FAST.L Share News (FAST)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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TUI Group. up 6.2%. The travel operator said it will deliver growth in underlying earnings before interest, tax and amortisation in its financial year to the end of March, as it makes progress with its summer 2016 programme. TUI said winter 2015/16 is closing as expected, with 95% of the source market programme sold and increased revenue of 3% driven by higher average selling prices across most major source markets. Summer 2016 trading is also doing well, with both revenue and bookings ahead of last year, TUI said. 47% of the programme is sold so far, with revenue up 3% and bookings up 2%. It said bookings for Turkey were subdued but this was being compensated for by bookings elsewhere.

Carnival, up 1.4%. The cruise ship operator on Wednesday afternoon had said its cumulative bookings for 2016 are well ahead year-on-year as its net income and revenue grew in the first quarter of its financial year. Carnival said bookings for the rest of 2016 were higher than at the same point a year earlier and had been made at slightly higher prices.

Randgold Resources, up 1.2%. Chief Executive Mark Bristow said the gold miner is well placed to continue generating robust cash flows even at a lower gold price. Writing in the miner's annual report, Bristow said the mining industry needs to make new discoveries. A significant rise in the gold price and an injection of new capital into the industry would allow debt to be cleared, but will not provide much scope to add any value or reverse production declines. The precious metal was trading at USD1,233.20 an ounce Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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BHP Billiton, down 1.9%. The mining stock went ex-dividend meaning new buyers no longer qualify for dividend payouts.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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AO World, 5.7%. The online domestic appliances retailer said its UK business performed ahead of expectations in the fourth quarter of its financial year, while the European segment also performed well. AO World said UK revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the fourth quarter ended March 31 grew ahead of expectations, and that it now expects full-year UK revenue to be up by 19% and UK adjusted Ebitda to reach GBP17 million. Expectations for the UK business in the next financial year remain unchanged.

Serco Group, up 1.6%. The outsourcer said said the review of its joint venture contract managing the operations of the Atomic Weapons Establishment on behalf of the UK government has been concluded. Serco said the updated contract provides a framework through to 2025, with regular pricing reviews put in place. The next pricing review will take place in 2019. Serco did not provide any financial details on the deal, but said the new structure of the contract will impose greater risk-sharing on the customer, the UK Ministry of Defence, with an opportunity to earn higher margins through outperforming against the terms of the deal.

RPC Group, up 1.3%. The plastic products group said revenue and adjusted operating profit will be higher for its financial year to the end of March. RPC said revenue will be significantly higher year-on-year, benefiting from good organic sales growth and acquisition contributions.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Moneysupermarket.com Group, down 1.2%. The stock went ex-dividend.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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GameAccount Network, up 16%. The B2B internet gaming software and content provider said it has launched a virtual reality simulated gaming application for its first continuing US client, New York's Empire City Casino. The company said the virtual reality application is compatible with both PCs and Facebook's Oculus Rift VR headsets. "Playing authentic casino games in VR for real money will dramatically close the gap between the live gaming experience available on-property and the flat two-dimensional experience available at home on traditional personal computer or mobile devices," Chief Executive Dermot Smurfit said.

Fastnet Equity, up 11%. The company said it has agreed the reverse takeover of Amryt Pharmaceuticals and will be changing its name following the deal. Fastnet said it will reverse into Amryt, an orphan drug development company, in a deal worth GBP29.6 million to be covered by the issue of 123.5 million Fastnet shares. Fastnet has sought to transition from an oil and gas company into investment company focused on the healthcare sector.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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EpiStem Holdings, down 18%. The biotechnology firm said its pretax loss widened in the first half of its financial year on increased investment its its point-of-care device Genedrive and soft sales in its other businesses. The group said its pretax loss came in at GBP3.6 million for the six months to December 31, from GBP2.2 million the same period the previous year, after sales were down to GBP2.0 million from GBP2.2 million and discovery and development costs rose to GBP1.3 million from GBP895,000.

Nanoco Group, down 15%. The nanomaterials manufacturer said it agreed a modification of its licence agreement with US chemicals company Dow Chemical covering Nanoco's cadmium-free quantum dot technology. Under the new agreement, Dow will have non-exclusive rights for the sale, marketing and manufacture of Nanoco's quantum dot technology for use in display applications. Nanoco, will be free to pursue a range of other routes to market for its technology, giving it greater control of commercialising its intellectual property. As a result of the change to a non-exclusive agreement, Nanoco will get a lower royalty rate from Dow on Dow sales of cadmium-free dot products and will not get any earn-out income from Dow.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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