(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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BP, Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and 'B', up 2.7%, 2.1%, 2.0%. Shares in the oil majors were higher after state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco said it sees signs of oil market recovery. Brent oil was trading at USD44.84 a barrel Monday morning, up from USD44.60 at the London equities close Friday. "Oil is pushing higher on Monday, extending last week's gains, boosted by upbeat data from the US and China and by a bullish demand picture from Saudi Aramco, the largest oil producer in the world. State owned Aramco's chief executive said that oil consumption in Asia, Aramco's biggest market has almost returned to pre-covid levels," said City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta. Saudi Aramco said on Sunday its second-quarter profits plunged a massive 73% due to sharply lower oil prices as the coronavirus crisis undercuts global demand. The Saudi Arabian firm posted a net profit of USD6.6 billion for the three months to June 30 compared to USD24.7 billion for the same period of 2019. Aramco's results reflected its "financial resilience", Chief Executive Amin Nasser said, as the company presses ahead with a plan to pay USD75 billion in dividends this year. Nasser also voiced optimism over what he called a "partial recovery in the energy market" amid an easing of virus restrictions in some countries.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Clarkson, up 11%. The shipping services firm announced the return of its dividends following a robust performance in the first half of 2020 despite global disruption from Covid-19. Clarkson saw its pretax profit for the six months to June 30 grow to GBP20.9 million from GBP19.2 million a year prior. Revenue was up to GBP180.4 million from GBP167.8 million year-on-year. The London-based company explained that excellent results in its Broking and Research divisions boosted its confidence after deferring its 2019 final dividend earlier this year due to the uncertainties posed by Covid-19. Broking saw its revenue rise to GBP147.1 million from GBP130.1 million a year prior. Following its robust performance, Clarkson said it would pay the previously deferred 2019 final dividend of 53 pence per share as an interim dividend on September 21. In addition to this, it announced a further interim dividend of 25p per share, equal to the year prior, to be paid on December 11.
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FirstGroup, up 4.0%, Go-Ahead Group, up 1.7%. The public transport firms both welcomed the UK Department of Transport's announcement for a funding round of GBP218.4 million on Saturday. The funding package - which is under the Covid-19 Bus Service Support Grant Restart - will last for eight weeks, after which weekly funding of up to GBP27.3 million will be made available "until a time when the funding is no longer needed". Further, the UK government announced plans to publish a National Bus Strategy, to set out its plans for supporting continued bus services across the country. FirstGroup said the funding programme has already helped to improve bus service capacity, with First Bus operations across England having increased operated mileage to 90% of pre-pandemic levels from 40%, while passenger volumes have increased to 40% from 10% of normal levels since the low point in March.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Superdry, 20%. The fashion retailer said trading in the first quarter of financial 2021 has been better than initial management estimates. Superdry announced a new GBP70 million asset-backed lending facility, extending the company's debt term until January 2023. The new loan facility replaces the existing facility that the company had in place, which was due to expire in January 2022. Together with a strong net cash position, the new debt facility gives us the necessary flexibility and liquidity going forward, Superdry said. As of Thursday last week, the company had GBP57.8 million net cash on the balance sheet versus GBP39.8 million net cash as at May 7. For the 13 weeks to July 25, Superdry saw a 24.1% year-on-year drop in group revenue, largely due to the impact of store closures as a result of Covid-19. Gradual reopening began at the start of financial 2021 and 95% of stores have now re-opened, with store revenue down 58.1% year-on-year in the first quarter. Like-for-like revenue fell 32.3% in the first quarter. The company's online operations, however, reported a solid performance with a 93.2% jump in quarterly revenue, normalising in recent weeks as stores re-open and as retailer trade against a promotions-led comparative period.
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Erris Group, up 16%. The mineral exploration company reported additional results from its Loch Tay gold project in Scotland, identifying additional gold mineralisation at the Lead Trial area. Erris has received results for 53 rock sample, of which 34 were taken at Lead Trial. Additional gold mineralisation was identified at Lead Trial, the focus of the sampling, where "extensive mineralised quartz vein stockwork and breccia bolder train" was defined. A first metallic screen analysis of Lead Trial confirmed coarse gold in an 8.5 kilogram mine was sample. This was fine fraction assayed at 5.35 grams of gold per tonne of ore and coarse fraction assayed at 402 grams per ton, giving a weighted average of 7.22 grams of gold per tonne of ore. Moreover, samples take from the western lower mine waste in the Corrie Buidhe area of Erris returned at much at 6.98 grams of gold per tonne of ore and high silver.
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Morses Club, up 15%. The non-standard financial services provider reported an improved trading performance for the month of July, as the group gets closer to pre-Covid-19 levels. For July, Morses Club's Home Collected Credit division reported collections for July increased to 98% of normal historic expectations, compared to 91% at the end of June. Looking ahead, the group expects to reach pre-Covid levels by the end of August. Meanwhile, sales were at 81% of the levels for the same period in 2019, reflecting an improving trend. As for Morses Club's digital division, Shelby Finance, collections have risen above 80% to terms, which reflects an improvement on the level prior to Covid-19, as the level of demand for the e-banking current account product remains stable. Looking ahead, Morses said it has continued to implement structural changes to the business, with employees and agents working remotely until the end of the year. In addition, further restructuring of the property portfolio is progressing, with agent vacancy rates at the lowest level on record.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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