LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
Admiral Group, up 5.0%. The motor and home insurer reported an increased interim profit driven by a good performance its UK Motor division, prompting a 7% dividend hike. Admiral posted a 9.1% increase in pretax profit to GBP211.0 million from GBP193.4 million a year before. Revenue increased 14% to GBP1.66 billion from GBP1.45 billion. Return on equity fell to 54% from 55% in the same period last year. Admiral saw an 11% profit increase in its UK Motor division, to GBP249.5 million from GBP224.2 million, in the period, mainly as a result of "growth in ancillary revenue and installment income". The company is proposing an interim dividend of 60.0 pence per share, a 7.1% increase year-on-year from 56.0p paid a year previously.----------
GlaxoSmithKline, up 1.5%. The drugmaker said its majority-owned HIV specialist company ViiV Healthcare saw positive headline results from its phase III antiretroviral therapy as long-acting suppression study for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus. Glaxo said the study showed long-acting cabotegravir and rilpivirine, injected once a month, had similar efficacy to a standard of care, daily, oral three-drug regimen at Week 48. The injectable treatment regimen met the primary endpoint for non-inferiority, Glaxo said. Overall safety, virologic response and drug resistance results for the injectable regimen were consistent with results from the phase II LATTE and LATTE-2 studies.----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
Fresnillo, down 2.9% and
Randgold Resources, down 2.5%. The gold miners were tracking spot gold prices lower quoted at USD1,186.69 an ounce compared to USD1,196.85 at the London equities close Tuesday as the precious metal traded around its worst levels since January 2017.----------
BHP Billiton, down 2.0%,
Glencore, down 1.9%,
Antofagasta, down 1.8%,
Anglo American, down 1.7%,
Rio Tinto, down 1.6%. The miners were lower amid a strengthening dollar and lower copper prices. "The price of copper has this week hit a 13-month low following a sharp slowdown in China's fixed-asset investment growth. This news, together with waning investor appetite for riskier assets, has unsurprisingly put a dent in the mining sector," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould. Midcap peer
Kaz Minerals was down 3.6%.----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
Hikma Pharmaceuticals, up 8.5%. The drugmaker raised its annual revenue target for its Injectables and Generics divisions following a significant uplift in profit in the first half of 2018. Hikma said pretax profit for the six months to the end of June totalled USD141.0 million, up from USD100.0 million reported for the same period a year earlier, as revenue climbed 11% to USD989.0 million from USD895.0 million. On a constant currency basis, revenue rose by 10%. Hikma raised its full-year guidance for the Injectables unit and now expects revenue for 2018 to come in between USD775 million and USD825 million. Previously, Hikma targeted the Injectables division to achieve revenue growth in a range of USD750 million to USD800 million. The company declared an interim dividend of 12 cents per share, up from 11 cents paid the year before. ----------
Balfour Beatty, up 3.6%. The infrastructure company reported a drop in interim revenue but increased profit, boosting its interim payout as a result. Balfour said pretax profit rose to GBP50 million from just GBP12 million the year before. Revenue decreased 9.4% to GBP3.84 billion from GBP4.20 billion. The company's underlying pretax profit increased to GBP52 million from GBP23 million. The company said a reduction in overhead costs to GBP11 million from GBP18 million led to increased profitability. Balfour is proposing an interim dividend increase of 33% to 1.6p per share from 1.2p last year. Looking ahead, the company expects its second half revenue to be in line with the first half. Balfour expects to achieve its underlying profit from operations margin targets in the second half. ----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------
CLS Holdings, down 2.2%. The property investor reported a rise in interim net asset value as well as solid growth in net rental income for the period. Basic net asset value at the end of the period was 260.2 pence, 3.3% higher than the figure at the end of December, while EPRA net asset value was 3.0% higher at 294.7p. CLS's net rental income rose 8.7% year-on-year to GBP55.0 million, while its vacancy rate fell to 5.7% from 5.8%. Pretax profit for the period was GBP64.9 million, down year-on-year from GBP119.4 million, due to lower property valuation changes as well as the fact the comparable had a significantly higher property sale gain. Looking forward, the company said it is focusing partly on making investments in Germany and the south-east of the UK. The UK as a whole, however, is likely to remain subdued to to Brexit, but Germany and France are benefiting from strong property demand and a limit on new office space.----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------
Feedback, up 22%. The medical imaging technology company said its subsidiary has secured its first order for image texture analysis technology TexRAD via GE Healthcare. Feedback said the order follows the distribution agreement, which allows medical technologies & services provider GE Healthcare non-exclusively offer TexRAD for medical imaging research applications. The new order came from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, located in Chandigarh, India. Feedback said its software is currently used in over 50 of the world's leading research institutions across Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia.----------
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