Last checked at LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Energy companies SSE, up 2.0% and Centrica, up 1.2%. The energy providers were upgraded to Overweight from Underweight and Neutral from Underweight respectively by JPMorgan.
Prudential, up 1.7%. The insurer said net profit rose in 2015, driven by double-digit growth at its operations in Asia, the US and the UK, and declared a special dividend payment to shareholders. Net profit rose to GBP2.58 billion in 2015, the life insurer said in a statement, from GBP2.22 billion in 2014. The life insurer increased its full-year ordinary dividend by 5.0% to 38.78 pence per share, and declared a special dividend of 10p. "I am pleased to be able to announce such a strong performance today despite the current macroeconomic and political uncertainty, which have created a more volatile and unpredictable short-term outlook for global growth," Chief Executive Mike Wells said.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group, up 0.9%. The bank was upgraded to Hold from Sell by Berenberg. Analysts James Chappell and Peter Richardson said RBS's core business, which is focused on UK corporate and retail banking, is strong. They believe the bank's deleveraging and focus on corporate banking leaves it less exposed, relative to peers, to the highly competitive UK retail lending environment.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Burberry Group, down 2.5%. HSBC cut its rating on the fashion house to Hold from Buy. The luxury fashion retailer had been the best performer in the blue-chip index on Tuesday, closing up 5.2%, after the company sought help from its financial advisers to defend itself against a possible takeover bid after a mystery investor built up a 5.0% stake in the company, according to a report by the Financial Times.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Cairn Energy, up 9.5%. The oil and gas company said it has successfully completed its second appraisal well offshore Senegal, adding it is "delighted" with the test results. Cairn said the SNE-3 well underwent two drill stem tests within the upper reservoirs. The first test produced a maximum flow rate of 5,400 barrels of oil per day and a main flow rate of 4,000 barrels of oil per day, both over a 24 hour period from a 15.0 metre zone.
DS Smith, up 0.9%. The packaging company said trading has remained in line with its expectations in the second half and backed its medium-term targets. DS Smith said volume growth has been strong in four months since the start of November, particularly in western and south eastern Europe. Its return on sales and return on average capital employed also improved year-on-year, DS Smith said, leading it to back its medium-term targets and its expectations for the full year to the end of April.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Restaurant Group, down 18%. The restaurant operator posted stronger profit and revenue and hiked its dividend for 2015, but gave a bearish outlook on 2016, with like-for-like sales having fallen so far this year. The company said its pretax profit rose to GBP86.8 million in the 12 months to the end of December from GBP84.9 million a year earlier, with revenue rising 7.9% to GBP685.4 million from GBP635.2 million. The group will pay a final dividend of 10.6 pence per share, taking its total dividend up to 17.4p, a 13% rise year-on-year. N+1 Singer downgraded the group to Sell from Hold and Panmure Gordon cut its rating to Hold from Buy.
G4S, down 12%. The security services provider said pretax profit slipped in 2015 due to a goodwill charge on businesses it has sold, as revenue dipped on currency movements and it booked more provisions on legacy contracts in the UK. The world's largest security company by revenue said its pretax profit fell to GBP78.0 million from GBP128.0 million in 2014, hit by a GBP66.0 million goodwill charge it booked on businesses it has sold and on one of its operations in Estonia. G4S will pay a flat final dividend of 5.82 pence per share, meaning its total payout will rise 1.9% year-on-year to 9.41p.
SIG, down 7.8%. The building products distributor said pretax profit increased in 2015 due to lower one-off costs, but revenue was dragged lower by a challenging European market and a slowdown in the UK repair, maintenance and improvement segment. SIG said pretax profit for the year to the end of December rose to GBP51.3 million from GBP39.0 million in 2014, mainly due to lower amortisation and one-off costs booked by the group. Stripping out those one-offs, underlying pretax profit fell to GBP87.4 million from GBP99.1 million. SIG will pay a final dividend of 2.91 pence per share, taking its total dividend up to 4.60p, up 4.5% from the 4.40p payout in 2014.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Software Radio Technology, up 33%. The maritime tracking technologies provider said it has signed a significant maritime domain management system agreement in Asia. The company said it has signed a deal to work on the implementation of a national integrated maritime system for the unnamed Asian country, which is expected to generate revenue of up to EUR90.0 million over three years.
Proxama, up 31%. The mobile proximity marketing company said it has secured a partnership with internet giant Google to launch a campaign on London buses. Proxama will provide MyStop, which will deliver real-time transport updates to London commuters and travellers' mobile phones, along with contextually-relevant advertising. The service will be available to customers using Google's Chrome browser, initially on the London bus network. No financial details on the partnership were disclosed. Google is owned by Alphabet.
Lakehouse, up 6.6%. The housing contractor said its founder has requisitioned a general meeting to remove three non-executive directors and appoint himself to the board. Lakehouse said the requisition, from Slater Investments and Steve Rawlings, the founder of Lakehouse, who hold more than a 5.0% stake collectively, will seek to remove the three current non-executives on the board. They are Chris Geoghegan, Jill Ainscough and Johnathan Ford. The move comes a day after Lakehouse appointed Geoghegan non-executive chairman, taking over from Stuart Black, who will move from executive chairman to chief executive. Coming a month after the group issued a profit warning, Lakehouse said current Chief Executive Sean Birrane will step down.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Tandem, down 25%. The sports and leisure equipment maker warned on the outlook for its bicycles and mobility division in 2016. The group said the independent cycle market in the UK looks "saturated and highly competitive" and added it does not have a large cycle promotional contract in place for 2016. Together, this will make a challenging year for the bicycles and mobility arm of the business, it said.
Tribal Group, down 7.5%. The education services company warned it will book a substantial amount of impairments and write-downs in the 2015 financial year, adding it will also defer around GBP2.0 million in revenue that was set to be recognised in 2015 into future years. Tribal said it will write-down a portion of its investments in product development to the tune of GBP8.0 million and book goodwill impairment charges of around GBP38.8 million. Those will be booked in the financial year ended December 31, 2015.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
25 Mar 2024 15:01
IN BRIEF: Tandem shares fall as swings to loss and revenue declines
Tandem Group PLC - Birmingham, England-based sports and leisure product retailer - Revenue in 2023 falls by 17% to GBP22.2 million from GBP26.7 million a year earlier. Swings to pretax loss of GBP1.2 million from a profit of GBP900,000. Says the results are in line with market expectations.
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