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(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Experian, up 6.1%. The consumer credit checker said annual profit dipped slightly due to a USD49 million increase in finance costs, but it maintained its final dividend despite the virus pandemic. Experian posted a USD942 million pretax profit for its financial year ended March 31, down 1.6% from USD957 million the previous year. While revenue increased 6.6% to USD5.18 billion from USD4.86 billion, net finance costs rose 24% to USD257 million from USD208 million due to both higher interest expenses and a larger charge in respect of fair value re-measurements. Total operating expenses were 7.8% higher at USD3.99 billion compared to USD3.70 billion the year before. A second interim dividend of 32.5 US cents per share was declared, unchanged from financial 2019. This brings Experian's annual dividend to 47.0 cents per share, up 1.1% from 46.50 cents.
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Severn Trent, up 2.8%. The water firm reported a profit decline on higher expenses and for financial 2020 despite a considerable rise in revenue. For its financial year ended March 31, Severn posted revenue of GBP1.84 billion, up 4.3% from GBP1.77 billion reported the year prior. Pretax profit however, was 19% lower at GBP310.7 million, compared to GBP384.7 million recorded for financial 2019. Operating costs were GBP1.28 billion, up from GBP1.22 billion the previous year. The company also recorded GBP46.8 million as its share of the net loss of joint ventures, versus just GBP400,000 the year before, and provided GBP4.9 million against a loan in relation to its joint venture, Water Plus. Severn Trent declared a final dividend of 60.05 pence, up 7.2% from 56.02p a year before, taking the total annual payout to 100.08p, also up 7.2% from 93.37p.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Rolls-Royce Holdings, down 2.2%. The jet engine maker announced a major business reorganisation that will see it cut at least 9,000 jobs from its global workforce. Rolls-Royce said the restructuring is expected to produce more than GBP1.3 billion of annualised savings, about GBP700 million of which will come from the headcount reduction. The reorganisation is expected to result in around GP800 million of one-off cash costs, with outflows to be incurred across 2020 to 2022. Most hit by the reorganisation will be the Civil Aerospace business, which has suffered a sharp drop in customer demand for both civil aerospace engines and aftermarket services in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company plans to conduct a "detailed review" of its "facility footprint" within Civil Aerospace, though the restructure will also hit its central support functions.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Marks & Spencer, up 4.9%. The food and clothing retailer reported a fall in profit for its recently ended financial year as it took costs and stock write-downs due to Covid-19. Revenue for the year to March 28 was down 1.9% to GBP10.18 billion and pretax profit slumped 20% to GBP67.2 million. The pretax profit figure included adjusting items of GBP335.9 million, with GBP212.8 million of this for costs and stock write-downs due to Covid-19. Food like-for-like sales were up 1.9% while clothing sales fell 6.2% - the latter including an estimated 2.2% hit from Covid-19 in March. The Covid-19 crisis started to impact the business in the first week of March with reductions in Clothing & Home sales across all its markets. While Food sales were resilient, "we did not experience the stockpiling performance of the supermarkets", M&S noted.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Vistry, down 3.3%. The housebuilder said trading across its business during the UK's Covid-19 lockdown has been positive. The firm - formerly known as Bovis Homes - said that while trading in March was hurt by the Covid-19 outbreak, the introduction of virtual tours has allowed the sales team to continue to operate during the lockdown period. Over the past eight weeks, the company has exchanged on 310 homes and completed a total of 257 sales. "In these unprecedented times, the group's performance during lockdown has been better than initially expected in respect of reservations, completions and cash management. We are pleased by how effectively our site management and health and safety teams have adapted to the new operating procedures. As a result, we currently have more than 5,600 operatives working safely across our developments and expect productivity to continue to increase," said Chief Executive Greg Fitzgerald.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Ninety One, up 5.3%. The Investec spin-off reported double-digit profit growth in its recently-ended financial year, but warned on challenges, caused by Covid-19, going forward. Ninety One completed its demerger from Investec in mid-March. The asset management business reported net revenue of GBP609.9 million for the year to the end of March compared to GBP556.9 million a year earlier, a 10% increase. Pretax profit, meanwhile, grew by 11% to GBP198.5 million from GBP178.4 million year-on-year. Ninety One said, during the year, its short- and longer-term investment performance displayed an improving trend. However, after markets were hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in March, the situation deteriorated, the company said. Assets under management reduced by 7% to GBP103.4 billion from GBP111.4 billion a year earlier, as the positive net flows were offset by negative market movements, caused by Covid-19 in the last month of the year.
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By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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