STOB.L Share News (STOB)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Sage Group, down 1.9%. The accounting software provider was cut to Sell from Neutral by UBS.----------Direct Line Insurance Group, down 0.8%. Investec downgraded the insurer to Reduce from Add. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Stobart Group, up 6.9%, The support services firm agreed to purchase budget airline Flybe Group alongside Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic. A new joint venture between Stobart and Virgin will be called Connect Airways, with DLP Holdings also taking part. DLP is a Luxembourg-based company owned by funds managed by Cyrus Capital Partners. DLP will own 40% of Connect, and Stobart and Virgin 30% each. Connect will pay 1 pence per share to Flybe shareholders, valuing the company GBP2.2 million. Flybe shares were down 64% at 2.57p each, giving it a market capitalisation of GBP5.64 million. Flybe's total market value stood at GBP35.5 million on Thursday. Flybe had listed on the London Main Market in December 2010 at a share price of 295p. "The degree to which the market failed to anticipate such a bargain basement price is a surprise given the big profit warning in October which preceded Flybe's decision to put itself up for sale," said AJ Bell. ----------Hunting, up 3.5%. The oilfield services firm was raised to Overweight from Neutral by JPMorgan. ----------Grafton Group, up 2.5%. The builders' merchant said it expects 2018 profit to be ahead of market expectations amid a "good" performance, which saw revenue grow strongly. For 2018, revenue grew 8.7% to GBP2.95 billion from GBP2.72 billion the year prior. On a constant currency basis, revenue was 8.4% higher and like-for-like revenue up 4.3%. The firm emphasised, however, that growth in November and December had "moderated" compared to the "above trend" growth in September and October. Following the "good" performance in 2018, earnings before interest, taxes, and amortisation is expected to be "slightly" ahead of the top end of analyst expectations. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------UDG Healthcare, down 6.2%. The healthcare firm was downgraded to Hold from Buy by Jefferies. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Microsaic, up 50%. The mass spectroscopy instrument maker Microsaic announced its new Microsaic MiD ProteinID protein identification technology. Microsaic described the new technology as a "break-through mass identification technique" which will allow its user to "verify target proteins throughout the whole bioprocessing value chain". The firm explained this would provide fast deterministic characterisation results over a mass range of between 50 and 3,200 mass-to-charge ratio. This would represent the "broadest mass coverage for a small footprint mass spectrometer", the firm added. "Bringing the power of the centralised laboratory to in-situ bioprocessing line measurements, the Microsaic MiD ProteinID reduces key bioprocessing analyses from days to minutes", Chief Executive Glenn Tracey said. ----------Debenhams, down 12%. The troubled department store chain said late Thursday "two major shareholders" voted against the re-election of Chair Ian Cheshire and Chief Executive Sergio Bucher to the company's board at its annual general meeting. Bucher will stay in his role, but Cheshire has resigned. Over 56% of the votes cast at the AGM voted against the re-election of Cheshire and Bucher. Major shareholders include Sports Direct International with nearly 30%. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Carclo, down 35%. The plastic products maker warned its annual results are expected to be "significantly" below its previous expectations after its LED technology division was hit by issues and its boss stands down to take the lead at this key unit. Carclo explained its subsidiary Wipac - which is the main unit of its LED technology division - had been "very successful" in winning low-volume automotive lighting programmes as well as some in mid-volume projects. Wipac has, however, initially struggled to "meet customer requirements". "Unfortunately, this situation worsened in the third quarter as the short term operational growing pains continued longer than we had anticipated as demand grew," Carclo said. The firm has made progress in reducing this customer backlog. But this process will take time to complete. The cost of this process and the loss of profit due to the delayed new programme awards, however, means Carclo now expects profitability at the LED division to "fall significantly short of our previous expectations for the current financial year".----------Quiz, down 30%. The women's fashion retailer said annual revenue and adjusted earnings will be below expectations due to lower than expected Christmas sales and increased discounting activity. For the six weeks to January 5, the retailer saw revenue up 8.4% against the same period a year ago. This was mainly due to a strong performance of its Online arm, up 34% in the period, with the firm's own website registering a 51% revenue increase. The group's UK standalone Stores and Concessions revenue increased by 1.6% during the festive period. Quiz, however, was expecting to post higher sales in the crucial Christmas season. The retailer said it now expects its revenue for the year ending March 31 to be below market expectations of GBP133.0 million. A year ago, Quiz's revenue was GBP116.4 million. ----------