SMP.L Share News (SMP)

LONDON (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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Marks & Spencer Group, up 1.7%. The food, clothing and homewares retailer reported growth in sales in the fourth quarter of its financial year, as a rise in food sales offset a decline in general merchandise. M&S said group sales in the 13 weeks ended March 26 were up 1.9% on the same period the year before. The food division achieved sales growth of 4.0% while the struggling general merchandise business saw sales fall by 1.9%, although this decline was slower than in the previous quarter. On a like-for-like basis, food sales were flat and general merchandise sales were down 2.7%.

Anglo American, up 1.6% at 542.00 pence. JPMorgan raised its price target on the mining stock to 450p from 250p.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Worldpay Group, down 2.5%. Bank of America Merrill Lynch said two private equity firms that are invested in the payment-processing company have sold all of the shares they put up for sale under a placing, selling a 13.8% stake in the company for GBP740.0 million. Advent International and Bain Capital made 275.0 million shares that they held in Worldpay available for sale under a placing launched on Wednesday, with Barclays Bank, Goldman Sachs International, Merrill Lynch International and Morgan Stanley & Co International acting as joint bookrunners. It was revealed that all of those shares were sold at a price of 269.0 pence per share, raising GBP740.0 million in total. None of those proceeds will be going to Worldpay.

Pearson, down 1.3% and Taylor Wimpey, down 1.0%. The stocks went ex-dividend meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payouts.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Centamin, down 5.1%. The miner said gold production increased during the first quarter of 2016 as the company remains on track to deliver on its full-year guidance. The company, which derives all of its production from the Sukari mine in Egypt, said total gold production in the first quarter amounted to 125,268 ounces of gold, which is 6.5% higher than the previous quarter and a 16% increase from the same period a year earlier.

Dunelm Group, up 3.8%. The homewares retailer reported growth in revenue in the third quarter of its financial year, driven by like-for-like growth and a rise in online home delivery sales. Dunelm said total revenue in the 13 weeks ended April 2 grew by 5.9% to GBP229.0 million on the same period the year before. Total like-for-like sales increased by 1.1%, but Dunelm said growth was reduced by around 4.9%, or GBP10 million, due to it having six days fewer of winter sales as result of the prior year including a 53rd week. This was partially offset, however, by the timing of Easter this year which contributed 1.0% towards like-for-like growth.

St Modwen Properties, up 2.7%. Student accommodation developer Unite Group said its chief executive will leave to join the regeneration company. Mark Allan will take over at St Modwen from December 1, after joining as CEO designate on November 1. He will take over from Bill Oliver, who will retire at the end of November. Unite has appointed Richard Smith, its managing director of operations, to chief executive to replace Allan, who has been CEO at Unite for a decade and has worked for the company for 17 years. Unite was up 0.4%.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Kaz Minerals, down 4.4%. JPMorgan downgraded the miner to Underweight from Neutral.

Victrex, down 3.3%. The polymer products company said revenue fell in the first half of its financial year, in line with its expectations, but it still expects improvements in the second half. Victrex said revenue fell 11% in the six months to the end of March to GBP117.0 million from GBP131.6 million a year earlier, while volumes declined 13%.

BBA Aviation, down 2.8% and Rotork, down 1.5%. The stocks went ex-dividend.

Zoopla Property Group, down 2.1%. The property portal was downgraded to Neutral from Buy by UBS.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Connemara Mining Co, up 126%. The miner's shares soared after publishing the results of its short-hole drilling programme over its gold licences in Northern Ireland, which has confirmed "without a doubt" that a gold bearing vein system is present. The company conducted the 121.0 metre drilling programme on licences within Inishowen in County Donegal and focused on gold veins that were discovered in the 2015 trenching programme. Connemara shares were trading at 3.00p per share more than double its opening price of 1.48p.

Grafenia, up 15%. The printed materials company said its results for the year to the end of March will meet its revised expectations. Grafenia issued a profit warning in February, saying its results would miss expectations due to aggressive pricing by competitors in the European trade print market in the second half. This forced Grafenia to increase promotional activity, incentives and selective discounting to keep market share at the expense of margins. The company said trading conditions remain competitive, but said it has made progress on new strategic initiatives and subscription models since its last trading update.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Belgravium Technologies, off 21%. The mobile data computing services company reported a swing to a pretax loss for 2015, mostly due to booking an impairment in relation to its future growth rates. Belgravium reported a pretax loss of GBP6.5 million, swung from a pretax profit of GBP477,000 in 2014, as revenue declined to GBP8.7 million from GBP9.4 million, further compounded by a rise in administrative costs and a GBP6.0 million impairment.

Mirada, down 21%. The television technology company said revenue for the year to the end of March will significantly miss market expectations as it announced the soft launch of its Iris Multiscreen platform in Mexico. Mirada said despite the commercial launch of the platform started on schedule, certain revenue which had been due to be recognised in the year to the end of March has been deferred into the current financial year, meaning revenue will miss the company's expectations.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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