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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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Evraz, up 1.5%. JPMorgan raised the Russian steelmaker to Neutral from Overweight.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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NMC Health, down 20%. Muddy Waters said it is short NMC Health, citing "concerns about fraudulent asset values and theft of company assets". The short-seller commented: "We have serious doubts about the company's financial statements, including its asset values, cash balance, reported profits, and reported debt levels. At the worst of times, the company has invested in large assets at costs that we find too high to be plausible – including from parties we believe are de facto under common control. This behaviour gives rise to concerns about fraudulent asset values and theft of company assets."
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Unilever, down 5.2%. The consumer goods firm said it is now expecting 2019 underlying sales growth to fall short of guidance due to economic slowdown in south Asia and tough trading conditions in West Africa. The Anglo-Dutch company had been guiding for underlying sales growth in the lower half of its 3% to 5% multi-year range. However, it now expects underlying sales "slightly below" this guidance. The reason given for this change in expectations is "challenges in the quarter in some markets", including continued trouble in west African markets and a slowdown in south Asia, one of Unilever's biggest markets. In addition, Unilever said it was in for a tough start to 2020, expecting growth to be weighted to the second half.
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Taylor Wimpey, down 3.2%, Berkeley Group, down 3.1%, Persimmon, down 3.0%, Barratt Developments, down 2.5%. The housebuilders were giving back some of their UK general election inspired gains, amid heightened concern about a possible no-deal Brexit. This also was hurting the pound and came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared set to outlaw any extension to a Brexit transition beyond the end of next year. The FTSE 350 Household Goods index - which includes housebuilders - was down 1.8% on Tuesday having risen 6.3% over the past week.
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Royal Bank of Scotland, down 4.0%. The state-backed lender was cut to Neutral from Buy by Citigroup.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Hunting, down 5.6%, The oilfield services company said it it expects annual profit to remain in the range of current market expectations, though dependent on results for this December. Hunting said, as anticipated, activity levels within the North American oil and gas industry continues to slow, with the pace of decline increasing in the US onshore market. Further, the oil and gas contractor said "exhaustion" within its client base together with seasonal declines are hurting its fourth-quarter results and "certain clients have closed facilities serving the US onshore sector due to the slowing market". Hunting said it continues to trade profitably and remains cash generative. It expects to have around USD110 million in cash at the end of the year, with USD45 million of lease liabilities, resulting in a USD65 million net cash position.
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Hammerson, down 4.8%. Peel Hunt downgraded the shopping centre operator to Hold from Add.
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easyJet, down 4.8%. UBS cut the budget airline to Sell from Neutral.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Helical, up 9.1%. Peel Hunt raised the real estate developer to Buy from Add.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Symphony Environmental Technologies, down 16%. The anti-microbial plastic technologies firm forecast that annual revenue will be below market expectations. Revenue for the second half of 2019 is expected to be no less than GBP4.1 million, the same as the first half. This means that revenue will be below market expectation, Symphony said, resulting in an operating loss of approximately GBP500,000. Symphony recorded a pretax loss of GBP86,000 in the first half of 2019. In 2018, Symphony reported a pretax profit of GBP38,000 on revenue of GBP8.8 million Symphony said that the hit to sales caused by inventory adjustments by some of its customers that it had reported in its first half results had continued in the second half. The inventory adjustments were the result of legislative clarification in some markets regarding the manufacture of plastics.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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