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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
Hammerson, up 2.9%. The retail property developer has reported an increase in profit and rental income for 2013 as demand for its properties stayed strong. The company posted pretax profit of GBP326.3 million for the year, up from GBP93.5 million in 2012, boosted by revaluation gains of GBP90.3 million. Gross rental income rose to GBP321.2 million for 2013, from GBP297.6 million a year earlier, while net rental income rose to GBP290.2 million, from GBP282.9 million.
Randgold Resources, up 2.2%. The gold mining company continues its recent rise on the back of higher gold prices. The precious metal has hit its highest level for 15 weeks Monday at USD1,329.72 per ounce. Moreover, Citigroup has raised the company to Neutral, from Sell, increasing its price target to 4,897.00 pence from 3,544.00p.
IMI, up 1.8%. The company completed the consolidation of its share capital, part of a return of GBP620 million in cash to shareholders from the proceeds of the sale of its beverage dispensing business. The engineering firm confirmed the consolidation it had previously announced had now taken effect, with every eight existing shares of 25 pence each consolidated into seven new shares of 28 4/7 pence each. It is returning 200 pence a share in its capital to shareholders.
Persimmon, up 1.7%. The house builder has jumped on the back of property tracking website Rightmove's house price index, which revealed that the average asking price for a house in the UK was up 3.3% on month in February, following a 1% increase in January. On a yearly basis, house prices surged 6.9%, accelerating from the 6.3% jump in the previous month.
Whitbread, up 1.1%. Action Hotels has revealed that it has partnered with Whitbread to further develop the latter's Premier Inn brand across the Middle East, with hotels under the partnership opening in cities including Dubai and Bahrain. Action Hotels said it plans to invest around GBP63 million over the course of the next two years as the two firms build and develop the hotels. Under the deal, Premier Inn will undertake long-term management contracts on four new Premier Inn hotels owned by Action Hotels.
British American Tobacco, up 0.9%. The company Monday launches a marketing campaign for its new e-cigarette Vype, meaning an advert from a large tobacco company will appear on British TV screens for the first time in more than two decades, the Financial Times said on Monday. Adverts for Vype ? BAT?s first foray into the rapidly growing e-cigarette market ? will be broadcast on national TV over the next two months, nearly 50 years after cigarette adverts were first banned in the UK, the FT reports.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
DCC, up 5.2%. The group said its SerCom and Healthcare divisions performed well in the fourth quarter, although it reduced its growth expectations for the full-year after its Energy business continued to be impacted by mild weather in the UK and Ireland. The market had originally been looking for a 13% increase in earnings-per-share over the full-year, says Jefferies analyst Justin Jordan. However, given the mild weather there was a concern that the energy business would be a considerable drag. The guidance that earnings will be ahead of the previous year by 7-10%, means that consensus numbers will only be downgraded by 5-6%, says Jordan. This has reassured investors and that is reflected in the share price movement Monday, he adds.
Telecom Plus, up 3.1%. The utility services company that trades as Utility Warehouse said it plans to increase its total dividend for the year by 13%, as it expressed confidence in meeting full year expectations after another strong rise in customer numbers. It said that it expects to increase its total dividend for the year to end-March to 35 pence, from 31p in the previous year. Telecom Plus saw its total customers base rise to 513,379 during the fiscal third quarter to end-December, up from 494,940 in the previous quarter and up from 449,502 in the previous year.
Berkeley Group Holdings, up 2.1%, Taylor Wimpey, up 1.9%, and Barratt Developments, up 1.5%, are all up on the back of increasing UK house prices.
Essar Energy, up 1.7%. The group's majority shareholder Monday made a 70 pence a share bid for the shares in the company it doesn't own, as it strives to take the company private less than four years after it listed a chunk of the business. Essar Global Fund, owned by brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia, had said Friday it was mulling a bid, and Monday said it would offer 70 pence for the outstanding shares and 80 US cents for each convertible bond due in 2016. Essar Global currently owns 78.02% of Essar Energy. Essar Energy is currently quoted at 67.30 pence.
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AIM - WINNERS
Sunrise Resources, up 13%. The diversified mineral exploration development company has announced the latest expansion of its project portfolio with the acquisition of two groups of mineral claims in Nevada, USA.
Mariana Resources, up 12%. The exploration and development company has seen its shares jump after it reported that it has seen positive results from channel sampling and mapping at the gold-silver-copper Soledad prospect in Peru. Mariana said sampling had returned positive high-grade gold and silver assay from five of the breccia pipe zones sampled. As a result, it said that an initial 2,000 metre drilling programme is planned for the second quarter of 2014 to test targets in five main target areas. Mariana also confirmed the safety of one of its field contractors after he was abducted last week from the Los Naranjos area.
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AIM - LOSERS
Getech Group, off 28%. The company, which provides services to the oil, gas, and mining exploration sectors, has warned that it expects first-half revenue and pretax profit to be down on the year due to "irregular purchasing patterns" from its customers. It expects revenue for the six months to end-January to be GBP3.0 million, down from GBP3.9 million in the previous year. As a result, pretax profit will be "substantially lower" than the GBP1.4 million it posted in the previous year.
Goldplat, down 11%. The gold producer said it expects its operating profit for 2014 to be significantly lower than the profit recorded in 2013.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
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