HSTG.L Share News (HSTG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Land Securities, up 2.1%. Deutsche Bank raised the property company to Buy from Hold. ----------Associated British Foods, up 1.8%. The sugar producer and owner of fast fashion retailer Primark delivered a "robust" set of half-year results and raised its interim dividend. Revenue for the 24 weeks to March 2 rose 1% to GBP7.53 billion, though pretax profit slipped to GBP515 million from GBP603 million a year ago. Pretax profit was hindered by GBP79 million in exceptional items, with AB Foods having booked no such charges a year ago. On an adjusted basis, profit was largely in line with a year prior at GBP627 million. Sales at clothing chain Primark were 4.4% ahead of a year ago, said AB Foods, driven by increased retail selling space partially offset by a 1.5% decline in like-for-like sales. AB Foods said its outlook for the current financial year is unchanged, with earnings per share expected to be in line with the year before. AB Foods declared an interim dividend of 12.05 pence, up 3% on last year's 11.70p.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Anglo American, down 2.2%. The miner was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight by JPMorgan. ----------BP, down 1.4%, Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and Shell 'B', down 0.9%. The oil majors were tracking spot oil prices lower quoted at USD74.18 Wednesday, down from USD74.46 at the London equities close Tuesday. Oil prices inched lower after the International Energy Agency said markets are "adequately supplied" and that "global spare production capacity remains at "comfortable levels".----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Centamin, up 7.5%. The gold miner reiterated annual guidance as first quarter production beat expectations. The company's gold production from its flagship Sukari mine in Egypt was 116,183 ounces for the three months to the end of March, a 16% reduction compared to 137,600 ounces produced in the prior quarter. In the first quarter of 2018, gold output was 124,296 ounces. Centamin had expected to produce between 105,000 ounces and 115,000 ounces in the first quarter. Unit cash costs were USD631 per ounce, a 9% increase year-on-year and 4% increase quarter-on-quarter. Looking ahead, the company reiterated 2019 guidance of delivering gold production between 490,000 ounces and 520,000 ounces, at cash costs of between USD675 and USD725 per ounce produced. Centamin will release its three-year outlook, including 2020 and 2021 guidance, in the second quarter of 2019. Berenberg said this longer-term guidance should be received well by the market, given that uncertainty over the outlook for grades has knocked investor confidence in Centamin. ----------Saga, up 5.5%. JPMorgan raised the over-50s travel and insurance provider to Neutral from Underweight. ----------Great Portland Estates, up 2.6%, Derwent London, up 2.3%. Deutsche Bank raised the property developers to Buy from Hold. ----------Hasting Group, up 1.7%. JPMorgan raised the insurer to Overweight from Neutral. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Amigo Holdings, down 1.8%. Shore Capital cut the loans provider to Hold from Buy.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Biome Technologies, up 11%. The radio frequency technology and biodegradable plastics company said 2019 has commenced in an encouraging manner, particularly for the Bioplastics division. Biome said revenue in the three months to the end of March was GBP2.1 million, up 11% compared to GBP1.9 million reported for the final quarter of 2018 and in line with the first quarter last year. Biome said it has made a small profit before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and share option charges in the recent quarter. On a divisional basis, revenue in the Bioplastics unit in the first quarter rose to GBP600,000 compared to GBP400,000 a year earlier, helped by increased sales of outer packaging for the US single-serve coffee market. The company noted that the recent quarter was helped by the delivery of multiple fibre-optic furnaces which will not occur to the same extent in the second quarter.--------