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(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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easyJet, up 4.8%. The budget airline said it has started its new financial year strongly, as it upgraded its passenger revenue guidance. In the first quarter of financial 2020, ended December 31, easyJet said its total revenue grew 9.9% year on year to GBP1.43 billion, with passenger revenue rising 9.7% to GBP1.12 billion and ancillary revenue adding 11% to GBP301 million. Passenger numbers in the first quarter increased by 2.8% to 22.2 million, with capacity increasing 1.0% to 24.3 million seats. Load factor was up 1.6 percentage points to 91.3%. Revenue per seat in the first half is guided to grow by mid-to-high single digits - versus previous guidance of low-to-mid single digits. The airline's revenue per seat in the first half financial 2019 was GBP50.71. "While the past year has been a bumpy one for the airline industry, easyJet has weathered the turbulence better than most, picking up customers from strike-ridden British Airways and Ryanair along the way," said eToro analyst Adam Vettese.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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BHP Group, down 2.4%. The Anglo-Australian miner kept the majority of its annual production guidance unchanged. For the six months to the end of December, BHP's copper production was 885,400 tonnes, up 7% from 825,300 tonnes the year before, as output grew from the Escondida and Pampa Norte mines in Chile, and the Olympic Dam mine in Australia. The group kept its annual copper production guidance unchanged at 1.71 million tonnes to 1.82 million tonnes. Metallurgical coal production dropped by 2% year-on-year to 20.3 million tonnes from 20.6 million tonnes due to major wash shutdowns at Goonyella, Peak Downs and Caval Ridge at BHP's Queensland Coal operations in Australia. Fellow Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto was down 2.7%.
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Pearson, down 2.2%. UBS downgraded the education publisher to Neutral from Buy.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Dixons Carphone, up 6.0%. The electrical goods and mobile phone retailer said trading in the peak festive season in the UK was solid, despite a weak market. UK & Ireland Electricals revenue was 1% higher on a reported basis and up 2% like-for-like. However, Dixons posted an 11% drop in UKI Mobile revenue, with the like-for-like figure falling by 9%. London-headquartered Dixons said there was "broad-based" growth in televisions, gaming, smart technology, and small domestic appliances, while the decline in Mobile revenue was in line with expectations. Dixons managed to increase market share both in-store and online in the Electricals segment, it noted. "Dixons sold over 8,000 smart speakers a day over the crucial festive period, while over 75% more 65+ inch TVs were shifted, and the group gained market share both in-store, and crucially, online too. Boosting the online business is one of the pillars of the turnaround plan, so it's good to see Dixons making headway in this area, particularly in such a crowded marketplace," said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Sophie Lund-Yates.
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SSP Group, up 3.5%. The Upper Crust and Millie's Cookies food outlet operator said it made a "good" start to its financial year, though Europe continues to be affected by strikes in France. Revenue in the first quarter ended December rose 7.5% constant currency, with the figure rising by 6.1% at actually currency rates. Like-for-like sales growth at constant currency was 1.2%. SSP said the like-for-like growth figure met expectations, with headwinds noted in the second half of its last financial year continuing into its new year. Looking ahead, SSP has held like-for-like sales growth guidance for its financial year at just below 2%. It is confident of "another year of strong growth", though noted uncertainty will always exist over passenger numbers in the short-term.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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7digital group, up 33%. The digital music and radio services platform said its 2019 outcome will be in line with management expectations and will be operationally profitable in 2020 due to the new revised business strategy and further reduction in costs. 7digital said the cost reduction programme has reduced cost run rate by over 50% and resulted in annual savings of over GBP7 million in 2019. For 2020, 7digital has already secured much of its expected revenue for the year and, as a result, is on track to achieve operational profitability by the end of the second quarter.
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eve Sleep, up 18%. The mattress manufacturer said a shift towards more efficient marketing and streamlining of cost base had resulted in a sharply narrowed adjusted loss for 2019. The London-based company said it has continued to progress its rebuild strategy, prioritising long term profitability and cash generation over short-term sales growth and market share gains. For 2019, the company expects to post a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of GBP10.8 million, narrowed from GBP19.2 million loss a year ago. Group revenue in the company's Core markets is estimated to total GBP23.8 million versus GBP29.3 million. Cash burn is predicted to reduce by 51% over 2019, with net funds at December 31 totaling at GBP8.1 million, consisting of GBP7.8 million of net cash and GBP250,000 of advertising credits with Channel 4.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Spire Healthcare, down 4.8%. Jefferies downgraded the private healthcare firm to Underperform from Hold.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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