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(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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M&G, up 3.8%. Berenberg started coverage on the investment manager with a Buy rating.
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Royal Bank of Scotland, up 2.5%. The state-backed lender said that it has extended the deadline for business customers to take advantage of incentives for switching to other banks, a programme required to increase competition in the UK. The duration of the period under the switching scheme for customers to apply to switch their account will be extended to February 28, 2021, from August 25 and customers will have until June 30, 2021, to complete the switch, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based bank explained. The extension of the account switching scheme do not change the total number of customers targeted to switch under the scheme and, as a result, there is no material change anticipated to the current financial outlook for RBS, it said. The existing requirement on RBS to make a potential further contribution to the switching scheme remains capped at GBP50 million.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Hikma Pharmaceuticals, down 7.0% at 2,307.00 pence. Boehringer Ingelheim Invest sold 27.2 million shares in the drugmaker at 2,300p each, and Hikma also will buy back 12.8 million shares owned by Boehringer at the same price, JPMorgan Securities said. The sale price was a 7.3% discount to Hikma's closing price of 2,480 pence on Monday. The US bank said late Monday that Boehringer would sell 28 million Hikma shares via a bookbuild, and as part of the deal Hikma would buy up to GBP295 million of shares from Boehringer. Following the sale, Boehringer no longer holds any shares in Hikma.
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Rightmove, down 3.0%. The property portal warned it will take another hit of up to GBP20 million as it cuts prices for estate agents to help weather the coronavirus crisis. Rightmove said despite the positive consumer reaction to the re-opening of the housing market following the lockdown, it takes about three months for housing transactions to complete. The delay is likely to hurt the cash flows of its agents, Rightmove noted. As such, Rightmove said it will offer a 60% discount for August and 40% for September for its agency customers, adding that customers in Wales and Scotland will get a 75% discount for August and a 60% discount for September. In March, Rightmove offered its Agency, New Homes and Commercial customers a 75% discount between April and July. The company said it expects the discounts announced Tuesday to reduce revenue by between GBP17 million to GBP20 million. This is in addition to the GBP65 million to GBP75 million revenue loss forecast as a result of the discounts announced in March.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Cranswick, up 4.5%. The food producer said it remains confident in its long-term outlook, as it announced a dividend hike on significant growth in earnings for financial 2020. For the year ended March 28, Cranswick posted revenue of GBP1.67 billion, up 16% from GBP1.44 billion posted the year prior. Pretax profit totalled GBP104.0 million, up 20% from GBP86.5 million. Additionally, the Hull-based company said the average number of pigs processed each week during the recent year increased by 7.9% to 60,000, reaching record levels in March as a result of ongoing higher export demand and increased retail demand during the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak in the UK. A final dividend of 43.7p per share was declared taking its total annual dividend payout to 60.4p, up 8.1% from 55.9p paid for financial 2019.
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Marston's, up 4.3%, Mitchell's & Butlers, up 4.0%, JD Wetherspoon, up 3.0%. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to set out the results of a review of the two-metre social-distancing rule in the commons on Tuesday - amid a widespread expectations it will be cut to one metre. Much of the focus has been on the hospitality sector - with detailed guidance due on how pubs, bars and restaurants can start gradually to re-open from July 4. "Lately there has been speculation that pubs will reopen early next month, in addition to that, there has been chatter the UK government might reduce the social distancing guidelines from 2m to 1m, and that would be a big boost to the pub trade," said CMC Markets analyst David Madden.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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NCC Group, up 12%. The cybersecurity advisor said it expects revenue and adjusted earnings to exceed analyst consensus in its recently-ended financial year. NCC did note that the Covid-19 outbreak had hurt trading in the third quarter, with "delays, cancellations, and disruption" since the third quarter of its year. These issues "have broadly followed the same pattern as the spread of Covid-19" in the regions where NCC operates. Nonetheless, for its year ended May 31, NCC forecasts that revenue will exceed the GBP243 million consensus figure. Likewise, adjusted earnings before interest and tax is on track "to be comfortably ahead" of the GBP22.3 million consensus. NCC's adjusted figures exclude share-based payments, profit on investment disposal, amortisation of acquired intangibles, and other one-off items.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Scapa Group, down 12%. The healthcare and industrial company said a large exceptional charge resulted in a swing to a loss in financial 2020 and it has decided against paying a final divided to preserve cash amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ashton-under-Lyne, England-based company also reported the departure of Chair Larry Pentz and said that it has experienced a significant deterioration in revenue during the first quarter of financial 2021 due to government-enforced lockdowns for some customers. For the year to March 31, Scapa recorded a pretax loss of GBP51.0 million compared with pretax profit of GBP14.9 million. Scapa has decided not to propose a dividend payment as part of its actions to strengthen the liquidity position of company following the impact of Covid-19. The company ended the year with an adjusted net debt of GBP54.4 million versus GBP43.7 million a year ago.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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