LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Persimmon, up 2.5%. The housebuilder reported double-digit growth in profit in 2018, exceeding GBP1 billion for the first time, boosted by higher average selling prices, Persimmon reported pretax profit of GBP1.09 billion for 2018, up 13% from GBP966.1 million the year before, on revenue that rose by 3.9% to GBP3.74 billion from GBP3.60 billion. During the year, Persimmon delivered 16,449 homes to customers, up from 16,043 in 2017, and sold those houses at an average selling price of GBP215,563, reflecting a 1.1% increase from GBP213,321 the prior year. Persimmon will pay a final dividend of 110 pence per share, on top of 125p per share as an interim dividend, for 235p in total, unchanged from a year earlier. Fellow housebuilders, Taylor Wimpey, Berkeley Group and Barratt Developments were up 2.2%, 1.9% and 1.7% respectively. ----------John Wood, up 2.2%. Berenberg started coverage on the oilfield services firm with a Hold rating. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Fresnillo, down 7.5%. The Mexican gold miner said it expects 2019 to be "another challenging year" after reporting a sharp fall in profit in 2018. Pretax profit declined by 35% in 2018 to USD483.9 million from USD741.5 million, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation fell by 14% to USD915.1 million from USD1.06 billion. Fresnillo's 2018 gross profit dropped 16% to USD780.7 million from USD925.4 million a year earlier. Fresnillo cut its final dividend to 16.70 US cents compared to 29.80 cents in 2017. This brings the total for 2018 to 27.40 cents, down 32% from the 40.40 cents the year before. Looking ahead, silver production is guided by Fresnillo at between 58 million to 61 million ounces, with gold production guided between 910,000 ounces to 930,000 ounces.----------BT Group, down 3.0%. Berenberg downgraded the telecommunications firm to Hold from Buy.----------Standard Chartered, down 2.1%. The Asia-focused lender's annual profit came in below the market's expectations, while it has also announced further strategic plans for the next three years. Pretax profit on a statutory basis rose to USD2.55 billion in 2018 from USD2.42 billion, but this is short of consensus of USD2.98 billion. On an underlying basis, pretax profit was USD3.88 billion from USD3.01 billion. StanChart's operating income for 2018 was USD14.79 billion, higher from USD14.43 billion a year before but short of consensus of USD15.02 billion. To undergo its planned restructuring Standard Chartered is expecting a further USD500 million of restructuring charges in the next three years and, as a result, the lender has decided its Indonesian joint venture "is no longer core".----------Vodafone, down 2.6%. Moody's Investors Service downgraded Vodafone's senior unsecured ratings to Baa2 from Baa1, with negative outlook. The ratings agency said the rating action concludes the review for downgrade initiated in May 2018, following Vodafone's proposed acquisition of Unitymedia, the German cable operator owned by Liberty Global. Moody's said it now expects Vodafone's underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization growth to slow to around 3% in the next two years, which is lower than what Moody's had assumed when the rating was placed on review for downgrade in May last year.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Travis Perkins, up 12%. The builders' merchant said it swung to a loss in 2018 due to a sizeable impairment relating to its Wickes business, but added the proposed sale of the Plumbing & Heating division is making progress. The company's pretax loss for 2018 was GBP49.4 million, swinging from a GBP289.7 million pretax profit in 2017. Revenue came to GBP6.74 billion, rising 4.8% from GBP6.43 billion the year before. Travis Perkins's full year total dividend grew 2.2% to 47.0p per share from 46.0p per share. Looking ahead, Travis Perkins is restructuring itself and removing the divisional structure of its Merchanting businesses in order to cut costs and streamline the segment. "The stars appear to be aligning for Travis Perkins. The builders' merchant is simplifying its structure, reinvesting cash in the best parts of the business, trading is picking up in its consumer-facing brand Wickes, and operating profit improved in the second half of the year after a difficult first half," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Babcock International, down 5.5%. The defence contractor said underlying earnings and cash generation guidance for 2019 financial year remains unchanged and it will record an additional cost of GBP10 million in the financial year due to Brexit. Babcock's earnings outlook for the year ending March 31 remains unchanged because the company believes it has made "good progress" in its three key markets of defence, aerial emergency services and nuclear. The company's underlying revenue is expected to be about GBP5.20 billion, behind last year's GBP5.36 billion. The step down of the "major" Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier contract and further disposals in the second half were attributed for the slight drop in annual revenue. The UK's planned withdrawal from the EU is expected to cost Babcock an additional GBP10 million per annum as well as a one-off GBP10 million tax charge as the company restructured its aerial emergency services unit to comply with EU operating requirements.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Devro, up 6.5%. The sausage casings manufacturer said exceptional costs relating to a cost savings and business restructuring programme resulted in decline in 2018 pretax profit. The company also said that it remains well placed to make good progress in 2019 despite ongoing pressures from input cost inflation, principally salary and utility costs and exchange rate volatility. For 2018, the company recorded pretax profit of GBP17.5 million, down from GBP21.6 million in 2017, on revenue of GBP253.4 million and GBP256.9 million, respectively. For 2019, the company predicts revenue to be second half weighted and grow due to an overall growing market and continued rollout of the company's new fine ultra product. Devro declared a final dividend of 6.3 pence per share, up from 6.1p, bringing total payout for the year to 9.0p, up 2.3% from 8.8p. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------LXB Retail Properties, down 41%. The real estate investor said its net asset value per share fell in its most recent financial year as it continued the process of winding down and disposing of assets. LXB's net asset value per share on September 30, the end of its financial year, was 11.12 pence. This is a fraction of its net asset value of 29.52p per share the year before. Its total assets were reduced to GBP29.7 million from GBP95.1 million. Of this, investment properties held for sale shrank to only GBP6.3 million from GBP54.2 million after GBP48.5 million worth of disposals. In its year, the company sold its Riverside scheme and its leisure investment in Stratford. It also disposed of the final phase of Neats Court Retail Park in Sheppey and sold its remaining land interests in Rushden. Post year-end, LXB Retail Properties sold its ground floor units in Sutton and also sold Higher Newham Farm in Truro, its last investment property asset.----------
8 Dec 2015 11:07
