Intertek Group Share News (ITRK)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Coca-Cola HBC, up 5.5%. UBS raised the soft drinks bottler to Buy from Sell. ----------Intertek, up 1.5%. The testing, inspection and certification services provider said it remains on track to deliver on its 2018 targets following revenue growth at constant rates in the first 10 months. Intertek said revenue in the 10 months to the end of October totalled GBP2.32 billion, up 0.5% year-on-year. On a constant currency basis, revenue rose by 4.8%. During the period, Intertek bought US-based software provider Alchemy Investment Holdings for USD480 million. The acquired business is integrating well, expanding Intertek's fast growing assurance segment, it said.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------NMC Health, down 5.2%. Jefferies downgraded the UAE-focused healthcare provider to Underperform from Hold. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Greggs, up 11%. The on-the-go food retailer said it expects full-year profit to rise by "at least" 5.1% on the prior year. Greggs anticipates pretax profit for 2018 to come in at "at least GBP86 million". A year ago profit was GBP81.8 million. The sausage roll maker reported sales for the eight weeks to November 24 up 9.0%, with like-for-like shop sales up 4.5%. Year-to-date, sales were up 6.6%, with like-for-like up 2.5% on last year.----------Hikma Pharmaceuticals, up 2.0%. Jefferies raised the drugmaker to Buy from Hold. The pharmaceutical company has signed a five year licensing and supply agreement to market a range of injectable oncology medicines produced by China-based Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd. Hansoh expects to file the selected products for approval with the US Food & Drug Administration within the next 12 months.----------Pennon Group, 1.8%. The water company reported a strong performance in the first half of its financial year, saying that its South West Water and Viridor units continued to operate well and that it is on track for its full-year expectations. On a statutory basis, pretax profit rose by 2.7% to GBP133.6 million from GBP129.8 million. This was on revenue that grew by 3.1% to GBP746.7 million from GBP723.9 million the year before. Revenue growth was attributed to continued strong performances by South West Water due to increased customer demand despite and by UK recycling business Viridor due to the building of new energy recovery facilities. Pennon Group declared an interim dividend of 12.84 pence per share, up 7.3% from 11.97p the prior year.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Thomas Cook, down 20%. The travel agent suspended its annual dividend and said it anticipates earnings to be hurt by a number of one-off charges and by weakness in its tour operating business. Thomas Cook expects to report underlying earnings before interest and taxes of GBP250 million for the year that ended in September, down GBP58 million, or 19%, year-on-year on a like-for-like basis. The result includes GBP28 million in legacy and non-recurring charges, comprising the write-down of historic hotel receivables, flight disruption costs, and company restructuring costs. Thomas Cook paid a dividend of 0.6 pence per share in 2017 financial year. Large cap travel operator TUI was down 3.0% in a negative read-across. ----------UDG Healthcare, down 7.5%. The healthcare firm reported a sharp drop in profit, hit by exceptional charges on goodwill impairments, losses on disposals, and restructuring costs. For the financial year that ended September 30, the healthcare services provider's pretax profit came in at just USD8.4 million, down from USD92.8 million a year prior. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit was GBP105.4 million, up 14%. The adjusted figure excluded charges of USD97.1 million due mainly to impairment of goodwill and loss disposals related to its unit Aquilant which was sold in August.----------Convatec Group, down 6.0%. Barclays started coverage on the wound dressings maker with an Underweight rating. ----------Cranswick, down 5.5%. The pork products producer reported a rise in first half revenue and adjusted pretax profit despite uncertain domestic market conditions and softer pricing in key export markets. For the six months to September-end, Cranswick recorded adjusted pretax profit of GBP44.8 million, up marginally from GBP44.4 million in the year ago period. Reported pretax profit was dented by movements in valuation of assets and totalled GBP42.6 million, down 4.3% from GBP44.5 million a year ago. Revenue for the first half totalled GBP719.2 million, up 0.6% from GBP714.6 million a year ago. The company said strong revenue growth from poultry, sausages and continental products was offset by lower year-on-year revenue in other pork related categories, 2.6% fall in export revenue and softer pricing in Far Eastern markets.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------OptiBiotix Health, up 16%. The life science company said its SlimBiome has been granted medical device status and a CE mark. SlimBiome is the company's product to promote weight loss, fight food cravings and help dieting. The awards allow the product to be marketed as a medical device in the European Economic Area and markets with mutual recognition agreements such as Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. The product will now be sold in boxes of 30 single dose sachets to pharmacies and retailers. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Xeros Technology Group, down 27% at 23.46 pence each. The polymer bead systems developer said it plans to raise GBP20.0 million via a heavily discounted placing and open offer of shares. The company will place 150.0 million shares at 10p each to raise GBP15.0 million. It will issue a further 49.6 million shares through an open offer at the same price to raise up to GBP5.0 million. Xeros currently has just 99 million shares in issue and a market capitalisation of GBP23 million, so the new offering will triple its number of shares. The company said it will use the funds raised in the share offers to continue to invest in its business divisions, particularly in the Cleaning unit. ----------Nostrum Oil & Gas, down 13%. The oil and gas company reported a rise in revenue but a decline in production in the first nine months of 2018, and said it plans cut back its number of drilling rigs in 2019. Nostrum said revenue in the nine months to the end of September grew to USD311.4 million from USD303.7 million. Production declined to 31,757 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 44,879 a year before, sending average sales volumes down to 30,523 barrels of oil equivalent daily from 39,600 barrels a year ago. Looking forward, Nostrum said it intends to reduce the number of active drilling rigs to two from three, in order to drill up to six wells in 2019. ----------