LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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GKN, up 2.7%. The engineer said its sales in the first nine months edged higher but noted that its trading environment has shown signs of softening in the final quarter of the year. The company, which makes automotive and aerospace components and systems, said its sales for the nine months to the end of September were GBP5.68 billion, with a currency boost of GBP29.0 million offset by a GBP54.0 million decline due to disposals.
Ashtead Group, up 2.4%. The industrial equipment rental company were boosted by better-than-expected third quarter results from US peer United Rentals. After the close on Wall Street on Wednesday, United Rentals eported total revenue of USD1.55 billion in the third quarter of 2015, up from USD1.54 billion in the same period last year. Rental revenue was up in the period to USD1.33 billion from USD1.32 billion last year. United Rentals Chief Executive Michael Kneeland reaffirmed the company's full year outlook for 2015 in a statement, based on the its year-to-date performance and visibility into the fourth quarter. Ashtead shares often move on the read-across from United Rentals.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Travis Perkins, down 5.7%. The builders' merchant and home improvement retailer said its 2015 earnings are set to come in at the low end of market expectations due to continued challenges in its key markets in the third quarter. Travis said that despite planning for a reduction in repair, maintenance and improvement markets over the summer months, the actual slowdown in the market was worse than had originally been expected. For the third quarter to the end of September, Travis Perkins posted total sales growth of 5.5%, with like-for-like sales growth of 2.6%. The signals on a soft RMI market in the UK also appeared to hit shares in Wolseley, the building materials company, which was down 2.8%, and in Kingfisher, the DIY retailer, which was down 3.6%.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Ladbrokes, up 5.1%. The bookie said group net revenue fell in the third quarter of 2015 as it faced a tough comparative period, and it reported a decline in earnings due to increased games duty and taxes. The betting company reported a 0.7% fall in group net revenue in the three months ended September 30, but said it would have grown 2.0% excluding the FIFA World Cup which took place in the comparative period last year. Earnings before interest and tax also declined 57% to GBP14.3 million, which Ladbrokes said was due to an increase in machine games duty, point of consumption tax and lower comparative margins. Ladbrokes added that its proposed merger with Gala Coral is on track.
Zoopla Property Group, up 4.2%. The online property portal said it expects revenue and its adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation to grow for the year to the end of September and said it is seeing encouraging trends in its markets. Zoopla said its revenue for the year to September 30 is expected to be around GBP107.0 million, up from GBP80.2 million a year earlier, while its adjusted EBITDA will be around GBP48.0 million, up from GBP39.8 million. Zoopla said it was encouraged by the UK agency membership growth seen in recent months and is confident it will deliver growth in its revenue per advertiser based both on the robust demand and new packages which have been launched.
Debenhams, up 4.1%. The department store operator reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year as it announced that Chief Executive Michael Sharp will step down from his role in 2016. Debenhams posted a 7.3% rise in pretax profit in the year ended August 29 to GBP113.5 million from GBP105.8 million the year before, in line with market expectations. Revenue grew slightly to GBP2.32 billion from GBP2.31 billion, as like-for-like sales increased 0.6%. Debenhams will pay a final dividend of 2.4 pence, maintaining its full-year dividend at 3.4p.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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SIG, down 22%. The building products company said its sales performance has diverged in the first nine months between its UK and European operations and said continued weakness in the latter, plus some softness in the UK repair, maintenance and improvement market, mean it now expects its underlying pretax profit to fall year-on-year. SIG said it now expects its underlying pretax profit for the year to the end of December to be GBP85 million to GBP90 million, compared to GBP98.1 million in 2014. SIG said in its interim results in August that it expected to make progress in its financial results for the year assuming an improvement in Mainland Europe. That improvement has not materialised in the third quarter and conditions have actually deteriorated, particularly in France. Added to this, SIG has been hit by lower-than-expected demand from the repair, maintenance and improvement markets in the UK. The combined read-across from SIG and Travis Perkins also hit other FTSE 250 stocks, with builders' merchant and DIY retailer Grafton Group down 4.5% and kitchens and joinery products company Howden Joinery Group down 4.3%.
Foxtons Group, down 4.9%. The London-based estate agency said it has seen an increase in customer activity in the third quarter in some areas of its property sales, but said the market is taking time to recover following the slowdown around the General Election. Foxtons said the slowdown has particularly hit the central London market, where transactions remain at historically low levels due to strong recent price growth and changes to the stamp duty regime. Revenue for the third quarter to the end of September was up 8.8% year-on-year, Foxtons said.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Infinis Energy, up 39%. The wind farm owner has agreed a GBP555.0 million takeover by Terra Firma, the European private equity group led by Guy Hands. Monterey Capital II Sarl, a subsidiary of Terra Firma, already holds a 68.5% stake in Infinis Energy and has made an offer of 185.0 pence per share to acquire the remaining stake it does not already own. The offer represents a 40% premium to the Wednesday's closing price of 131.75 pence and a 38.0% premium to its average share price of 133.86p over the last month.
Parallel Media Group, up 21%. The event marketing and media agency said its music division has secured the underwriting for the Japan concerts to be performed by an unnamed "US pop songstress" in December. The revenue generated from the deal, though not specifically defined, will be higher than the operating costs and VAT and will mean Parallel will secure some revenue from the deal.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Cambian Group, down 39%. The company, which provides behavioural health services, said its full-year results will come in below its previous expectations due to higher investment costs. Cambian said the shortfall has been driven by a significant rise in investment costs over the year, with has resulted in the group making higher development losses. In addition, it has seen lower admissions in its schools and children's services division.
Lombard Risk Management, down 14%. Financial services software provider said it swung to a loss in the first half of it financial year, as it booked higher administrative expenses and charges for depreciation, amortisation and impairment. The company said it swung to a GBP1.8 million pretax loss in the six months to September 30, having reported a GBP13,000 pretax profit in the corresponding period the prior year, even as revenue increased to GBP10.8 million from GBP9.3 million. Administrative expenses increased by 21% to GBP10.1 million as the number of people employed by the company increased to 319 from 278, while charges for depreciation, amortisation and about trebled to GBP2.3 million.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
17 Mar 2016 16:17
