Genus Share News (GNS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Land Securities, up 3.0%. The property investment company acquired a 1.6 acre site on Lavington Street in Southwark, south east London for GBP87.1 million from an unnamed private company. The site consists of two buildings amounting to 128,000 square feet and is said to have significant development potential. Land Securities said the acquisition will add to its central London development pipeline, which currently stands at 2 million square feet ----------Berkeley Group, up 2.5%. The housebuilder's shares were higher after raising its profit guidance and pledged to continue returning cash to shareholders. Berkeley said that as a result of the "resilient start" made to the current financial year, it raised its pretax profit guidance for the year ending March 2019 by 5%, leaving the next two years unchanged. For the first half to October-end, Berkeley returned GBP193.7 million through share buybacks and GBP43.8 million in dividends to shareholders. The group said it expects to pay the next GBP139.7 million shareholder return by September 30, 2019 in dividends and share buybacks. In addition, Berkeley expects to return at least GBP16.34 per share, or GBP2.20 billion to shareholders over the next three years by September 30, 2021. Peers Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments and Persimmon were up 3.4%, 3.3% and 3.2% respectively. ----------RELX, up 2.3%. The scientific, technical and medical analytics business said it will return a further GBP100 million in the first two months of 2019 via a new share buy back programme. RELX confirmed Friday it completed its GBP700 million share buyback programme for 2018, while adding it now intends to commence a new programme to repurchase up to GBP100 million worth of new ordinary shares between January 2 and February 18. The purpose of the new share repurchase programme is to reduce the capital, the company said, adding that the repurchased shares will be held in treasury. The data and analytics company also said that on Thursday it cancelled 45 million of its ordinary shares held in treasury. Following the cancellation, the company holds a total of 42.0 million ordinary shares in treasury, and has 1.97 billion ordinary shares in issue. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Associated British Foods, down 2.5%. The company said trading in its core fast fashion retail business Primark remained challenging in November due to challenging conditions in the UK retail market. The company, which also owns operates a sugar business, however remained confident of increasing Primark's profit in 2019 financial year by "careful inventory management and improved margins." AB Foods also expects to continue with expansion of Primark's store footprint. The clothing retailer contributed to nearly 50% of AB Foods group revenue and 60% of group adjusted operating profit in the year ended September 15. In his annual general meeting statement, AB Foods Chairman, Michael McLintock said that group sales and profit for the first eight weeks of 2019 financial were in line with management views and the company continues to expect adjusted earnings per share for 2019 financial year to be in line with 134.9 pence per share recorded in 2018 financial. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Games Workshop, up 6.0%. The wargames manufacturer and retailer said its early estimates show an increase in sales and operating profit in the first half of its financial year on the back of the success of its Warhammer brand. Games Workshop said estimates indicated revenue of approximately GBP124 million. This compares to revenue of GBP108.9 million a year before. Games Workshop also estimated its operating profit for the period at approximately GBP41 million, up modestly from an operating profit of GBP38.8 million for the year-ago period. ----------Premier Oil, up 3.4%. The exploration and production firm said it has completed the sale of its southern North Sea Babbage interests to Verus Petroleum SNS and is on track to meet its 2018 production forecast. Premier Oil has received GBP30.3 million for its Babbage interests, after adjusting for cash flows collected by Premier since the January 2018 effective date. Versus will also take on exploration commitments valued at approximately USD24 million. The sale proceeds, Premier Oil said, will be used to pay down its existing debt. Premier Oil expects its 2018 production to be around 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, rising from 75,000 barrels in 2017. Year-to-date production has averaged 79,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day with November and December to date above forecast at 92,000 barrels per day, driven by high uptime across its producing portfolio. The oil producer also noted that more than 30% of its 2019 forecast oil entitlement production has been hedged at an average price of USD70 per barrel. ----------McCarthy & Stone, up 2.9%. The retirement housebuilder has hired Nigel Turner and Mike Lloyd to be joint chief operating officers, with effect on January 1. Turner will be responsible for bringing down build costs and executing McCarthy & Stone's new strategy, while Lloyd will be responsible for the group's Management Services operations, as well as sales, marketing and resales. Turner most recent role was at FTSE 250-listed construction and support services firm Kier Group, where he spent 21 years since 1997, leaving as executive director of Developments & Property Services at the start of August. Lloyd was formerly part of FTSE 250-listed roadside rescue firm AA for four years since 2014, leaving as group chief commercial officer. ----------Rotork, up 2.9%. Credit Suisse raised the industrial flow control equipment manufacturer to Neutral from Underperform.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Genus, down 5.2%. The animal genetics firm raised GBP68 million through a share placing, which will go towards reducing its net debt and adding flexibility to its balance sheet. Genus raised the GBP68 million by placing 3.1 million shares in a price of 2,200 pence per share, which reflects a 7.8% discount to the stock's closing price on Thursday of 2,386.00 pence. The amount of shares placed and the price is in line with Genus's announcement of the placing late Thursday. ----------IMI, down 1.3%. Credit Suisse downgraded the engineer to Underperform from Neutral. ----------