Orchard Funding Share News (ORCH)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Taylor Wimpey, up 7.8%, Barratt Developments, up 5.9%, Persimmon, up 4.8%. The housebuilders were continuing a recovery rally following their post-Brexit plunges due to reduced political uncertainty over the next UK leader. Accendo Markets analyst Mike Van Dulken said news that the "highly experienced, well-respected and no-nonsense" Home Secretary Theresa May was the only candidate left standing in the Tory leadership race and is set to become the next prime minister by Wednesday has "soothed" market fears. "Investors also appear to be betting big on Bank of England Governor Mark Carney delivering on his post-Brexit hints and riding to the rescue of the UK’s precious property market with well-flagged monetary stimulus boost," he added.

ITV, up 3.4%. The broadcaster was upgraded to Neutral from Sell by UBS. The Swiss bank's upgrade was driven by the decline in ITV shares since the outcome of the UK's EU referendum. But UBS said advertising revenue for ITV will decline in the current and following years given the macroeconomic uncertainties surrounding the UK market.

Shire, up 3.0%. The Irish pharmaceutical company late Monday said the US Food & Drug Administration has approved its Xiidra dry eye treatment. Shire said Xiidra is the only prescription eye drop indicated for the treatment of both signs and symptoms of dry eye disease, and it anticipates it will launch in the US in the third quarter of 2016. Shore Capital said the only competition Shire will face in this market is Allergan's Restasis. "Importantly, Restasis is approved for 'tear production increase' meaning Lifitegrast should have an advantage from its indication for treating both the signs and symptoms of the disease and hence having a competitive label". Cantor Fitzgerald said the approval was "overtly positive" and also believes Shire's product is superior to Restasis.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Vodafone Group, down 1.7%. The telecommunications giant was downgraded to Neutral from Buy by Citi.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Galliford Try, up 6.4%. The construction and housebuilding company said it expects to post full-year results in line with management's expectations, after it sold more houses at higher prices and saw revenue growth in its construction arm. Within its Linden Homes housebuilding arm, the company said it made 3,078 completions during the year, compared to the 2,769 recorded a year earlier, and noted its average private sales price rose to GBP335,000 from GBP327,000. Its forward sales position grew 27% at the year-end to GBP380.0 million. Galliford Try said its construction division had seen strong growth in revenue, and had a cash position of more than GBP160.0 million at year-end, as well as an order book of GBP3.50 billion, in line with a year earlier.

Dechra Pharmaceuticals, up 5.0%. The veterinary pharmaceuticals company said trading in the year to the end of June was strong, with robust revenue growth boosted by acquisition contributions. Dechra said revenue growth including acquisitions in the year to June 30 was 21% at both constant and actual currencies. Excluding acquisitions, revenue grew 11%, the company said. In Europe, Companion Animal Products and Equine both performed well, but Dechra said its Diets business has yet to recover to previous sales levels following past supply problems. In North America, growth was driven by increased market share for the company in its Endocrinology and Dermatology units and by a full-year contribution from its Canadian subsidiary.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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RhythmOne, up 16%. The internet media company said trading in the quarter to the end of June was ahead of its expectations. The company, formerly known as Blinkx, said the improvement in its first quarter resulted from strong growth in programmatic advertising platform revenue. The group said it has continued to boost investments into its mobile, video and programmatic platforms, which helped the growth in the first quarter higher. The company also said the strong first quarter has set the stage for the company to deliver better top-line growth and return to profit in the year to the end of March 2017.

SolGold, up 8.5%. The gold miner said it has received assay results from Hole 17 at the Cascabel copper gold porphyry project in northern Ecuador, which confirm the rich Alpala system extends upwards closer to ground level, as well as to the south-west of the site. SolGold said the final assay results from Hole 17 returned intersections of 948 metres at 0.54% copper and 0.53 grams per tonne of gold from 330 metres. SolGold said the high grade sections within the envelope include an intersection of 562 metres at 0.70% copper and 0.75 grams per tonne of gold from 784 metres, as well as an intersection of 248 metres at 0.94% copper and 1.36 grams per tonne of gold from 784 metres.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Orchard Funding Group, down 24%. The finance provider said it was "disappointed" its trading performance for its current financial year is now expected to be below market expectations, after it was unable to achieve the "material increases" in its revenue base it had been anticipating. The company said it expects its revenue for the year to end July 31 to be broadly level with the prior financial year, at GBP3.45 million, having previously said it was expecting "material increases" in revenue for the year, meaning its trading performance is now expected to be below market expectations. Orchard also said the process for recruiting senior sales individuals has taken longer than originally envisaged and this has delayed the company's ability to significantly increase its lending volumes.

Begbies Traynor Group, down 12%. The business recovery and property services group said it turned to profit in its recently completed financial year, boosted by its property services unit, while its insolvency and restructuring practice faced a softer backdrop. Begbies said it made a GBP600,000 pretax profit in the year to April 30, swung from a GBP700,000 loss the year earlier, mainly due to one-off costs booked the year prior not repeating. The company's insolvency and restructuring practice, however, was hit by a decline in insolvencies in the UK over the course of the year, though Begbies said it managed to maintain operating margins through strict cost controls. Begbies said the insolvency market remains difficult to predict, and though activity levels have stabilised, market volumes are at the lowest since 2004, leaving the company cautious on the outlook.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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