Merlin Entertainments Share News (MERL)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Persimmon, up 5.4%, Taylor Wimpey, up 4.1%, Barratt Developments, up 3.7%. The housebuilders were recovering from severe losses suffered after the UK vote to leave the European Union. The FTSE 350 Household Goods & Home Construction Index, which includes the largest London-listed housebuilders, was trading up 1.2%.

Burberry Group, up 4.3%. The fashion house was upgraded to Buy from Neutral by Merrill Lynch, according to traders.

Bunzl, up 3.7%. The distribution and outsourcing group said trading in the first half of 2016 has been in line with its expectations as it made two new acquisitions. The company said revenue for the first half of 2016 is set to be up by around 9.0%, driven largely by acquisitions the company has made. Stripping out the acquisition contributions, underlying revenue is seen broadly flat year-on-year.

Merlin Entertainments, up 3.3%. The attractions and theme park operator was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight by JPMorgan. On Tuesday, Barclays had said Merlin is one of its preferred long-term picks, as it should be resilient to the shock to UK consumer confidence from the EU vote. Furthermore, the fall in sterling should be a net positive for the company as it will encourage more leisure travel to London and potentially less outbound travel from the UK.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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TUI AG, down 3.7%, International Consolidated Airlines Group, down 2.4%. As the converse to Merlin and other domestically exposed leisure stocks, "travel stocks have remained under pressure over concerns that a weaker pound could deter UK consumers from going abroad," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

Dixons Carphone, down 2.0%. The mobile phones and electronics retailer reported lower profit in its recently ended financial year due to non-recurring costs of restructuring its store portfolio, declaring it will remain "the leader in the UK market" despite expected volatility arising from the Brexit vote. The company said pretax profit in the year ended April 30 decreased to GBP263 million from GBP287 million the year before, despite revenue rising to GBP9.74 billion from GBP8.26 billion. Headline pretax profit, which excludes non-recurring items such as acquisitions and merger costs, rose to GBP447 million from GBP381 million, in line with analyst and company expectations.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Shawbrook Group, up 23%. Shares in the lender were rebounding after closing down 14% on Tuesday. Shawbrook on Tuesday said trading in line with its expectations in 2016 so far, but it will book an impairment charge due to irregularities uncovered in its Asset Finance unit.

Sophos Group, up 9.0%. The network security services provider said trading has remained strong, and it anticipates billings in the first quarter of its financial year will outpace its expectations. Sophos said like-for-like billings growth in the quarter to the end of June is anticipated to be 20% to 23% year-on-year, boosted by a material contract with an existing customer. The group said its total billings for the first quarter are set to beat its expectations and affirmed its guidance for the year to the end of March 2017. The stock was also raised to Add from Hold by Numis.

Amec Foster Wheeler, up 5.2%. The oil services company said it has secured a contract with the UK Ministry of Defence to supply independent nuclear propulsion safety and advice to the Royal Navy's submarine flotilla. The contract is expected to be worth around GBP75.0 million over five years and was won after a competitive tender, the company said. "This contract consolidates Amec Foster Wheeler's position as the largest provider of independent safety assurance in the UK nuclear sector," said Clive White, president of the Clean Energy Europe business at Amec Foster Wheeler.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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McCarthy & Stone, down 3.0%. The retirement housebuilder noted its strong order book which, in normal conditions, would be sufficient to deliver its targeted 20% increase in sales volumes for the full year, but cautioned uncertainty resulting from last week's UK voted to leave the European Union may impact the conversion of its order book to completions. McCarthy & Stone said the uncertainty in the broader UK economy and particularly in the housing market may have an impact on the timing and cost of conversion of its strong order book of reservations into completions, which it said it will continue to monitor. McCarthy & Stone said its order book of forward sales at June 24 was GBP426.0 million, a 23% rise from the GBP328.0 million recorded at the same time a year earlier.

Paragon Group of Cos, down 3.0%. The specialist lender was cut to Underweight from Neutral by JPMorgan.

Electrocomponents, down 2.9%. The electronics distributor was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral by Credit Suisse.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Nostra Terra Oil & Gas Co, up 15%. The oil and gas company said it has agreed to sell its 20% stake in the Chisholm Trail prospect in Oklahoma for around USD2.1 million. Nostra said it will sell the stake in the prospect, which is operated by Ward Petroleum Corp, to a privately-held, Oklahoma-based oil and gas company. The sale is expected to close by August 17. Nostra said it plans to use the proceeds from the sale to buy working interests in other projects.

Provexis, up 11% at 0.300 pence. The food ingredient developer launched its new Fruitflow + Omega-3 dietary supplement product and said it has non-legally binding indications of interest in a share subscription to raise a total of GBP185,000. Provexis also said it has now received non-legally binding indications of interest in a share subscription, first announced earlier this month, to raise a total of approximately GBP185,000 at a subscription price of 0.24 pence per ordinary share. The figure had previously stood at GBP160,000 on June 9, and at the time Provexis had said it was in late stage discussions with a small group of investors. Provexis said the funds would be used to provide working capital.

Cap-XX, up 8.8%. The supercapacitors designer said Japanese electronic components maker Murata Manufacturing Co has launched a thin battery for wearable devices which uses CAP-XX technology. Murata launched the UMAL, a low-profile, large-capacity, laminate-type energy device which incorporates CAP-XX intellectual property into a lithium ion battery. Murata started mass production of the new device in June and plans to continue to expand this product line in the future. CAP-XX also noted royalties under its agreement with Murata nearly-quadrupled in the year to the end of March year-on-year.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Brammer, down 52%. The industrial maintenance, repair and overhauls products distributor said sales have slowed significantly and issued a profit warning for the first half, hammering its share price. Brammer said sales per working day in May were down 3.0% year-on-year, with a weak performance in the UK and sluggish trading in Europe. This weakness has continued into June and underlying margins for the business have weakened as a result. Brammer said its adjusted pretax profit for the first half of 2016 is now set to miss expectations, and it will review its trading outlook for the year as a whole, including taking measures to improve profitability and strengthen its balance sheet.

Fitbug Holdings, down 41% at 0.250p. The personal health and wellbeing services provider said it will raise GBP2.6 million through a share placing, as it announced the appointment of Interim Chief Financial Officer Tyler Tarr as part-time finance director and said it has started 2016 well. The digital wellness technology developer said it will GBP2.6 million through the placing of 340.8 million shares at 0.25p each and an open offer of 703.6 million shares at the same price. In addition, GBP8.4 million of existing debt to Kifin and NW1 Investments will be capitalised into 336 million shares at 2.5p each. Fitbug said these finance activities will substantially reduce its debt, provide it with additional working capital, stabilise its balance sheet and position it to further deliver on its turnaround strategy.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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