Kingfisher Share News (KGF)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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ARM Holdings, up 1.4%. The chipmaker said its current trading and operating costs in the third quarter are broadly in line with the guidance it gave in its second quarter results in July. ARM said its capital markets day on Tuesday will focus in its plans to invest in technologies for smart mobile devices, networking infrastructure and in complementary technologies for the Internet of Things, all of which it expects to increase its revenue and operating costs but which will become earnings accretive only in 2017. Meanwhile on Monday, major ARM customer Apple said initial sales of its newly introduced iPhone 6s are likely to beat a record set just last year. Worldwide pre-orders for the new smartphone were "very strong" and "on pace to beat last year's 10 million unit first weekend record" set by the then-new iPhone 6, Apple said in a statement. Apple said the online demand exceeded its own forecasts.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Kingfisher, down 3.2%. The DIY retailer, which owns brands including B&Q, Screwfix, Catorama and Brico Dépôt, reported lower profit in the first half of its financial year, which it said was hit by movements in currency exchange rates, but said that the business is on track in its turnaround programme. Kingfisher reported a 1.8% drop in pretax profit in the 26 weeks ended August 1 to GBP386 million from GBP393 million in the same period the year before, as sales fell 4.8% to GBP5.49 billion from GBP5.77 billion. It said that sales and profit were hit by adverse foreign exchange movements on the translation of non-sterling profits, but that it is progressing with its plan to turn the business around.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Ocado, up 0.3%. The online grocery delivery company reported growth in sales in the third quarter of its financial year as its average orders per week increased, and it said that it expects to continue growing slightly ahead of the UK online grocery market. It said that its group sales in the 12 weeks ended August 9 grew 17% to GBP272.0 million from GBP231.9 million in the same period the year before, as retail sales rose 15% to GBP252.0 million from GBP218.5 million.

Shawbrook Group, up 0.9% at 324.90 pence. The lender was initiated at Overweight and with a 410p price target by Barclays.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Premier Oil, down 4.4%. The oil and gas company was kept at Neutral by Exane BNP Paribas, but the bank slashed its price target to 98 pence from 184p. Its shares were trading at 79.1 pence Tuesday.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Teathers Financial, up 30%. The investing company said its Teathers Financial Software subsidiary has signed its first broker licence deal with Shard Capital Partners. The agreement covers the launch of the first crowd equity app powered by the Teathers unit's technology platform and is the first commercial deal for the technology. No financial details on the deal were disclosed.

Mosman Oil & Gas, up 21%. The oil and gas company said it has agreed to sell a royalty to part-fund its proposed acquisition of the South Taranaki energy project in New Zealand. Mosman has signed a conditional sale and purchase agreement with Origin Energy to acquire a stake in the project and on Tuesday, the company agreed to sell a 2.0% royalty from the project to Canadian-based Ridge Royalty Corp for NZD4.0 million, which will part fund the acquisition.

Vipera, up 17%. The mobile financial services provider expressed optimism for 2015 due to an acceleration in growth it is seeing at the beginning of the second half, despite reporting a slightly widened pretax loss for the first half. For the half year to end-June the company posted a pretax loss of EUR525,376, widened slightly from EUR320,977 a year before, as revenue declined to EUR2.6 million from EUR2.9 million. Although revenue in the first half was down on the previous year, Vipera said it continues to progress well, with unaudited management accounts at the end of July showing revenue of EUR3.7 million, ahead of the equivalent period last year.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Hydrogen Group, down 25%. The recruitment company posted a wider pretax loss for the first half as it felt the effect of the downturn in the oil and gas industry on its net fee income, prompting it to scrap its dividend. Hydrogen said its net fee income for the six months to the end of June fell 31% to GBP10.1 million, almost entirely driven by a 62% fall in oil and gas net fee income to GBP1.7 million and by a 22% decline in net fee income from its largest customer. Its pretax loss in the half widened to GBP1.9 million from GBP1.1 million, as total revenue fell to GBP65.9 million from GBP87.3 million. Hydrogen expects cost savings to flow through in the second half.

Eden Research, down 11%. The micro-encapsulation technology company, which is in the process of commercialising its first agrochemical product, said its pretax loss was narrower in the first half, as the group generated significantly more revenue and cut administrative costs. Eden said its pretax loss in the half to the end of June was GBP719,000, compared to a GBP1.3 million loss a year earlier, as it generated GBP160,000 in revenue, up from GBP18,000, and its administrative costs fell.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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