Interserve Share News (IRV)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------easyJet, up 1.1%. The budget airline rose after Sky News reported that Virgin Atlantic Airways is in talks about a takeover bid for Flybe Group. The regional carrier itself was up 37% on the report, though remains down 66% in the past three months amid falling profit and revenue. Sky News said easyJet is now out of the running for Flybe, which put itself up for sale last week following its latest set of poor results. The Financial Times had reported that both easyJet and infrastructure firm Stobart Group were interested. Stobart, up 1.3%, had bid unsuccessfully for Flybe in March. Sky News said Virgin Atlantic and Stobart now were the leading potential buyers of Flybe. ----------Burberry, up 1.1%. Kepler Cheuvreux raised the luxury fashion retailer to Hold from Reduce.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Fresnillo, down 3.1%. The Mexican based metals miner added to further losses Thursday after Morgan Stanley downgraded the firm to Underweight from Equal Weight on Thursday, saying its prospects could be severely hurt should proposed mining legislation in Mexico - restricting mining access in the country - come to fruition. Fresnillo ended the previous session down 12%.----------Pearson, down 1.5%. Shore Capital cut the publisher to Hold from Buy.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Ibstock, up 10%. The brick manufacturer said it remains on track to deliver annual earnings target as it sold its US brick manufacturing business, Glen-Gery. The unit was sold to Brickworksfor an enterprise value of USD110 million, on a debt and cash free basis. As part of the transaction, Brickworks will assume some liabilities, including an associated pension liability. Ibstock expects to secure about USD95 million from the sale of Glen-Gery, with the transaction closing in the "coming days". In addition, Ibstock confirmed that its maintenance program in its UK brick business is progressing well. The company said it remains on track to deliver adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization between GBP121 million and GBP125 million for the year to the end of December. This includes full year contribution from Glen-Gery of GBP11 million.----------Phoenix Group, up 1.9%. HSBC raised the insurer to Buy from Hold. ----------Hastings, up 1.9%. Barclays raised the insurer to Overweight from Equal Weight. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Fidelity China Special Situations, down 1.2%. The trust underperformed against its benchmark in the first half of its financial year, due to sharp mark downs on investments and an underweight energy sector position. For the six months ended September 30, the China-focused investment trust posted a net asset value per share total return of negative 9.1%. Its benchmark, the MSCI China Index, posted a negative 4.0% total return for the same period. The trust said its energy sector position was particularly underweight as higher oil prices boosted companies such as CNOOC Corp and PetroChina Co Ltd. Fidelity China Special Situations said it has been investing "very selectively" in A-share industrial companies after A-shares were included in the MSCI Index. These investments include artificial intelligence and surveillance, which it believes have strong prospects for growth despite their currently low valuations.----------CYBG, down 1.1%. Goldman Sachs resumed the bank with a Neutral rating but Credit Suisse raised the lender to Neutral from Underperform.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Interserve, down 6.5%. The construction firm said it expects to record a significant improvement in operating profit for 2018, although its UK construction business is likely to post a small loss. Revenue from the UK Construction business has continued to decline in first nine months of the calendar year, Interserve said, and will report a small loss for the second half of the year. However, the group's overall 2018 operating profit is predicted to improve significantly over 2017, as the Support Services arm makes progress. Interserve said it has reviewed all of its UK projects and "adequately provided for anticipated losses". Interserve posted a pretax loss of GBP244.4 million on revenue of GBP3.25 billion in 2017. It then recorded a pretax loss of GBP6.0 million on GBP1.67 billion in revenue in the first half of 2018.----------