(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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BT Group, up 2.6%. Openreach welcomed UK telecoms regulator Ofcom's latest proposals concerning the rollout of fibre networks. Openreach is the wholly-owned broadband infrastructure subsidiary of the telecommunications firm, though it has its own board to ensure some independence. Ofcom earlier unveiled four proposals to "supercharge" the expansion of the UK's fibre infrastructure. In more urban areas, Ofcom said, where there will be a choice of networks, it will set Openreach's wholesale prices to encourage competition from new networks. Wholesale prices charged by Openreach to retail providers for its entry-level broadband service would be capped to inflation. In rural regions, where there is little prospect of multiple fibre networks, Openreach will be allowed to recover investment costs across the wholesale prices of a wider range of services, to encourage investment.
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Smiths Group, up 1.6%. Bank of America Merrill Lynch raised the engineering firm to Buy from Underperform.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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NMC Health, down 15% at 1,277 pence. Shares in the private healthcare firm slumped after Credit Suisse Group confirmed two shareholders have sold off 15% of the company. After the London market close on Tuesday, Credit Suisse said Saeed Mohamed Butti Mohamed Khalfan Al Qebaisi and Khaleefa Butti Omair Yousif Ahmed Al Muhairi were to sell shares worth around USD490 million in NMC. This was to reduce their own debts, Credit Suisse said. On Wednesday morning, the bank confirmed Al Qebaisi and Al Muhairi had sold a combined 31.2 million shares in NMC, a 15% stake. The shares were sold at 1,200 pence each, netting them USD493 million. Following the sale, Al Muhairi will own just short of 13% of NMC's shares. Al Qebaisi will own 4.7%. However, they will both have an additional 7% combined through a separate investment vehicle. NMC shares have been under pressure since Carson Block's short-selling firm launched a scathing attack on the company late last year.
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Standard Life Aberdeen, down 1.7%. BofAML cut the asset manager to Neutral from Buy.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Greggs, up 0.7%. The food-on-the-go retailer raised profit guidance for its financial year, and it promised a GBP7 million special payment to employees, due to their "crucial contribution to business success". In the year ended December 28, the company said like-for-like sales were up 9.2% annually, and in total, they rose by 14% which would give Greggs full-year sales of GBP1.17 billion. To compare, total sales last year rose 7.2% to GBP1.03 billion, with like-for-like sales improving by 2.9%. In the fourth quarter alone, like-for-like sales rose by 8.7%, compared with growth of 5.2% in the same period last year. As a result of strong trading, particularly in the latter part of 2019, Greggs expects its annual underlying pretax profit to be higher than its previous expectations, even after the special payment to its workforce of roughly 23,000 employees. The company previously upped its guidance in November, after reporting like-for-like sales in the six weeks to November 9 grew by 8.3%.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Finablr, down 16% at 129.91p. Credit Suisse confirmed two major shareholders - the same pair who sold shares in NMC Health - have sold a combined 6% stake in payments and foreign exchange services provider. After the London market close on Tuesday, the investment bank said Saeed Mohamed Butti Mohamed Khalfan Al Qebaisi and Khaleefa Butti Omair Yousif Ahmed Al Muhairi were to sell shares worth around USD75 million in Finablr. Credit Suisse confirmed on Wednesday the two sold 40.5 million Finablr shares in total at 135 pence each, for USD72 million. The Swiss bank did not specifically say how many shares they now hold, but did state that "residual" holdings are subject to a 90-day lock-up period. Earlier Wednesday, Finablr said it has contained a ransomware attack on its Travelex business, and it is confident no customer data has been stolen. Last Thursday, Finablr said all Travelex sites had been taken offline after a software virus attack on New Year's Eve. It has since been forced to provide foreign exchange services manually in branches.
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Elementis, down 6.5%. Jefferies cut the speciality chemicals firm to Hold from Buy.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Sirius Minerals, up 35% at 5.53p. Blue-chip miner Anglo American confirmed it is in advanced discussions to acquire the potash mine developer. Anglo American is offering 5.50p per share for London-listed Sirius. The offer values Sirius at GBP386 million. The offer represents a 34% premium to Sirius's closing price on Tuesday and a 47% premium to the company's volume-weighted average price since mid-September, when Sirius embarked on a strategic review of its business. Anglo American believes its offer to buy Sirius can provide "certainty" to Sirius shareholders. "From Anglo’s perspective, Sirius's financial problems have created an opportunity to scoop up a development-stage project for what could be a good source of long-term revenue generation and, importantly, not have to pay top dollar to buy it," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould. Anglo American shares were down 1.3%.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Petrel Resources, down 41%. The oil and gas explorer announced it hasn't received payment for the second tranche of shares issued to the Tamraz investor group, as well as a potential share lock-in violation. The Tamraz group consists or private equity investors, friends and business acquaintances of Non-Executive Director Roger Tamraz and Michel Fayad. In November, Petrel shareholders gave their approval for the issue of 64.0 million shares at 1.25 US cents to the Tamraz group - USD800,000 in total - which would bring their total stake to 51%. The payment for the shares was set to be received on Monday. The shares in question have been issued and allotted, but not yet delivered in the form of share certificates to the intended shareholders.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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