(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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InterContinental Hotels Group, up 6.5%. The hotel operator said it saw signs of a tentative recovery in demand, as Covid-19 lockdown restrictions eased in major markets, despite swinging to a loss. IHG reported a pretax loss of USD275 million for the six months ended June 30, swinging from a USD375 million profit a year before, as revenue dropped 45% to USD1.25 billion from USD2.28 billion. Revenue per available room - a key metric in the hotel industry - was down 52% in the six-month period, and was down 75% in the second quarter as occupancy at comparable hotels dropped to 25%. Looking ahead, IHG said "small but steady" improvements in occupancy and RevPAR through the second quarter continued into July, with RevPAR expected to be down 58% on a year before - compared to the second quarter's 75% - and occupancy rising to around 45%. "With a tentative recovery in the sector, travellers are showing preference towards more budget-friendly hotels such as Holiday Inn, and with more openings coming along the feeling is that IHG will do well to capture some pent-up demand from travellers and holiday makers as long as lockdowns are not too stringent," the Share Centre said.
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Prudential, up 3.5%. The 172-year old insurer hailed its "resilient" first-half despite seeing a sharp profit drop and said it now plans to fully demerge its Jackson unit in the US. The six months to June 30 was "challenging", with the period hit by Covid-19 disruption. Prudential's pretax profit slumped 43% year-on-year to USD663 million from USD1.16 billion. Gross premiums earned slipped 5.9% to USD19.84 billion from USD21.08 billion a year earlier. Annual premium equivalents - a measure of the new policies sold - fell 27% to USD2.64 billion from USD3.64 billion. Prudential's dividend was cut 74% to 5.37 cents per share from 20.29 cents a year prior. Prudential said it has decided to pursue the full separation and divestment of Jackson to enable it to focus exclusively on its high-growth Asia and Africa businesses. This would result in two separately listed companies with "distinct investment propositions", the company said. The group would have primary listings in both London and Hong Kong and secondary listings in Singapore and the US. Jackson is expected to be solely listed in the US, Pru added.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Fresnillo, down 3.5%, Polymetal International, down 2.7%. The gold miners were tracking spot gold prices lower, quoted at USD1,996.63 on Tuesday morning, down sharply from USD2,033.00 late Monday. Midcap peers Centamin and Hochschild Mining were down 4.5% and 4.0% respectively. "Gold prices have slid sharply overnight on the back of a firmer US dollar, and yields, as well as a brighter outlook for stocks. This decline isn't altogether that surprising given we've come off the back of a nine-week rally," explained CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Gamesys, up 11%. The software development and gaming business announced excellent results for the first half of 2020, driven by a big increase in customer growth in the Asian markets as well as solid customer retention. The London-based software development and gaming business said pretax net income widened in the six months ended June 30 to GBP26.7 million from GBP6.3 million a year before. Gamesys saw revenue double to GBP340.0 million from GBP169.5 million a year before. The jump in revenue reflected a strong performance in all of the company's brands, with growth actually accelerating over the second quarter. The company also saw good player retention, which will help drive growth in the future. The company declared a first-ever interim dividend of 12 pence per share. Looking towards the future, and after a strong performance in the first half, Gamesys expects its revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be "comfortably" ahead of its own expectations.
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Carnival, up 6.7%. The cruise line operator said its subsidiary Seabourn will cancel upcoming voyages for three cruise ships in its fleet, but its Costa cruises will restart in Septemeber. The announcement applies to Seabourn Encore, Seabourn Ovation, and Seabourn Sojourn with operations pause effective through November 25, December 20 and May 24, 2021, respectively. The brand had previously announced a pause in its global ship operations from March 14 to November 20, effectively cancelling all voyages scheduled to operate during that timeframe. The decision to cancel additional voyages is an action to deal with the circumstances continuing to evolve from the global response to the Covid-19 situation, Carnival explained. More positively, Costa Cruises, also a part of Carnival, is planning to restart its operations from Italian ports gradually on September 6. The move follows the approval on Monday by the Italian government of the resumption of cruises and the new health protocol. The return to cruising will be progressive, involving an increasing number of ships, Carnival noted. The first ship to set sail will be Costa Deliziosa, on September 6, offering weekly cruises from Trieste to discover the most beautiful destinations in Greece.
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Plus500, up 5.0%. The contract-for-difference provider announced a big dividend hike and a new share buyback program after delivering an "outstanding performance" in the first half. Plus500 said the reason behind the "exceptional" first half earnings report was record levels of new customer growth amid heightened volatility created by the Covid-19 pandemic. For the half-year ended June 30, the company's revenue multiplied to USD564.2 million from USD148.0 million last year and pretax profit rocketed to USD363.2 million from USD63.9 million the year before. The Israel-based company declared a dividend of USD0.9531, up substantially from USD0.2734 last year. In light of the strong performance, Plus500 also has approved a new programme to buy back up to an additional USD67.3 million of the company's shares, having completed the purchase of USD38.9 million in the first half.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Derwent London, down 1.5%. The property development company increased its interim dividend, despite reporting a sharp swing to a loss on a revaluation deficit, while announcing the planned departure of its co-founder. Derwent posted a GBP14.0 million pretax loss for the six months ended June 30, swinging from a GBP130.0 million profit the year before. This was in large part due to its swing to a GBP68.3 million revaluation deficit from a GBP75.0 million surplus in the prior year. Gross property and other income was slightly higher at GBP119.3 million from GBP110.7 million. EPRA net tangible assets per share totalled 3,900 pence as at June 30, down 1.4% from 3,957p on December 31, as a result of a negative revaluation movement of 59p per share. Nonetheless, Derwent increased its interim dividend by 4.8% to 22.0p per share from 21.0p year-on-year. Separately, Derwent announced the departure of Simon Silver, an executive director and co-founder of the company. His retirement is effective February 2021, but he will support Derwent as a consultant until the end of 2022.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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