up by 10,479 - compared to a rise of 5,265 a year before - to 621,218. Total services supplied for the period rose by 86,372 - compared to 36,348 growth last year - to 2.4 million.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------CYBG, down 10%. The Glasgow-headquartered lender swung to a loss of GBP164 million for the year ended September 30, compared with the pretax profit of GBP268 million reported the year prior. Meanwhile, net interest income grew to GBP851 million from GBP844 million year-on-year. The swing to pretax loss was primarily attributed to GBP396 million in legacy conduct charges, up sharply from GBP58 million in the year ago period. PPI provision during 2018 financial year totalled GBP352 million, with GBP44 million for other legacy conduct issues. The lender said it will make an additional GBP150 million in provisions for PPI to cover costs associated with a revised estimate of 83,000 future walk-in complaints. ----------Electrocomponents, down 8.5%. The electronics products distributor posted interim results in line with guidance, but below analysts expectations, Shore Capital noted. For the six months ended September, pretax profit widened 23% to GBP93.0 million, after revenue rose 11% to GBP911.8 million. On a like-for-like basis revenue grew 9.8%. Shore said it expected Electrocomponents to report revenue growth to GBP915 million. Earnings before interest, taxes and amortization came in at GBP104 million for the first half, down GBP2 million on analyst's estimates. Electrocomponents proposed a 5.3 pence per share interim dividend, up 1.0% from 5.25p the year before. ----------Spirax-Sarco Engineering, down 7.7%. After the market close on Monday, RBC cut the peristaltic pumps manufacturer to Underperform from Outperform. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------John Menzies, up 2.8%. The aviation company said it is trading ahead of last year and is on track to meet expectations for the full year, despite a commercially challenging year. The company also said that it remains on track to grow operating margin in 2018 and achieve 8% per annum revenue growth target in near future. John Menzies noted that 2018 has been challenging and revenue growth slowed primarily due to non-renewal of licences, loss of some contracts and divestiture from less favourable contracts. As a result, the company anticipates deficit to be in the range of GBP50 million to GBP55 million, a significant reduction on the 2015 position of GBP116 million.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------KCOM Group, down 35%. The IT services provider said it now expects weaker trading performance for the year to the end of March than originally anticipated. The result was hurt by flat revenue in the Enterprise segment year-on-year due to the lower than expected order intake. The performance of the NNS segment has resulted in KCOM's decision to impair the carrying value of goodwill of GBP32.2 million, which will be recognised in the half year report. As a result, for the full year, the company now expects to report earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization 5% below current market expectations. ----------