(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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Antofagasta, up 1.4%. The Chilean miner warned 2020 production is likely to fall year-on-year, though performance in the third quarter of 2019 was "strong". Antofagasta sees 2019 production between 750,000 tonnes and 790,000 tonnes of copper, which has been reiterated. However, for 2020, Antofagasta has guided for production to be between 725,000 tonnes and 790,000 tonnes. This is due to an expected decline in grades at the Centinela mine in Chile, but the firm does expect production to rise again in 2021. For the third quarter of 2019, Antofagasta produced 197,000 tonnes of copper, 0.8% lower than the previous quarter. Year-to-date copper output was 584,200 tonnes, up 16% year-on-year due to higher throughput and grades.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Fresnillo, down 3.1%. The Mexican gold miner warned annual production is likely to be at the lower end of its guided range. Fresnillo has guided for 880,000 ounces to 910,000 ounces of gold for 2019, and for between 55 million ounces and 58 million ounces of silver. The company expects 2019 production to be towards the lower end of each range. In 2018, Fresnillo produced 923,000 ounces of gold and 61.8 million ounces of silver. In July, Fresnillo cut 2019 production guidance from what it had provided at the start of the year, due in part to lower-than-expected ore grades and ore throughput at the Fresnillo mine in Mexico. Turning to third-quarter output, gold came in at 209,752 ounces, 5.2% below the second quarter and 6.9% lower than the year before. Year-to-date gold production has declined by 7.0%.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Centamin, up 3.7%. Centamin is still targeting the bottom end of 2019 guidance, with October the strongest month of the year so far. The gold miner, which operates Egypt's Sukari mine, earlier in October said 490,000 ounces of gold, the bottom end of previous guidance, will still achievable, and it reiterated this on Wednesday. Gold production in the third quarter of 2019 was 98,045 ounces, 17% lower than the second quarter and also 17% lower than a year before. Centamin's gold sales were 108,826 ounces in the quarter. This was 3% down on the second quarter, but 2% higher than a year prior, delivering USD160.8 million in revenue. For the first nine months of 2019, Centamin has produced 332,141 ounces of gold, 1% lower than a year before.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Softcat, down 2.4%. The IT infrastructure firm expressed a confident outlook for its recently-started financial year after annual earnings surged. The company reported revenue growth of 24% in the financial year ended July 31, to GBP991.8 million from GBP797.2 million the year before. Pretax profit rose by 25% to GBP84.8 million from GBP68.1 million, thanks to an increase in both customer numbers and average gross profit per customer. Softcat declared a final payout of 10.4 pence a share, up 18% on the prior year. The company said it will also pay a special dividend of 16.0p a share, up 6.0% from 15.1p paid a year prior.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Range Resources, up 23%. Range, which has oil and gas projects and oilfield services businesses located in Indonesia and Trinidad, announced the sale of four drilling rigs and related equipment for USD3.6 million in cash to Wilson Energy Services Inc in a bid to cut costs and improve liquidity. The company said its Range Resources Drilling Services subsidiary will sell rigs 16, 17, 18, and 19 to private Canadian firm Wilson Energy. The total cash consideration for the deal is USD3.6 million, with the full amount payable once the deal is complete. The sale conditions, which must be either satisfied or waived, are the final inspections of both the rigs and the equipment to Wilson Energy's satisfaction and delivery of documentation in relation to the rigs. The long-stop date on the deal is November 8.
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Pipehawk, up 22%. The engineering solutions provider reported an improved performance in the second half helped it to swing to an annual profit. Pipehawk swung to a pretax profit of GBP12,000 in the year to the end of June compared to the GBP502,000 loss reported a year ago, as revenue climbed by 40% to GBP6.7 million from GBP4.8 million. The second half of the year benefited from a GBP129,000 one-off gain in relation to the reduction of the amount of money that is owed to the vendors of Thomson Engineering Design, Pipehawk explained.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Panthera Resources, down 21%. The gold exploration firm, which has assets in India and Mali, said it is waiting on a new date for a hearing at the Rajasthan High Court in India which was initially due to be heard last Friday. Panthera said the case was moved to Tuesday, though it was not heard then either. The case relates to Panthera's prospecting licence application at the Bhukia joint venture being rejected by local government in August 2018. The company is working alongside partners Metal Mining India Pvt Ltd to secure the licence. The company added that it has received a final cash injection in relation to financing it secured from Republic Investment Management. Panthera received the final trance of GBP100,000 after it secured GBP400,000 from the Singapore-based investors in September.
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By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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