Saga Share News (SAGA)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Fresnillo, up 1.7%. The Mexican gold miner was tracking spot gold price higher, quoted at USD1,295.07 an ounce, up from USD1,285.30 at the London equities close Thursday. Mid-cap Egyptian miner Centamin was up 1.8%.----------GlaxoSmithKline, up 0.8%. The drugmaker said the Atlas and Flair studies showed that along-acting, injectable two-drug regimen in HIV-1 patients had similar efficacy to a daily three-drug treatment. Both phase three studies assessed a long-acting, injectable combination of cabotegravir and rilpivirine - injected every four weeks - and compared it against a standard of care, daily, three-drug regimen. 48-week data from both studies shows that they met their primary endpoints, showing that the two-drug regimen was not inferior in treating HIV. John Pottage, chief scientific & medical officer Of ViiV Healcare said: "With Flair and Atlas, we now have positive results from two pivotal phase three studies demonstrating that this long-acting, once-monthly injectable regimen has similar efficacy, safety and tolerability to a daily oral three-drug regimen for the treatment of HIV."----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------GVC Holdings, down 18% at 563.65 pence. GVC Chair Lee Feldman and Chief Executive Kenneth Alexander sold a significant amount of stock. Alexander sold 2.1 million shares at 666 pence for GBP13.7 million, while Feldman disposed of 900,000 shares at the same price for GBP6.0 million. Alexander said: "We have both held large personal shareholdings in GVC for a long time and continue to do so. Both of us remain fully committed to GVC and, whilst I continue to have the support of our shareholders, I'm here for the long term and at the very least I have a current plan that will take three plus years to accomplish."----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------SIG, up 9.1%. The building products supplier reported a drop in annual revenue, though it swung to a pretax profit. SIG's statutory revenue fell to GBP2.74 billion in 2018, from GBP2.88 billion in 2017, but it returned to pretax profit, posting GBP28.5 million from a GBP54.7 million loss a year prior. On an underlying basis, revenue fell 1.2% to GBP2.68 billion, with like-for-like sales down 2.1%. SIG's underlying pretax profit was up 8.5% to GBP75.3 million. SIG is paying a 2.5p final dividend, meaning the total for 2018 is unchanged from the year before at 3.75p. The company said its transformation strategy is now beginning to take shape, with the second half of 2018 seeing "significant" progress.----------Bodycote, up 7.2%. The thermal processing firm reported solid revenue and profit growth for 2018, with all of its divisions managing to report revenue improvement. The firm's statutory pretax profit climbed to GBP132.2 million from GBP117.0 million, with the headline figure up 12% to GBP136.4 million. Bodycote's revenue rose 5.6%, and 6.7% at constant currency rates, to GBP728.6 million. The company will pay a final dividend of 13.2p, taking the 2018 total to 19.0p from 17.4p a year before. On top of that, it also will pay a special dividend of 20p, having returned a special payout of 25p in 2017. Bodycote had a strong year, the company said, and it enters 2019 "well positioned".----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Saga, down 9.0%. JPMorgan downgraded Saga to Underweight from Neutral, saying a weak balance sheet, alongside heightened insurance industry competition, could lead to concerns about the over 50s travel and insurance services provider's dividend. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Panthera Resources, up 20%. The miner reported positive developments from an investee, including a "significant" acquisition. Panthera has a 17% stake in Anglo Saxony Mining, a European explorer and developer with a flagship tin project in Tellerhauser, Germany. ASM's purchase is the Gottesberg tin deposit, 28 kilometres to the west of Tellerhauser, paid with both cash and shares. Gottesberg has a total resource of 42.1 million tonnes of ore at a grade of 0.27% tin, suggesting 113,000 tonnes of the commodity. Combining Gottesberg and Tellerhauser's resources, ASM now has a resource of 217,000 ounces of tin, which Panthera said is among the largest in the world. ----------Debenhams, up 13%. The troubled department store chain said it is "disappointed" that Sports Direct International has decided to requisition a general meeting to appoint Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley to the Debenhams board and remove all but one current board member. Debenhams added it has been engaging with both Sports Direct and other stakeholders regarding options to restructure the company's balance sheet. Sports Direct late Thursday said Founder & Chief Executive Ashley is seeking appointment to Debehmans board of directors. Ashley is aiming to be appointed to an executive role to focus on Debenhams business, including building a strong board and management team. Furthermore, Sports Direct is seeking to oust all Debenhams' board members with the exception of Rachel Osborne, who became a director in September 2018. If appointed, Ashley would step down from his current roles as a director & CEO of Sports Direct, which was down 0.5%.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Goals Soccer Centres, down 28%. The five-a-side football pitch operator said it expects 2018 results to be "materially below" expectations following discovery of accounting errors. Goals explained that results for the full year are now expected to be "materially below expectations" and delayed from their originally planned reporting date of March 12. This follows the firm - alongside its auditors - having to resolve some "accounting errors". Goals emphasised that the "majority" of these expected accounting adjustments are "non-cash" in nature. Despite this, the changes would mean that the firm will have "exceeded one of its banking covenants". Goals is currently discussing with the bank to agree new, renegotiated facilities. For the first two months of 2019, Goals reported trading had been "strong" with an increases in like-for-like sales on the prior year in both the UK and US.----------