LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
British American Tobacco, up 5.2%. The Dunhill, Kent and Lucky Strike cigarette maker said interim profit, revenue and cigarette volumes all grew strongly after its acquisition of Reynolds American and expects another "good" year of growth. For the six months ended June, pretax profit widened 31% to GBP3.97 billion from GBP3.03 billion the year prior. This was after revenue rose 57% to GBP11.64 billion from GBP7.42 billion the year before. Cigarette volumes jumped 10% to 345.0 billion sticks in the period. Performance was helped by its acquisition of Reynolds American Inc in July 2017. On a pro-forma basis - assuming BAT had owned Reynolds through the whole of 2017 - revenue rose 1.9% and cigarette volumes fell 3.1%.
RELX, up 3.8%. The information and analytics group reported a flat performance in the first half of its current financial year, but said it is confident in delivering a year of earnings growth. The company said the six months to June 30 saw revenue down 1.4% to GBP3.65 billion, from GBP3.70 billion the year before, while adjusted profit before tax remained broadly flat at GBP1.05 billion. RELX declared an interim dividend increase of 6.0% to 12.40 pence from 11.70p paid for the same period a year earlier. The company said as it enters the second half of 2018, it is confident in delivering another year of underlying revenue, profit, and earnings growth.
Smith & Nephew, up 3.7%. The medical devices maker reported a rise in interim revenue but a fall in profit, as it progressed a programme designed to generate annualised cost savings of USD50 million. Revenue for the first half of the year rose 4.3% to USD2.44 billion from USD2.34 billion, though pretax profit slipped 11% to USD341 million from USD383 million. The revenue growth included a foreign exchange tailwind of 3%, with sales up 1% on an underlying basis.
AstraZeneca, up 2.8%. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker reported a fall in interim revenue and profit, but held its annual guidance. Total revenue for the first half of the year fell 1% at actual exchange rates, down 5% at constant currencies, to USD10.33 billion. Product sales rose 2% at actual exchange rates to USD10.02 billion but externalisation revenue - which includes royalties and milestone payments - was down 53% to USD318 million. Astra kept its interim dividend flat at USD0.90 per share, reiterating its annual guidance.----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
SSE, down 5.5%. The utility stock went ex-dividend meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest payout.
Schroders, down 3.7%. The asset manager lifted its interim dividend payout on the back of a rise in earnings and total assets under management. The company, however, added that no new business was generated by the asset management unit in the first half as inflows from institutional clients were offset by outflows in the intermediary sales channel. The wealth management unit recorded net inflows of GBP1.20 billion in the period, however. Total assets under management and administration as at June 30 totalled GBP449.4 billion, up from GBP447.0 billion as at December 31.
GlaxoSmithKline, down 3.0%. The drugmaker said an advisory panel of US Food & Drug Administration has recommended against approval of mepolizumab for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a type of lung condition that causes breathing difficulties. Glaxo said the Pulmonary Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee has voted that the risk-benefit profile was not adequate to support approval of mepolizumab as an add-on treatment for the reduction of exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Royal Dutch
Shell 'B', down 2.5%, Shell 'A', down 2.5%. The oil major announced a share buyback worth USD25 billion, though the company missed expectations despite a sharp rise in earnings. Shell also lowered its production guidance for the third quarter in both its Upstream and Integrated Gas businesses, partly due to its current divestment programme. Shell launched a buyback of "at least" USD25 billion for the period 2018 to 2022. For the first tranche of this, Shell is to purchase shares up to USD2 billion of shares over a period of three months. Free cash flow for the quarter was USD9.53 billion, well below the USD12.16 billion a year prior, though up from the first quarter's USD5.18 billion. In the first half, free cash flow was USD14.71 billion, down from USD17.34 billion.
Compass Group, down 2.3%. The contract caterer said it continues to trade well, though with margins slightly behind last year with a "challenging" cost and volume environment in the UK. In the company's financial third quarter, overall organic revenue grew 5.7% - up 5.1% excluding the impact of Easter, which fell in Compass's second quarter - driven by strong net new business in North America, an acceleration in Europe and good progress in Rest of World. ----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
Vesuvius, up 8.1%. The molten metal flow engineering firm reported a record trading profit as its end markets remained favourable in the first half, with the company now expecting to outperform consensus for the full-year. The group said revenue for the first half of 2018 rose 7.9% to GBP897.0 million from GBP831.5 million last year, as pretax profit soared 44% to GBP87.8 million from GBP60.8 million. Trading profit grew 15% to a "record" GBP99.6 million, as return on sales improved by 70 basis points to 11.1% from 10.4%.
Renishaw, up 3.0%. The engineer hiked its annual payout following strong earnings growth across all of its geographies. The group reported a pretax profit of GBP155.2 million for the year to the end of June, up by a third from GBP117.1 million profit posted the year before. Revenue grew 14% to GBP611.5 million from GBP536.8 million. On a constant currency basis, it was 18% higher year-on-year. The company said revenue growth was boosted by a strong performance across all regions and divisions. Continental Europe came in as the best performer during the year with revenue up 19% to GBP154.2 million from GBP129.9 million.
National Express, up 2.5%. The transport operator delivered its "best ever" half-year profit as it grew revenue in all divisions. For the six months to June 30, the company posted pretax profit of GBP80.1 million, improved to GBP64.6 million a year ago. Revenue rose 3.2% to GBP1.20 billion from GBP1.17 billion year-on-year, driven in particular by the growth in North America and in the company's Spanish division ALSA. All the company's divisions increased commercial passengers, with the group carrying nearly 1.5% more year-on-year, National Express said.----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------
Cobham, down 10%. The defence and aerospace equipment supplier said it expects to take a GBP40 million hit related to its US KC-46 tanker programme, with Boeing Co currently withholding the payment of invoices. Cobham said while there has been progress on the programme, US aerospace firm Boeing has made "as yet unquantified damages assertions" relating to the programme. Consequently, Boeing is withholding payment of Cobham's KC-46 CDS and WARP invoices. Cobham said it is formally disputing Boeing's claims. Additionally, completion of CDS qualification has taken longer and been "more challenging" than expected.
Intu Properties,down 6.5%. The shopping centre operator said net rental income and occupancy remained stable despite net asset value falling sharply in a weak UK retail environment. For the six months ended June, net asset value per share fell to 362 pence from 411p at the end of 2017. Net rental income also dropped modestly to GBP223.1 million from GBP226.2 million the year prior. Occupancy fell to 96.6% at the end of June, from 97.0% six months earlier and 96.8% the year prior. The proportion of tenants trading in administration, however, fell to 0.3% from 0.6% six months earlier. Intu proposed a flat interim dividend per share at 4.6p.
Howden Joinery, down 5.3%. The kitchen supplier said new product initiatives and higher costs of goods dented first half profit growth. The company also said revenue for the core UK division in the first four weeks of second half to July 14 increased by 5.3% and overall expectations for the full year remain unchanged. For the 24 weeks to June 16, the company recorded pretax profit of GBP68.8 million, up from GBP65.6 million in the year ago period, on a revenue of GBP619.4 million and GBP553.0 million, respectively. The core UK unit delivered revenue of GBP604.7 million, up from GBP539.5 million a year ago. Gross profit margin fell to 61.3% from 64.1% due to sales initiatives and increases in costs of goods sold. The company expects inflationary pressures on the costs of goods sold to continue for the remaining part of 2018.----------
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