Hiscox Share News (HSX)

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------BHP Group, up 1.5%. The Anglo-Australian miner was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight by JPMorgan. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Hiscox, down 5.0%. The insurer said pretax profit for the first half of 2019 is estimated to be between USD150 million and USD170 million amid continued deterioration in insurance market from 2018 catastrophe events, including Typhoon Jebi in Japan and Hurricane Michael in the US state of Florida. Hiscox said the scale of deterioration in the market has been significant, with industry loss estimates having increased materially since the two damaging storms. Hiscox has strengthened reserves for prior year claims from Typhoon Jebi, Hurricane Michael, and for the risk excess book by USD40 million. It expects reserve releases in the first half to be materially lower than last year due to the absence of prior-year releases from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, which totalled USD25 million.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Sophos, up 5.0%. The cybersecurity firm said it is well positioned for growth despite swinging to loss in the first quarter of its current financial year. Sophos said it swung to a pretax loss of USD4.0 million for the three months to the end of June compared to a pretax profit of USD7.3 million reported in the first quarter last year. More positively for Sophos, its adjusted operating profit increased to USD24.1 million from USD21.9 million and its renewal rate as of June 30 stood at 118% compared to 115% a year ago. Revenue, meanwhile, increased by 2.7% to USD180.2 million from USD175.5 million year-on-year. Sophos explained that in the first quarter its subscription revenue growth of 10% in constant currency offset an 11% fall in hardware revenue. ----------easyJet, up 2.8%. Berenberg raised the budget airline to Buy from Hold.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Senior, down 2.3%. Peel Hunt downgraded the aerospace and defence engineer to Hold from Add. ----------Ashmore Group, down 1.5%. The emerging markets-focused asset manager said healthy client activity, good returns from emerging markets and business diversification led to a 7.6% quarter-on-quarter rise in assets under management for the final three months of financial 2019. The company's assets under management increased by USD6.5 billion during the three months to June 30 to USD91.8 billion from USD85.3 billion as at March 31, with net inflows contributing USD3.3 billion and positive investment performance another USD3.2 billion. The rise in assets also was attributed to improved market conditions such as the easing of US and China trade tensions, central banks in Europe and US turning more dovish, and the weakening of the US dollar. However, Peel Hunt cut the stock to Add from Buy after a strong share price performance. The stock is up 40% so far in 2019. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Faron Pharmaceuticals, up 18%. The clinical stage drug developer said its MATINS study of nine cancer patients is progressing well, and it is planning to expand the clinical trial to more countries. Faron is undertaking the trial to investigate the safety and effectiveness of Clevegen, the company's cancer immunotherapy. Faron reached its planned Clevegen dosing of 10 milligrams per kilogram in June and said this was "well tolerated" by patients. It plans to propose an increase of the test dosage to 20 milligrams per kilogram to the trial's independent data monitoring board. The MATINS study is investigating five cancers: cutaneous melanoma, hepatobiliary, pancreatic, ovarian and colorectal. Altogether these cancers have two million annual cases worldwide. Of the nine patients being studied across three clinical sites in the UK and Finland, two subjects have demonstrated anti-cancer responses. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Thomas Cook, down 43%. Shares in the travel operator hit an all-time of 6.0 pence with almost GBP80 million wiped off its total market value as the company enters rescue deal talks with its largest shareholder Fosun. Chinese investor Fosun, which holds an 18% stake in the group, could offer a GBP750 million cash injection into the company, which has suffered from falling demand for package holidays and high debt. Fosun said that it, along with Thomas Cook's "core lending banks", are considering the proposal to invest capital into the troubled firm. Thomas Cook said the investment - which will likely comprise a capital injection and new financing facilities - will see a reorganisation of the company's Tour Operator and Airline business. This will lead to Fosun owning a "significant" minority interest in Thomas Cook's Airline. The iconic UK high street travel agent added that its 2019 summer programme is 75% sold - slightly ahead of the year before - but its underlying earnings in the second half will be behind the year before due to the "uncertain consumer environment" in the UK. ----------Lookers, down 22%. The car dealer said it expects to see a drop in profit for the first half of 2019, and expects profit for the full year to be below previous expectations. Although trading in the first quarter to the end of March was positive, the second quarter ended June 30 was challenging, as the UK new car market continued its decline with registrations down by 4.6%. In the used car market, weaker demand led to increased margin pressure, especially in June, during which Lookers said it had to take "a disciplined approach" to managing stock. As a result, underlying pretax profit for the six months to the end of June is expected to be GBP32 million, down 25% from GBP43 million a year before. Looking ahead, Lookers expects the challenging conditions to continue into the second half, stoked by continued weakness in UK consumer confidence due to political and economic uncertainty.----------