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(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Rolls-Royce, up 4.9%. The jet engine maker said it had a "good" end to 2019 after a "challenging" first half, with a narrowed pretax loss and revenue rise. Rolls-Royce recorded a pretax loss of GBP891 million for 2019, compared with GBP2.95 billion pretax loss a year ago, on a revenue of GBP16.59 billion and GBP15.73 billion, respectively. The narrowed loss was mainly due to sharply lower net financing costs, which fell 92% year-on-year to GBP178 million. In the first half of 2019, Rolls-Royce experienced problems with the Trent 1000 TEN jet engine, and fixing those took longer than expected. Rolls-Royce retained its guidance for fixing Trent 1000 engines and said that it remained on track to reduce aircraft on ground to single digits by the end of the second quarter of 2020. London-based Rolls-Royce also said it expects to report core underlying operating profit growth of about 15% in 2020 and stable to low single-digit growth in core revenue. Core underlying operating profit, which excludes some non-core operations, in 2019 totalled GBP810 million versus GBP631 million a year ago. Core revenue increased 7% to GBP15.26 billion.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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International Consolidated Airlines Group, down 7.3%. The British Airways parent posted a substantially lower annual pretax profit of EUR2.28 billion, down 35% from EUR3.49 billion the year before, weighed down by a pilot strike and high fuel costs, and warned of a coronavirus impact. Group capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, grew by 4.0% to 337.75 billion from 324.81 billion the prior year. Group traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rose by 5.6% to 285.75 billion from 270.66 billion reported in 28. It raised its annual ordinary dividend 1.6% to 31.5 euro cents per share from 31.0 cents in 2018. However, IAG said it could not provide profit guidance for 2020 "given the ongoing uncertainty on the potential impact and duration of COVID-19", the coronavirus which originated in China and has spread to many other countries.
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easyJet, down 3.7%. The budget airline warned the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in "significant" softening of demand and load factors into and out of its northern Italian bases. The London Luton Airport-based company, as a result, is planning to cancel some flights, particularly those into and out of Italy, while continuing to monitor the situation and adapting its flying programme to support demand. To mitigate the impact from the coronavirus outbreak, the company plans to cut its administrative budget, freeze employee pay and promotions, postpone non-critical projects and reallocate aircraft offering highest revenue opportunities for summer 2020.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Plus500, up 4.1%. The contracts-for-difference trading services provider said, due to a significant increase in customer trading activity levels, its first quarter performance to date is substantially ahead of the last quarter of 2019. The contracts-for-difference trading services provider said it is too early to determine how this outperformance will affect 2020 as a whole, as the high levels of market volatility may not continue, as well as the impact of Australian regulatory changes. In August, Plus500 noted the proposed ban of binary options and contracts for difference trading in Australia.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Jupiter Fund Management, down 6.7%. The company reported flat assets under management in 2019 and decided to forego its special dividend due to its proposed Merian Global Investors acquisition. At the end of 2019, Jupiter's assets under management stood at GBP42.8 billion, marginally higher than GBP42.7 billion at the end of 2018. By product, Jupiter's Mutual funds added 1.9% over 2019 to GBP37.6 billion, with Segregated Mandates growing 4.3% to GBP4.8 billion, but this was offset by Investment funds falling by two thirds to GBP400 million from GBP1.2 billion the year before. The fund manager reported a 6.5% decrease in net management fees to GBP370.0 million from GBP395.7 million in 2018. Pretax profit slipped 16% year on year to GBP151.0 million from GBP179.2 million. Revenue was down 8.9% to GBP419.3 million, with net revenue falling 8.1% to GBP379.1 million. Jupiter cut its total dividend by 40% to 17.1 pence in 2019 from the 28.5p distributed in 2018, but the fund manager had issued an 11.4p special dividend in 2018. Without the special dividend, Jupiter's ordinary dividend was flat year on year.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Shanta Gold, down 17%. The Guernsey-based miner reported a swing to loss in 2019 of USD1.2 million compared to USD13.1 million profit a year earlier, as loss on non-hedge derivatives and other commodity contracts widened to USD9.8 million from USD1.3 million. More positively, Shanta said revenue increased to USD112.8 million form USD103.8 million, thanks to higher average realised gold price of USD1,377 per ounce compared to USD1,259 per ounce in 2018. Shanta reported gold production of 84,506 ounces in 2019, which was above its guidance of between 80,000 ounces and 84,000 ounces. Gold sales totalled 80,926 ounces, lower than 82,457 ounces sold a year ago. Looking forward, the company is guiding for gold output of between 80,000 ounces and 85,000 ounces in 2020. Shanta said it intends to pursue its growth opportunities, having reduced net debt by 55% in 2019.
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Benchmark Holdings, down 9.8%. The veterinary services company recorded pretax loss of GBP5.9 million in the first quarter, unchanged year-on-year, despite revenue falling to GBP25.0 million from GBP29.6 million. Benchmark said its performance was hurt by continuing market weakness in Advanced Nutrition. More positively, the company said it has seen positive performance in the Genetics unit. Benchmark is also monitoring the potential impact of the coronavirus on its business, it said, which led to a suspension of shrimp imports to China, hurting shrimp producers principally in Ecuador and India. In addition, the company said shrimp production in Vietnam and Thailand has decreased as a result of preventative measures constraining activities and consumption across Asian markets has declined. Benchmark said it is accelerating its restructuring and cost savings plan to offset the continuing negative impact from adverse shrimp markets. Looking ahead, the company said it expects to deliver on expectations for the full year.
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By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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