Next Share News (NXT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are among the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices late-morning Friday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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EasyJet, up 7.7%. The low-cost airline raised its full-year pretax profit guidance, saying it had taken about GBP5 million of revenue from Air France after that airline was hit by a costly pilots strike and after fuel prices swung in its favour. EasyJet said it now expects pretax profit for the year that ended on September 30 to come in between GBP575 million and GBP580 million, up from the GBP545 million to GBP570 million guidance it gave in July. Air France, part of Air France-KLM, was hit by a two-week pilots strike that ended on September 29. The pilots were protesting at the company's cost-cutting plans. Air France management said the strike cost the airline more than EUR200 million.

TUI Travel, up 3.4%. the travel operator is amongst the top gainers for the second consecutive day after the company released a positive trading update Thursday, saying its full-year underlying operating profit will come in at the top end of its growth guidance.

United Utilities, up 3.1%. The utilities group scaled back its future infrastructure spending plans, as it submitted its latest proposal on how it would control the prices it charges customers over the next five years to water industry regulator Ofwat. In a statement, United Utilities said it now plans to reduce planned total expenditure by about GBP370 million, with about GBP280 million of that coming from cost efficiencies it expects to make between 2015 and 2020. The other GBP90 million will come from scaling back its trunk mains resilience work and National Environmental Programme work.

Sports Direct International, up 2.4%. The high-street sportswear retailer said Thursday that it has acquired a further 4.6% stake in Debenhams, through the acquisition of 56.4 million shares. Sports Direct said that collectively its investments represent an 11.22 % interest in Debenhams.

HSBC, up 2.4%. Standard Chartered, up 0.9%. Following a few days of disruption and weakness due to the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, the banks with significant exposure in the region are seeing a rebound, along with the Hong Kong stock market which gained 0.6% Friday after returning from a two day holiday.

Next, up 1.9%. Goldman Sachs increased its price target on the UK clothing retailer to 6,500 pence from 6,250 pence, while reiterating a Neutral rating. Next shares closed Thursday at 6,455 pence.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Tesco, down 1.2%. Tesco finds itself again the biggest loser in the leading index Friday. The latest knock to the shares was provided by Billionaire investor Warren Buffet, when he said on Thursday that he made a "huge mistake" when he decided to invest in Tesco and has lost hundreds of millions as a result. Tesco shares dropped to an 11-year low on Thursday amid the comments and have continued lower Friday. Buffet had built up a 3.7% stake in Tesco.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Renishaw, up 8.8%. The engineering company said its financial year has started well, with strong first quarter trading which it expects to continue into the second quarter. Renishaw said its first-quarter revenue increased to GBP101 million, from GBP79 million a year earlier, boosted by growth in its Asian business.

Dunelm Group, up 6.3%. The Homeware retailer said strong trading in the first quarter of its financial year was helped by weaker comparatives, but said trading continues to be buoyed by an improving UK economy, new store openings and improvements in its online offering. Dunelm said sales in the 13 weeks to September 27 rose 17% to GBP180.6 million, up from GBP154.3 million a year earlier. Like-for-like sales grew by 8.9%, which it said was helped by a relatively weak performance in the same quarter last year, when footfall was subdued by unusually warm weather.

Debenhams, up 4.2%. The department store has received a vote of confidence from Sports Direct, which acquired a further 4.6% stake in it through the acquisition of 56.4 million shares. Debenhams was also raised to Neutral from Sell by Goldman Sachs.

AMEC, up 4.1%. The oil and gas engineering group said it is trading in line with expectations and affirmed its outlook for the year, though it said sterling strength would hit both profit and revenue. AMEC said it is continuing to see less greenfield activity in some key upstream oil and gas markets, which is being partially offset by strong growth in its Clean Energy and Middle Eastern Oil & Gas businesses.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Software Radio Technology, up 6.5%. The semiconductor company said it expects to swing to a profit and post a big rise in revenue in the first half on the back of a strong performance from its project-based business. The company said its expects to report a pretax profit for the six months to June 30 of GBP0.5 million, compared to a GBP434,000 loss a year earlier. The profit is expected on the back of a forecast 70% rise in revenue in the first half to GBP5.4 million.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Alecto Minerals, down 7.9%. The minerals investment group said it has appointed Mark Wellesley-Wood as non-executive chairman with immediate effect. Wellesley-Wood is replacing Michael Johnson, who is stepping down to pursue other business interests. Wellesley-Wood was a director in corporate finance at Investec Investment Banking and Securities in London. Previously, he has held the chief executive position at DRDGold Ltd and Metallon Corp, and also as the non-executive chairman of Mwana Africa PLC.

Miton Group, down 7.5%. The fund manager said an institutional client has decided to terminate a UK equity income mandate it runs, following the announcement of the retirement of Bill Mott, who joined with the acquisition of PSigma last year. Miton estimated that the termination will reduce net revenue by GBP1.1 million in calendar 2015. On October 1, the mandate amounted to GBP325.6 million of assets under management, Miton said. The termination will take effect from November 2014.
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By Jon Darby; jondarby@alliancenews.com; @jondarby100

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