Sirius Minerals Share News (SXX)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Standard Chartered, up 5.2%. The emerging markets-focused lender launched a USD1 billion share buyback programme after first quarter profit and return on equity improved as it focused on expanding customers numbers and services and legacy issues subsided. For the three months ended March, pretax profit rose 4.2% to USD1.24 billion from USD1.19 billion the year prior. This was despite operating income dipping 1.6% to USD3.81 billion from USD3.87 billion the year before. On a underlying basis, pretax profit widened 9.5% to USD1.38 billion from USD1.26 billion the year prior. Return on equity expanded to 7.1% from 6.8% the year prior, with underlying return on tangible equity expanded to 9.6% from 8.6% the year before. Common equity tier one ratio held firm at 13.9% on the year before. Standard Chartered made the move to buyback up to USD1.00 billion worth of shares after the resolution of its legacy issues. the buy back will start "imminently" and is expected to reduce the CET1 ratio in the second quarter by around 35 basis points. ----------WM Morrison Supermarkets, up 1.3% and Ocado up 0.7%. The supermarket chain's sales increased 0.6% in the 12 week period to April 2, while its market share declined to 10.3% from 10.5%, according to the latest Kantar grocery market survey. Online grocer Ocado recorded 6.8% sales growth in the period.----------BP, up 0.5%. The oil major said it performed well in the first quarter of 2019 in a period of market volatility. Replacement cost profit, BP's preferred metric, fell 12% to USD2.10 billion from USD2.39 billion the same period the year before and USD2.72 billion the previous quarter. On an underlying basis, BP's RC profit was USD2.36 billion, down 8.9% from USD2.59 billion a year ago and 32% from USD3.48 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018. BP nevertheless increased its first-quarter dividend by 2.5% on the year before, paying out 10.25 US cents to shareholders. BP bought back USD50 million worth of shares in the quarter, with buybacks in 2019 to be second half weighted. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Whitbread, down 3.3%. The Premier Inn hotel chain owner reported a drop in pretax profit and warned of weakness in the UK hotel market. The company, which is concentrating its focus on the hotel sector following the sale of the Costa Coffee chain to Coca Cola last year, said there was ongoing signs of market weakness across both business and leisure markets. UK accommodation sales growth was 3.5% due to extra capacity, while on a like-for-like basis it fell 0.6% due to softer demand, especially in the firm's fourth quarter. The company said softness experienced in the fourth quarter has continued into March and April, but cautioned it is too early to say how this will go moving forward. "Evident with the latest results is that the loss of Whitbread's diversification blanket, namely selling Costa, has left the business extremely dependent on a single industry. Therefore you should expect the market to now scrutinise every part of its hotel operations rather than just looking at the headline figures for a broader leisure conglomerate," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.----------Glencore, down 3.2%. The miner cut its 2019 production guidance for a number of key commodities after a mixed set of first-quarter output figures. For the three months ended March, copper production fell 7.2% to 320,700 tonnes from 345,400 tonnes a year prior. Nickel production was down 10% to 27,100 tonnes from 30,100 tonnes a year before. Gold output fell 13% to 202,000 ounces from 231,000 ounces a year prior. Silver production dropped 8.4% to 7.6 million ounces from 8.3 million ounces. Ferrochrome production was down 1.7% to 402,000 tonnes from 409,000 tonnes. For all of 2019, Glencore cut its guidance for a number of commodities. The firm expects copper production of around 1.46 million tonnes, down 40,000 tonnes from previous forecasts due to "safety and smelter outages" as well as a "range of mine plan updates" at its operations. ----------DS Smith, down 3.0%. The packaging company said its trading in financial 2019, ending Tuesday, was in line with its own expectations. DS Smith said it saw "ongoing growth" in corrugated box volumes, with an increase in market share driven by its "resilient" fast-moving consumer goods-focused customer and "strong" e-commerce packaging. "All regions have been in growth, with particular strength in the UK, Italy and Poland, partially offset by some volume weakness in certain export-led markets, including Germany," the company said. The stock is up 20% so far in 2019. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Hochschild Mining, up 1.5%. The gold miner made a solid start to 2019, though silver production fell as gold output rose. For the three months to the end of March, Hochschild's gold production was 67,519 ounces, up 12% from 60,500 ounces in the last quarter of 2018 but down 2.2% from 69,030 ounces a year ago. Gold equivalent was 121,367 ounces, down marginally from 121,920 ounces the previous quarter and more significantly from 126,590 ounces a year before. Hochschild is on track for 2019 guidance of 457,000 gold equivalent ounces and 37.0 million silver equivalent ounces, as well as for cost guidance. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Sirius Minerals, down 15% at 18.70 pence. The fertilizer company announced a major new financing package worth USD3.8 billion for the development of the Woodsmith mine in Yorkshire. The financing represents part two of the financing plan for the polyhalite mine, which will supply fertiliser once up and running, and is made up of four parts. The first is a firm placing, a placing, and open offer worth USD400 million, with shares to be placed at between 15p and 18p per share, launching immediately. Secondly, Sirius will offer convertible bonds worth USD644 million, of which USD244 million will be used to buy back existing bonds. Next, it will offer USD500 million of senior secured guaranteed bonds, and has also secured a revolving credit facility of up to USD2.5 billion, which will reduce as the bonds are issued.----------Elementis, down 8.5%. The speciality chemicals company said it expects progress in 2019 to be "below expectations", following tough trading conditions in the first quarter. The group's Coatings business was the most affected by the challenging conditions, Elementis said, with weak demand and de-stocking causing revenue to decline compared to the year before, despite improved prices. Elementis said it has continued to work on transforming the business by improving the demand environment and cost efficiencies, and expects to see a stronger second half for Coatings. Personal Care's first-quarter performance remained solid, it said, with a strong growth in cosmetics products compared to a weak start for antiperspirant active ingredients. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Breedon Group, up 2.1%. The construction materials company said its trading in the first quarter was "encouraging", making "good progress" with the integration of Irish materials supplier Lagan Group. Breedon said its revenue jumped 50% in the three months to March 31 to about GBP211 million. In mid-April last year, Breedon bought Lagan for GBP455 million in cash. The company said its like-for-like revenue is ahead 10% compared to the corresponding period last year, citing "much milder weather conditions". The company said it will continue to commit "substantial investment" across its business, in the hope of achieving operational improvements, increased capacity, broadened geographical coverage and extended mineral reserves and resources. Breedon believes its "strong" cash generation "will ensure" the reduction of its net debt.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Countrywide, down 2.0%. The estate agent reiterated its expectations of a drop in earnings, as well as reporting a fall in first quarter income due to continued market uncertainty. In its annual results in March, Countrywide had said it expected adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for the six months to the end of June to fall by between GBP3.0 million and GBP5.0 million. Prior to its annual general meeting later on Tuesday, the group updated that it expects the Ebitda reduction to be at the worse end of the range, at GBP5.0 million year-on-year. However, self-help measures implemented by Countrywide to re-align its cost base to the lower level of market activity are expected to start producing benefits in the second half of the year. Therefore, the group expects adjusted Ebitda for 2019 to be in line with management expectations. For all of 2018, Countrywide reported adjusted Ebitda of GBP32.7 million.----------