HSTG.L Share News (HSTG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------WPP, up 2.3%. The advertising company is making good progress, it said, despite sluggish performance in North America. WPP's revenue for the first quarter of 2019 rose 0.9% at reported currency to GBP3.59 billion. Excluding currency movements, revenue was down 0.6%, and like-for-like it fell 1.3%. Minus pass-through costs, revenue declined 0.7%, or 2.3% constant currency, to GBP2.93 billion, and slipped 2.8% on like-for-like basis. Like-for-like revenue minus pass-through costs in North America fell 8.5%, making it WPP's weakest performing region, due to continued losses among automotive, pharmaceutical, and fast-moving consumer goods clients. UK like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs fell 0.9%, slightly worse than the year ago period, while the figure fell 0.3% in Western Continental Europe. WPP reiterated guidance for 2019, estimating a fall in like-for-like less pass-through costs revenue of 1.5% to 2.0%. In 2018, the figure fell 0.4% to GBP12.83 billion. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Royal Bank of Scotland Group, down 4.8%. The state-backed lender reported a decrease in first quarter profit on lower income and warned continued Brexit uncertainty could harm income growth. The bank's operating pretax profit for the three months to March end decreased 17% to GBP1.01 billion from GBP1.21 billion the year before. RBS's profit attributable to shareholders slipped 13% to GBP707 million. First quarter total income decreased 7.9% to GBP3.04 billion from GBP3.30 billion, with net-interest income decreasing 5.6% to GBP2.03 billion from GBP2.15 billion. RBS's CET1 ratio at the end of March was 16.2%, down from 16.4% at the end of the first quarter a year ago. At the end of 2018, the CET1 ratio stood at 16.2%. In addition, RBS warned Brexit could continue to hurt the lender's income growth.----------Glencore, down 3.5%. The miner said late Thursday it has been informed that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has launched an investigation into whether the commodities trader has violated certain provisions of the Commodities Exchange Act. The investigation is currently at an early stage and follows a similar scope to the ongoing investigation by the US Department of Justice. Glencore said it will cooperate with the Commission's investigation.----------Just Eat, down 3.2%. The online takeaway platform said it made a solid start to 2019, with international strength offsetting some headwinds in the UK. Orders in the UK in the three months to March rose 7.4% year-on-year to 31.9 million. However, Just Eat said UK growth was held back by a strong comparative the year before, unseasonably warm weather during February, and the Easter weekend falling during the second quarter. The UK accounts for around half of the company's total orders. Just Eat, which is under increased pressure from rivals Deliveroo and Uber Eats, said it expects to see an improvement in UK order growth during the rest of the current year.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Computacenter, up 16%. The IT services provider reported a better-than-expected first-quarter trading performance. The company, which provides computer services to public and private sector customers, also said that it remains on track to deliver on expectations for the year as a whole. Computacenter said that challenging economic conditions in the company's operating markets do not seem to be deterring customers from investing in technology. At group level, the company's revenue and profitability for the three months to March 31 were ahead of the comparative period on a like-for-like basis and before the positive impact of acquisitions. In the UK, Computacenter saw revenue growth despite a large one-off software licence deal in the comparative first quarter of 2018. The German business saw one of the company's largest customers slowing its cloud infrastructure demand; however, this was more than offset by business with other customers in the country.----------Stagecoach, up 7.5%. Citigroup raised the transport operator to Buy from Neutral. ----------AJ Bell, up 3.0%. The stockbroker said it expects its interim results to be slightly better than expected, after assets under administration and customer numbers both grew strongly in the second quarter despite a weak market. For the three months ended March, assets under administration were 7.9% higher at GBP47.7 billion from GBP44.2 billion three months prior and 14% higher than the GBP41.8 billion reported a year prior. Customer numbers had grown 17% higher at 214,853 from 183,482 the year prior. Moreover, the FTSE 250-listed firm expects its "financial performance to be slightly ahead of current market expectations".----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Ferrexpo, down 22%. The iron ore pellet producer said Deloitte has resigned as the company's auditor with immediate effect, amid a spat over potential links between the company's chief executive and a charity being probed for misuse of funds. The company, without giving any further explanation regarding the auditor's resignation, said it will provide further updates in due course. Ferrexpo disagreed with its auditor's conclusion of a link between Chief Executive and controlling shareholder Kostyantin Zhevago and Blooming Land Charity, which is being investigated for possible discrepancies in the use of funds. On Tuesday, Ferrexpo said an independent review committee found Blooming Land was not related to the company or its executive management. However, Deloitte was unable to reach the same conclusion.----------Hastings Group, down 12%. The insurer said it has made "positive progress" in the first quarter but warned its loss ratio may creep towards the higher end of its target. In 2018, Hastings' calendar loss ratio was 75.0%. In the three months to March 31, the insurer said gross written premiums increased 4.2% to GBP235.5 million from GBP226.0 million the year before. Hastings said claims inflation "remains high across the insurance industry", with the company attributing repair costs and further increased in third party property damage costs. Going forward, Hastings will continue to closely monitor "market premium rate dynamics and claims inflation". Hastings, which provides UK car, van, bike and home insurance, said revenue in the first quarter was broadly flat year-on-year at GBP183.1 million. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Prospex Oil & Gas, up 37%. The oil and gas company reported a substantial upgrade to the resource estimate for the Podere Gallina exploration permit and specifically the Selva gas field resources in the Po Valley region of Italy. Podere Gallina was upgraded to 14.1 billion cubic feet of contingent resources and 91.5 bcf of prospective resources. Previously, gross resources for Podere Gallina stood at zero contingent resources and 52.7 bcf prospective resources, alongside 13.3 bcf of 2P reserves. Prospex, which holds a 17% interest in Podere Gallina permit, said Selva was assigned gross contingent resources of 14.1 bcf, previously zero, following evaluation of the historical gas producing North Flank and South Flank reservoirs, with chance of success on the prospects of between 60% and 70%, and contingent resources of 8.9 bcf and 5.2 bcf, respectively. Prospex said production at Selva remains on course to commence in 2020 at a gross rate of up to 150,000 cubic metres per day following award of a production concession by the Italian government in January.----------