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(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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DS Smith, up 1.5%. The UK Competition & Markets Authority said it will not refer the acquisition of DS Smith's flexible plastic packaging division by Liqui-Box to a Phase Two investigation, accepting the undertakings offered by Liqui-Box. The GBP450 million takeover deal was first announced in March, and in May the UK monopoly regulator said it would probe the proposed acquisition. In mid-July, the regulator had said the initial phase of its investigation found that the acquisition would create "insufficient competition", given that Liqui-Box and DS Smith are two of only four companies offering specialist Bag-in-Box packaging to food and drink suppliers in the UK. In late July, Liqui-Box offered undertakings to the CMA, following which the regulator said there were "reasonable grounds" for the undertakings to remedy the lessening of competition to be accepted. The undertakings proposed by Liqui-Box comprised the divestment of its Bag-in-Box business, which includes manufacturing and assembly equipment at its Wythenshawe facility in Manchester, UK, and a list of Liqui-box's UK BiB customers to be transferred to the buyer.
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GlaxoSmithKline, up 1.2%. The drugmaker reported positive results from its phase 3 Prima trial of Zejula in ovarian cancer. This was the first study to show that a PARP inhibitor significantly improved progression-free survival in patients "with first-line platinum responsive advanced ovarian cancer" "regardless of biomarker status". PARP is an enzyme in cells that helps to repair damaged DNA, and so inhibiting this enzyme prevents cancer cells from repairing themselves. Both patients with homologous recombination deficiency - a genetic factor which causes ovarian cells to have difficulty repairing themselves - and without the deficiency "experienced a clinically meaningful and statistically significant benefit". The drug resulted in a 38% drop in the risk of disease progression or death in the overall study population by 38%. Of those patients with homologous recombination deficiency, the risk of progression was reduced by 50%, versus 32% in those without the deficiency.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Whitbread, down 4.3%. Barclays downgraded the Premier Inn hotel chain owner to Equal Weight from Overweight. "Weighing up the positives and negatives alongside the utter lack of visibility around Brexit, we cut to Equal Weight and see more downside than upside risks currently, especially into interim results," the bank said.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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HomeServe, up 2.5%. RBC Capital raised the home emergency services company to Outperform from Sector Perform.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Hammerson, down 1.5%. The shopping centre operator said it sold its retail park in the Scottish town of Paisley for GBP67 million to Ashby Capital, a discount to its current holding value. Hammerson will sell the 24,600 square metre park to Ashby on a net initial yield of 7.8% and at a 3% discount to its book value as of the end of June. The properties are let to a number of clients, including B&Q and Dunelm Group. The property was acquired in 2012 for GBP42 million, with Hammerson subsequently investing GBP17 million to expand it by a further 8,700 square metres. Following the sale, Hammerson has now exceeded its asset disposal target of GBP500 million in 2019. In total, the firm has sold properties worth a combined GBP523 million this year.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Altitude Group, up 28%. The personalised products marketplace operator swung to an adjusted operating profit on double-digit revenue growth in the first half of 2019. For the six months to the end of June, Altitude reported a pretax loss of GBP980,000, widened from GBP732,000 the year before. This was due to higher administrative expenses at GBP4.6 million from GBP2.8 million the year before. The group's operating loss was GBP900,000, widened from GBP732,000. However on an adjusted basis, which excludes share-based payment charges, depreciation, amortisation and exceptional items, Altitude's operating profit was GBP254,000, compared to a loss of GBP312,000 a year before. Revenue for the period was GBP5.9 million, up 43% from GBP3.8 million a year before. Altitude benefited from a GBP1.9 million contribution from AIM Smarter, acquired in mid-January for USD5.0 million.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Zinc Media Group, down 19%. The television and multimedia content producer reported that its annual pretax loss widened on exceptional costs despite revenue growth. For the year to the end of June, Zinc Media's pretax loss was GBP2.9 million, widened from GBP1.8 million the year before, due to a rise in operating expenses at GBP6.8 million from GBP6.1 million. There were also higher exceptional costs at GBP1.7 million from GBP1.3 million, on impairments of the carrying value of goodwill on Zinc Communicate and higher restructuring costs. However, revenue increased by 14% to GBP24.6 million from GBP21.7 million the prior year, driven by growth in Zinc Media's Television business by 21% to GBP21.2 million. Looking ahead, Zinc Media said its London and Manchester TV business started its current financial year in line with prior periods, while Tern TV has continued its strong performance.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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