(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Fresnillo, up 3.1%. The Mexican gold miner rose as the price of the safe haven asset improved amid the risk-off attitude at the start of the week. Gold was quoted at USD1,456.90 on Monday versus USD1,445.50 late Friday. FTSE 250-listed gold miners Hochschild Mining and Centamin were up 1.2% and 1.0% respectively.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Marks & Spencer, down 4.2%. Ocado, down 2.9%. Online grocer Ocado said it has concluded the sale of 50% of its retail business to Marks & Spencer. Ocado Retail will begin selling M&S products on September 1, 2020, unless its current arrangements with John Lewis & Partners-owned Waitrose terminates sooner. Over 6,500 M&S grocery products will be available to Ocado shoppers, the company said. In February, the two FTSE 100 companies entered formed a 50-50 joint venture, with M&S paying Ocado GBP750.0 million for its 50% stake in the retail business. Following the completion of the sale, Ocado has appointed Melanie Smith, the strategic director at M&S, as the chief executive of Ocado Retail.----------Intertek, down 3.8%. Morgan Stanley cut the inspection, product testing and certification firm to Underweight from Equal Weight.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------BBA Aviation, down 4.1%. The aviation services provider reported a sharp rise in profit in the first half but attributed the growth to switching accounting methods. In the six months to June 30, BBA saw pretax profit rise 22% to USD156.0 million from USD128.2 million the year before. Underlying profit, on a pre-IFRS 16 basis, grew 5.3% to USD190.0 million, with the company attributing the growth to its fixed base operation business, Signature, outperforming the US business & general aviation market. Revenue increased 20% to USD1.53 billion from USD1.28 billion the year before. "The first half of 2019 has been broadly in line with our expectations for BBA Aviation, with a solid Signature performance, in a flat business & general aviation market. Our Ontic legacy business has delivered a strong performance," said BBA CEO Mark Johnstone.----------Cairn Energy, down 3.7%. The exploration and development company said Capricorn Norge, operator of production licence 842, plugged and abandoned a wildcat well offshore Norway after it came up dry. Cairn holds a 40% working interest in the Godalen prospect in the Norwegian sea, which is a part of production licence 842, through its subsidiary Capricorn Norge. This is the first exploration well in production licence 842, Cairn noted. The primary exploration target for the well was to prove petroleum in Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks. The secondary exploration target for the well was to examine reservoir development in Upper Jurassic reservoir rocks. Cairn confirmed that there were no traces of petroleum in the well, and it is dry. The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------easyHotel, up 34% at 94.50 pence. The budget hotel operator said it has agreed to a cash takeover offer from Ivanhoe Cambridge and existing investor ICAMAP Investments. The offer values easyHotel's share capital at GBP138.7 million and gives the company an enterprise value of GBP126.1 million. easyHotel said shareholders will receive 95.00 pence per share, a 35% premium to Friday's closing price of 70.50p and a 27% premium to the six-month volume-weighted average price of 75.00p. Real estate fund manager ICAMAP, which is easyHotel's largest shareholder with a 39% stake, said it needed "an equally supportive investor" in order to develop the hotel chain. ----------Verona Pharma, up 16%. The clinical stage biopharmaceutical company reported positive second phase test data for a dry powder inhaler formulation of its lead development product ensifentrine. Ensifentrine was created for the maintenance treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Verona said all of the primary and secondary lung function endpoints were met in the second-phase trial. "The magnitude of improvement in lung function and duration of action were highly statistically significant and support twice daily dosing of ensifentrine for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," the company said in its statement Monday. ----------
4 Feb 2016 16:28
