LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
WM Morrison Supermarkets, up 0.9%,
J Sainsbury, up 0.9%. Kantar Worldpanel said strong overall UK groceries market growth was supported by recent hot weather combined with the "Meghan Markle effect". Kantar - based on figures for the 12 weeks to May 20 - said record-breaking temperatures in combination with Royal wedding fever and the FA Cup final pushed grocers' sales to GBP415.0 million over 24 hours. Morrisons was among the best performers over the period, with sales up 2.9%. The supermarket attracted 311,000 new customers. Sales at Sainsbury's rose by 1.0% year-on-year, boosted by promotional activity, though the retailer's market share fell back by 0.2 percentage points.----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
Royal Bank of Scotland, down 1.3%. The state-backed lender said Chief Financial Officer Ewen Stevenson will step down from his role to take up an opportunity elsewhere. The date of his departure is yet to be confirmed, however, he will remain in his position to allow for a smooth handover process. Stevenson first joined RBS in 2014, and before that was part of Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse Group for 25 years, leaving as co-head of EMEA Investment Banking and its Global Financial Institutions Group, Investment Banking division.----------
WPP, down 1.0%. Cash Shell
Derriston Capital confirmed the acquisition of an investment vehicle of former WPP boss Martin Sorrell, with Sorrell to be executive chairman of "a company that aims to build a multi-national communication services business focused on growth", with more than GBP200 million at its disposal. Sorrell, who built WPP into an advertising and public relations giant over the course of 33 years, resigned as chief executive officer in mid-April following the conclusion of an investigation into what WPP called "an allegation of misconduct" which it said did not "involve amounts that are material" to the company. Coming only just over a month later, London-listed cash shell Derriston Capital confirmed early Wednesday a Sky News report that it will purchase Sorrell's newly incorporated S4 Capital in a reverse takeover. After the acquisition, the new entity will be renamed S4 Capital.----------
SSE, down 0.5%. The energy supplier said it will increase UK domestic energy prices in July, with both gas and electricity prices going up. The company said the increase will equate to a change of GBP76, or an average 6.7% rise, for a typical dual fuel customer. The company said it had taken the "difficult decision" to increase electricity and gas prices as a result of the increasing costs of supply electricity, principally from higher wholesale energy prices and the cost of delivering government policy initiatives designed to modernise and decarbonise Britain's energy system. As such, electricity prices will rise an average of 7.7% while gas prices will increase by 5.7%.----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
Bodycote, up 9.0%. The heat treatment and coating services firm said it expects its annual revenue and profit to be higher than previously expected. For the first four months of the year, from January to April, the company reported a 7% increase in revenue compared to the same period last year. Due to this "robust" growth, Bodycote expects full-year revenue to be higher than previously expected and its headline operating profit to be "slightly ahead" of consensus. The company's net cash at the end of April was GBP45 million compared to GBP40 million at the end of 2017.----------
Centamin, up 2.7%. Berenberg raised the gold miner to Buy from Hold. ----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------
Stobart Group, down 5.3%. The support services firm said Cenkos Securities resigned as its joint broker following Stobart's recent revelation of a boardroom rift. On Friday last week, Stobart said Andrew Tinkler, its former chief executive and a current executive director, has informed the company he will vote against the re-election of Chairman Iain Ferguson at its annual general meeting, the date of which was unspecified. All other directors offered support to Ferguson, with non-executive directors Andrew Wood and John Coombs saying they would quit if Ferguson is not re-elected. Tinkler, Stobart said, holds 7.7% of the company's voting rights, while shareholders holding a further 26% also said they also won't vote for Ferguson's re-election.----------
Go-Ahead Group, down 3.5%. Liberum downgraded the transport operator to Hold from Buy. ----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------
Landore Resources, up 10%. The miner said it has found "widespread" gold in between its BAN and BAM East deposits in Canada. Landore has been drilling between BAM, its original deposit, and BAM East to look for further gold mineralisation. The site is located on the Junior Lake property in Canada's Ontario province. Landore said the mineralisation had similar lithological characteristics to the two deposits, with "multiple" instances of visible gold. Results include near-surface intersections of up to 41.3 metres at 1.10 grammes of gold per tonne of ore, and 24.90 g/t gold in another hole. ----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------
Falcon Media House, down 51%. Shares in the digital media group halved as it said it intends to delist from the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange, which is expected to take place on June 27. The reason for the proposed delisting is the fall in the company's market value since its readmission to trading in March 2017, from GBP13.9 million to around GBP1.5 million, reflecting a 89% drop. Delisting is expected to save costs for the company, and build a realistic valuation, as Falcon believes that the market is not well-placed to value early stage companies.----------
Meghan Markle
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