LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on the main London indices Wednesday morning.
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FTSE 100 - Winners
Persimmon, up 4.4%, is the biggest gainer on the FTSE 100 after Goldman Sachs increased its price target to 1854 pence from 1811p, part of a series of ratings and price target alterations the banks has made for all the constituents of the FTSE 350 household goods index.
Lloyds Banking Group climbs 1.1% on the back of Investec raising the bank to Buy from Hold, increasing its target price to 80p from 76p. Investec thinks Lloyds is set to be the biggest beneficiary of any UK bank from the UK government's Help-to-Buy mortgage scheme. It also thinks there won't be another sale of any of the government's stake in the bank any time soon.
Marks and Spencer Group, up 0.2%. The retailer has started to rebound from a big fall Tuesday when Bernstein downgraded it to Underperform from Market-perform and lowered its price target to 420 pence from 445p. Bernstein conducted its own focus groups and concluded the market was overconfident about M&S's new Autumn/Winter collection. M&S still has a long way to climb if it is to reach the levels prior to the downgrade.
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FTSE 100 - Losers
Vedanta, down 3.7%, is the biggest faller on the blue-chip index. Investors have reacted badly to the company's release of mixed production results. Vedanta said production of oil and some metals increased, while sales of surplus electrical power and production of copper fell. The company said average daily oil production increased 2.9% to 213,299 barrels of oil equivalent per day in its second quarter ending September 30 from 207,245 barrels the previous year. The company also said production increased in all metals across its Zinc India operation, with zinc itself up 21%, lead up 17% and silver up 7% due to significant improvements in the operational efficiency of smelters at the site. However, there were also disappointing figures in the release. The company's total individual power-unit sales fell by 29%, to 1.91 billion units from 2.7 billion units, with a 87% drop in sales of surplus electrical power from the company's part-owned Balco Captive Aluminium Power Plant 1 to 44 million units from 346 million units, while power sales from its part-owned Jharsuguda aluminium site fell 23%, to 1.5 billion units from 1.9 billion units.
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FTSE 250 - Winners
Barratt Developments, up 3.3%, Taylor Wimpey, up 3.3%, Bellway, up 3.1%, Bovis Homes Group, up 2.5%, Redrow, up 2.2%, Crest Nicholson Holdings, up 2.1%, are amongst the biggest gainers on the FTSE 250 index. The house-builders are all benefiting from ratings and/or price target changes from Goldman Sachs. Barratt's rating has been upgraded to Buy from neutral, with a price target rise to 482p from 408p. Taylor Wimpey's price target has been increased to 166p from 131p and the company has also been added to Goldman's conviction buy list. Bellway's price target has been boosted to 2016p from 1827p, similarly Redrow's price target is 341p from 300p. Bovis's recommendation has been upgraded to Buy from Neutral, with a price target of 997p from 933p. Crest has been initiated with a Buy rating and a price target of 530.
Marston's is up 3.1% after it saw an encouraging trading performance in the second half of the year after poor weather conditions hit the first half. The British brewer and pub operator said that, in destination and premium pubs, like-for-like sales were 2.2% higher than last year and are up 2.6% over the last 11 weeks, and it expects the division's full-year operating margin to be slightly ahead of last year. Its managed and franchised pubs saw like-for like sales in line with last year, but up 2% in the second half of the year. However, it expects its full-year profits to be lower in its Taverns community pubs, due to poor weather in the first half of the year, more disposals than originally planned, and a more subdued performance in its tenanted pubs, in line with market trends. Full-year profits for its leased pubs are expected to be in line with last year, Marston's said, with an improved performance in the second half year. The brewer said that it disposed of 130 pubs and other assets during the year, which generated higher proceeds than expected, of around GBP50 million. Numis has upgraded the company to Buy from Add on the back of the year-end trading statement.
Greggs climbs 2% after total sales rose 3.6% in the third quarter, boosted by net new shop openings and continued growth from franchised shops. Although like-for-like sales were down 0.5% in the quarter, its still a marked improvement from a 2.9% decline in the first half of the year. The business said that in the year-to-date, total sales were up 3.5%. Greggs already issued two profit warnings this year, after it reported a big drop in like-for-like sales and profits in the first half of the year due to the summer heatwave in the UK and fragile consumer confidence. But it said Wednesday that its overall outlook for the year now remains unchanged, encouraged by recent improvements to trading.
