Merlin Entertainments Share News (MERL)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Royal Bank of Scotland, down 1.8%. The state-back lender's first quarter profit growth was overshadowed by a looming settlement with the US Department of Justice. RBS said income and profit climbed in the first quarter, with its common equity tier one ratio also rising but its net interest margin slipping slightly. Total income for the three months to the end of March came in at GBP3.30 billion, up from GBP3.21 billion a year before. RBS said net interest income declined to GBP2.15 billion from GBP2.23 billion a year ago, though non-interest income rose to GBP1.16 billion from GBP978 million. Operating expenses in the period fell to GBP2.01 billion from GBP2.45 billion. "RBS shares are in the red after investors continue to fret about the looming fine from the US Department of Justice," said CMC Markets analyst David Madden. Peers Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group were down 0.9% and 0.4% respectively. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Merlin Entertainments, up 2.5%. The theme park and attractions operator said trading has been in line with expectations in 2018 so far, though customer visits to its London Midway attractions remained lower year-on-year. Merlin said trading at this "seasonally quiet" point of the year has been in line with expectations, and consistent with the guidance provided in March. While an earlier Easter period and poor weather affected a number of parks, Merlin said, overall trading within the Theme Parks Operating Groups was in line with expectations. The company added its 2018 new business development programme is on track, with all 644 accommodation rooms and one of the nine planned new Midway attractions now open. Computacenter, 2.2%. The IT consultancy firm said it expects 2018 to be a year of "further progress" as revenue rose strongly in the first quarter of the year. Computacenter said its performance in the three months to the end of March beat expectations, with 2018 likely to be a "year of further progress" in profitability as well as earnings per share. Revenue increased by 23% at reported rates for the three months to the end of March, with Services revenue and Supply Chain revenue up 2% and 33%, respectively. Computacenter said that revenue was "flattered" by a one-off software licence sale in the UK of GBP34.1 million which was profitable, but diluted the company's margins. Stripping this out, revenue was up 19% with supply chain revenue 27% higher.Vesuvius, up 1.5%. Investec raised the engineered ceramics company to Buy from Hold. ---------- FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------KAZ Minerals, down 2.1%. Peel Hunt downgraded the miner to Hold from Add. Brewin Dolphin, down 1.0%. The wealth manager said Finance Director Andrew Westenberger will leave the company next month by mutual agreement to pursue other interests. Brewin also said that the business continues to perform in line with expectations with continuing growth in income and profitability. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Sunrise Resources, up 64%. The miner's shares rose after it signed a memorandum of understanding which could lead to the first sales contract for perlite from the CS Pozzolan-Perlite project located in the US state of Nevada. The other party of the memorandum is said to be a "long established" buyer and processor of raw perlite. Under its terms, both Sunrise and the potential purchaser will negotiate and enter t a purchase and sales agreement, committing to buy or sell a minimum quantity of raw perlite over a certain period. The purchaser will give commercial and logistical support to Sunrise during its project development, and will make its production plant available to the projects for commercial scale testing.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Flowgroup, down 25%. Shares in the energy company lost a quarter as its top shareholders expressed their intent to vote against the company's proposed sale of unit Flow Energy to Co-Operative Energy. Flowgroup earlier in the month agreed to sell its core business Flow Energy to rival Co-Operative Energy for GBP9.3 million. Instead, the shareholders have declared their support the sale of the company's assets to energy company OVO Energy, which is believed to achieve both of Flowgroup's objectives to protect its secured creditors, and add an GBP10.0 million in proceeds.----------