(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Next, up 4.1%. The clothing and homewares retailer upped its profit forecast after online sales remaining strong in the third quarter. The clothing and home products retailer said full-price sales in the third quarter ended this past Saturday were up 2.8% year-on-year. Total sales were up 1.4%. Next said its central scenario for pretax profit for the full financial year is now GBP365 million, previously expected at GBP300 million in September, though down from last year's GBP748.5 million. Its "upside" scenario is GBP400 million and "downside" GBP290 million. The forecasts are for a comparable 52-week year. This year actually will be 53 weeks, so that will add another GBP12 million to profit, Next said. "Next is also very good at being a public company - its levels of transparency and its communication with the market are second to none, and it also has a handy knack of managing expectations. By under-promising it has been able to over-deliver, signalling that sales over the summer came in better than forecast," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.
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DCC, up 1.0%. RBC Capital raised the Irish support services firm to Outperform from Sector Perform.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Rolls-Royce, down 64% at 77.77 pence. Shares in the jet engine maker were lower following the first day's admission to trading of 6.4 million new ordinary shares in relation to the 10-for-3 rights issue announced in October.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Kaz Minerals, up 9.5% at 625.00p. The miner agreed to a GBP3.0 billion takeover offer made by Nova Resources, which already holds a 39% stake in the company. Nova Resources is a company owned by a consortium comprising Kaz Minerals Chair Oleg Novachuk and Non-Executive Director Vladimir Kim. Under the acquisition's terms, Nova will acquire Kaz Minerals for 640 pence per share, reflecting a 12% premium to the group's closing price of 570.8p on Tuesday. The acquisition is conditional on gaining at least 75% in shareholder approval at both the court meeting and general meeting, which is expected to be held either in December or early January 2021. Kaz expects the deal to be completed in the first half of 2021. So far Nova Resources has obtained irrevocable acceptances from around 29.0 million shares in Kaz, a further 6.1% of the company's shares, giving the bidders acceptances or ownership of 45% of the company.
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ConvaTec, up 4.5%. The wound dressings maker reported a jump in revenue in the third quarter with several divisions driving growth. ConvaTec said revenue in the three months ended September 30 was USD493 million, up 6.5% from USD462.9 million a year prior. This was driven by significant growth in its Infusion Care division, continued strong growth in Continence & Critical Care, and an improved performance in Advanced Wound Care. ConvaTec now expects revenue to be towards the higher end of its constant currency revenue growth range of between 2% and 3.5% in 2020.
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Aston Martin Lagonda, up 3.0% at 55.90p. The luxury carmaker confirmed taking in GBP125 million from its capital raise, issuing 250 million shares at 50p each. The luxury carmaker late Tuesday unveiled plans for a bumper fundraising and an expanded technical pact with trade investor Mercedes-AMG.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Ibstock, down 8.5%. The clay brick maker said it expects to report a sharp fall in earnings for 2020, despite the improvement in its third-quarter performance. In the three months to the end of September, the Leicestershire-based company noted a continued recovery in demand, with trading conditions improving on robust activity levels in the Repair, Maintenance & Improvement market. Revenue for the quarter was 88% of the figure from the same period the year before. Despite the recovery in business in the third quarter, Ibstock said it expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for 2020 to be around GBP50 million, a 59% fall from GBP122 million the year before. For the first half of 2020, Ibstock's adjusted Ebitda fell by 84% to GBP10 million, on revenue that declined by 36% to GBP131 million, due to a halt in UK construction activities.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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