John Wood Group, up 1.8%. The company is one of the biggest gainers on the FTSE 250 after it said it will create a gas turbine joint venture with German giant Siemens that it expects to deliver USD15 million in synergies by year three and improve the prospects for its gas turbine unit. The energy services company said it will own 51% of the new venture, with Siemens taking 49%. It will include Wood Group's maintenance and power businesses and Siemens' turbocare unit, which provides after-market gas turbine, steam turbine and generator design, repair and manufacturing services. It will employ about 4,500 and have revenues of about USD1 billion. Wood Group said it is expecting to get a payment of about USD70 million from the joint venture, and expects the the deal to complete in the first quarter of 2014 after several necessary approvals are cleared.
Kentz Corporation, up 1.4%. Liberum has upgraded the engineering solutions provider to Buy from Hold. The engineering company has continued to add new contracts, and Liberum said that further awards will make its 2014 expectations a reality. Kentz was awarded a further refinery support contract in Qatar on Tuesday, and Liberum said that sales are expected to be positive for the rest of 2013.
Centamin is up 1.2% as it reported that plant throughput and gold production increased at its Sukari Gold Mine in Egypt in its third quarter. The mineral exploration, development and mining company with operations in Egypt and Ethiopia said gold production increased 39% to 84,757 ounces for the three months ended September 30 compared to 60,922 ounces in the previous year, though this was down from 93,624 in the second quarter of 2012.
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FTSE 250 - Losers
N Brown Group, down 4.9%. Despite reporting higher profits in the first half of the year as a result of strong sales growth and customer order numbers, and increasing its interim dividend by 4%, the internet and catalogue home shopping company is the biggest faller on the FTSE 250. An in-line first half of 2014 trading performance, alongside guidance of no change to the groups' second half expectations suggests consensus forecasts are unlikely to move substantially, says Jefferies.
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AIM - Winners
Petards Group jumps 15% after it said it has won a contract worth over GBP1.75 million to provide on-board digital CCTV systems for Electrostar trains being made by Bombardier for Southern Railway. The company said deliveries will commence and be completed in 2014.
Zytronic is up 14% after it said it expects its full-year results to exceed market expectations as margins grow thanks to production efficiencies. Zytronic said it saw an improved trading performance in the second-half of the year and expects full-year pretax profit to reach approximately GBP1.9 million on revenues of GBP17.2 million. Although WH Ireland does not have a rating for the stock, it says the shares trade on an attractive price-to-earnings ratio, given the company's likely return to high profitability.
Aeorema Communications, up 9%. The stock is continuing to rise, albeit at a slower rate, after it said Tuesday it was recommending its first ever dividend after it swung back to a pretax profit in its last financial year thanks to a jump in revenues. The company posted a pretax profit of GBP358,864 for the 12 months to June 30, compared with a GBP36,272 loss a year earlier.
Quindell Portfolio, up 8.3%. The company's share price is increasing after it said that it has won over GBP200 million of new annual business in recent weeks, including a three-year contract worth over GBP150 million with Direct Line Insurance Group PLC and over GBP150 million a year in revenues from other key brands. Quindell said it expects to start pulling in around GBP150 million of the new revenue in the fourth quarter of 2013, with approximately GBP50 million expected to commence in the first quarter of 2014.
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AIM - Losers
All Asia Asset Capital Limited is down 34%. Having seen and increase of 239% Tuesday, All Asia Asset Capital is one of the biggest fallers Wednesday. The company had announced that it had bought a minority stake in Andaman Power and Utility Company Ltd for USD1.25 million in cash, its first investment.
Northcote Energy, down 8.9%, after it raised GBP1.8 million through a placing organised by Share Capital Stockbrokers. The onshore US oil and gas exploration and production company said the funding, which was achieved via new and existing shareholders, will be used to advance its production and reserves in Oklahoma.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
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