Lok N Store Share News (LOK)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------HSBC, up 4.7%. The Asia-focused bank reported an "encouraging" third quarter with consensus beating profit. For the three months ended September, pretax profit rose 28% to USD5.92 billion from USD4.62 billion the year prior. Excluding the impact of currency translation, pretax profit rose 16% on the year before. Revenue rose 1.6% to USD13.80 billion from USD13.58 billion the year before. Revenue performance was driven by "strong" growth in all of HSBC's three main global businesses. Shore Capital called HSBC's third-quarter results strong, saying adjusted pretax profit of USD6.19 billion, up 16% on year, was 8% better than consensus at USD5.73 billion and 6% better than Shore's own forecast of USD5.86 billion. Group operating expenses decreased 6.8% to USD7.97 billion from USD8.55 billion the year before. This is largely due the bank's significant items decreasing to USD228 million from USD762 million. The large drop in one-off costs included the non-recurrence of "costs to achieve", which had been USD700 million in the year-ago comparative period. ----------Shire, up 2.5%. Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical said it is considering selling an experimental inflammatory bowel disease drug that is under development by its takeover target Shire. Takeda confirmed its discussion with the European Commission regarding potential overlap between its marketed product Entyvio and Shire's pipeline compound SHP647. SHP647 is a human monoclonal antibody that targets mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule, which is currently undertaking phase III clinical trials. Takeda has proposed a potential divestment of SHP647 and associated rights. Takeda confirmed on Monday that there are no discussions with the European Commission regarding any other marketed products or assets in the pipeline.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Just Eat, down 5.2%. Peel Hunt downgraded the online takeaway platform to Sell from Buy. The broker said the rise of rivals Uber and Deliveroo could lead to the demise of Just Eat, given the two can outspend the FTSE 100 constituent and outperform in the smartphone space. Bloomberg in September reported that ride-hailing app Uber - which also offers a food delivery service Uber Eats - was in early discussions with Deliveroo, as part of its strategy to invest and partner with rivals ahead of its planned initial public offering next year.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------N4 Pharma, up 20%. The cancer-focused pharmaceutical company's shares rose after a key research study demonstrated positive results for its Nuvec delivery system. Since June, N4 Pharma has conducted a research study to determine the level of immune response Nuvec can deliver, using both messenger RNA and plasmid DNA when combined with the antigen Ovalbumin. The results demonstrates that the Nuvec themselves have a clear adjuvant effect to help deliver a level of immune response for both the mRNA and pDNA antigens compared to other delivery systems. As Nuvec will not require an additional adjuvant when formulating a vaccine when used as a delivery system, this could lead to reduced production costs for a final vaccine, as less antigen would be required. In addition, the level of immune response generated by Nuvec particles is within acceptable levels, showing no adverse toxicity.----------Lok'n Store, up 10%. The storage company said its earnings grew in its recently ended financial year following a rise in occupancy and store numbers. Lok'n Store said pretax profit in the year to the end of July improved to GBP5.3 million from GBP4.0 million reported a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP17.8 million from GBP16.7 million. The company noted the result was driven by occupancy increases in both old and new stores. Tight control over operating costs led to a 2% increase in self-storage margins, which has also contributed in pushing the company's profit to "record level". Lok'nStore declared an annual dividend of 11 pence per share, up 10% from 10p paid the year prior.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Warpaint Group, down 43%. The colour cosmetics supplier said the UK market has remained challenging for the company with softening sales, even as it expects a rise in profit and revenue for 2018. Warpaint said its UK market, which accounted for 44% of group's sales in the first half of the year, saw further softening following the end of the interim period due to retailers reducing their stock levels and Christmas orders. The group said the reduction in previously anticipated UK sales will hurt its performance for 2018, which will not be completely offset by an outperformance in its sales territories overseas. As at September 30, sales in the US were up 60% compared to the same period in 2017, and sales in the EU were up 14% year-on-year.----------Gama Aviation, down 17%. The aviation service provider lowered its full-year expectations after trading in some of its divisions has not improved "sufficiently" during the second half of 2018. Gama said it now expects the annual underlying operating profit to be USD3 million below its original expectations. In 2017, Gama generated underlying operating profit of USD18.7 million. On a divisional basis, the company's Air unit saw stable performance in Europe, Middle East & Asia. However, profit from the US is now below Gama's expectations due to slower-than-anticipated growth in charter and aircraft management revenue. In Asia, Gama's associate China Air Services has continued to underperform with the unexpected loss of contracts significantly harming margins. ----------