Next Share News (NXT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Fresnillo, up 5.5%. The gold miner was tracking spot gold prices higher, quoted at USD1,318.78 an ounce, up from USD1,301.00 at the London equities close Wednesday. The precious metal was up as the dollar weakened following the US Federal Reserve's decision to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged on Wednesday. The Fed held the target range for the Federal Funds Rate at 2.25% to 2.50%. The central bank surprised investors by taking the possibility of interest rate hikes in 2019 off the table. Mid-cap gold miners Acacia Mining, Centamin and Hochschild Mining were up 4.8%, 4.2% and 3.0% respectively. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Royal Bank of Scotland, down 5.5%, Phoenix Group, down 2.7%, SEGRO, down 2.0%. The stocks went ex-dividend meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout. ----------Next, down 3.2%. The clothing and homewares retailer reported a well-flagged decline in annual profit and held its expectations for the current year amid a tough retail environment. For the year ended January 26, the high street retailer posted a pretax profit of GBP722.9 million, down 0.4% from GBP726.1 million the year before, but in line with the company's expectations of GBP723 million. Revenue rose to GBP4.17 billion from GBP4.09 billion a year ago. Full-price sales were up 3.1%, broadly in line with Next's guidance of a 3.2% increase, while total sales including markdowns rose 2.6%. In the previous financial year, full-price sales had declined 0.5% year-on-year. Looking ahead, Next said it expects sales for the year ending January 2020 to increase by 1.7%, a significant slowdown from this year's 3.1% rise. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Renishaw, down 11%. The precision measurement, 3D laser scanning and healthcare products maker lowered its revenue guidance and said it expects to report a fall in annual profit amid a slowdown in encoder product demand in Asia. Renishaw now expects to report revenue for the year to the end of June in a range of GBP595 million to GBP620 million, down from GBP635 million to GBP665 million anticipated previously. For financial 2018, Renishaw reported revenue of GBP611.5 million. Pretax profit is expected between GBP123 million and GBP141 million, with adjusted pretax profit to total around GBP117 million to GBP135 million. This would be at least 9.1% lower than the pretax profit of GBP155.2 million generated the year before, and down 7.0% from the adjusted profit of GBP145.1 million achieved in the previous year. "Today's warning will raise fears over the prospects of the wider engineering sector given Renishaw is probably better positioned than most of its peer group, with a level of expertise which sets up barriers to any potential competitive threats," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould. ----------IG Group, down 8.3%. The contracts-for-difference provider said a reduction in market volatility led to a decline in third-quarter revenue. IG's revenue for the third quarter ended March was GBP108.0 million, 12% lower than the second quarter, though client numbers did rise 1% to 125,600. IG said the decline in volatility led to a fall in revenue per client, with February, in particular, being a period of low volatility and market activity. In the area covered by ESMA, revenue fell 15% quarter-on-quarter, while in Asia-Pacific revenue was down 9% and in the areas of Europe, the Middle East & Asia outside of ESMA regulations, revenue climbed 6%. For the first nine months of IG's financial year, which ends June, group revenue has declined 15% year-on-year to GBP359.0 million, with client numbers slipping 9% to 163,300. Looking ahead, IG said annual revenue is difficult to predict given market volatility, but reaffirmed its belief the figure for its year ending June will be lower year-on-year. ----------Ted Baker, down 3.0%. The fashion retailer reported a significant drop in annual profit despite what it called a "resilient performance" amidst very tough trading conditions. For the year ended January 26, the upmarket fashion retailer posted pretax profit of GBP50.9 million, down 26% from GBP68.8 million a year ago. Before exceptional items, pretax profit fell 14% to GBP63.0 million. Exceptional items in the year amounted to GBP12.1 million, higher than GBP4.7 million a year ago. They included the impairment of retail assets in the UK, Europe, US and Asia, debtor balances owed by House of Fraser, which are no longer expected to be recovered after the department store's entrance in administration in August, and costs related to an independent investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Ted Baker's founder & former chief executive Ray Kelvin. Ted Baker reduced its total dividend by 2.5% to 58.6 pence per share from last year's 60.1p. This was after recommending a final payout of 40.7p, lowered from 43.5p a year ago. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------EnQuest up 15%. The oil and gas explorer reported significant growth in both annual profit and revenue, boosted by both increased production and prices. EnQuest's output in 2018 increased 48% on 2017, reaching 55,447 barrels of oil equivalent per day on average, with the realised oil price up 17% to USD61.2 per barrel. Most of EnQuest's production comes from the North Sea, but some is also from Malaysia. The rise in annual production came from extra output from the Kraken and Magnus fields, offsetting a slight fall in Malaysia due to natural field decline. Looking to 2019, EnQuest sees 20% growth in production to between 63,000 barrels and 67,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company's revenue climbed to USD1.20 billion on the back of the production increase, from USD635.2 million in 2017, while pretax profit before tax and finance costs surged to USD290.0 million from USD47.3 million.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Wynnstay Group, down 22%. The agricultural supplier warned that a significant weakening of the market means both interim and full-year results are likely to come in behind a year before. In its financial year ended October 2018, Wynnstay posted "record" results, it said, while the start to its current financial year was "encouraging". However, market conditions have now severely deteriorated, mainly due to a warmer-than-usual winter which reduced the requirement for feed and other weather-related products. The annual comparison will not be helped by the winter of 2017 to 2018 being exceptionally cold and long, lifting demand that year, while Brexit has also undermined the confidence of farmers this year. In recent weeks, demand for arable products has improved, Wynnstay did say, with spring cereal seed margins to be higher year-on-year for its first half, though volumes will fall. Grain volumes will improve, but margin pressure remains. Wynnstay is booking extra costs related to Brexit, mainly involving the import of specialist materials to ensure supply can continue. ----------