(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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WPP, up 4.2%. The advertising firm set out plans to return to 2019 levels of revenue growth by 2022, after stumbling in 2020, while also unveiling a new dividend policy. WPP said it intends to return the core Communications business to sustainable growth and is targeting annual cost savings of GBP600 million by 2025. Of these savings, WPP plans to invest two-thirds "in talent, incentives and technology" to drive growth. The FTSE 100 constituent wants to supplement growth with "targeted, scalable" mergers and acquisitions of GBP200 million to GBP400 million annually. WPP said like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs fell 6.7% in the two months to November, with the result for 2020 expected to be in line with the year-to-date performance of an 8.4% decline. WPP is aiming for a recovery to 2019 revenue less pass-through costs levels by 2022. The company expects 3% to 4% annual growth in revenue less pass-through costs from 2023 - including an annual benefit from M&A of around 0.5% to 1.0% - and will implement a new dividend policy, intending to grow this annually with a payout ratio of around 40% of headline earnings per share. The 2020 dividend will be in line with this new policy.
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Polymetal International, up 3.7%. The precious metals miner was tracking the price of gold higher, quoted at USD1,877.30 an ounce from USD1,857.15 late Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Vodafone, down 3.2% and United Utilities, down 2.7%. The stocks went ex-dividend on Thursday, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest payout.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Watches of Switzerland, up 3.4%. The luxury watches retailer reported revenue of GBP414.3 million for its half-year to October 25, down 3.4% on a year ago. However, the firm swung to a pretax profit of GBP36.2 million from a GBP9.0 million loss a year ago. Watches of Switzerland only took GBP1.8 million in exceptional items for the recent half, sharply reduced from GBP34.2 million a year ago.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Avon Rubber, down 14%. The Wiltshire-based respiratory protection equipment manufacturer noted delays in the awarding of ballistic protection contracts within its Military business in the US. Avon said that it had been awarded contracts for the US Defense Logistics Agency's enhanced small arms protective inserts and US Army's vital torso protection body-armour plates. The group was in talk with the two US government customers to complete the necessary product approval processes, which was on-track to be completed in the first half of its 2021 financial year. However, due to a failure encountered in first article testing, the approval process has been delayed. Now Avon expects first deliveries under the two contracts to start in the first half of its 2022 financial year. Looking ahead, Avon said the delay in first deliveries under these contracts will reduce overall expectations; however the group remains confident in achieving its medium-term expectations. Avon also noted that a protest has been made against the award of the US Army's next-generation integrated head protection system contract, which was first announced in late September.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Octagonal, down 66%. The financial services firm said it is finalising proposals to seek approval to de-list from AIM, believing a potential cancellation to be in the best interest of the company and shareholders. For financial year ended March 31, revenue rises to GBP5.8 million from GBP5.3 million, but pretax profit narrows to GBP594,000 from GBP660,000. "The board have concluded that there is no need to continue with the cost, management time and the legal and regulatory obligations associated with maintaining the company's listing as long as shareholders interests are protected and that there is no risk of shareholders losing any tax advantages. The company has not raised any funds since the listing in 2015. Should the company need to raise funds in the future, the board believe that the private equity market would value the company based on enterprise value," said Octagonal.
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By Lucy Heming;Â lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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