(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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International Consolidated Airlines Group, up 6.0%. Goldman Sachs and Bank of America both upgraded the British Airways parent to Buy from Neutral.
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BAE Systems, up 2.5%. The defence company said its trading in the second half has been "resilient" amid "challenging times". For 2020, BAE said its sales and cashflow guidance remains unchanged from what it offered in its interim results at the end of July. Sales were guided then to increase by a low-single-digit percentage from 2019, when BAE reported revenue of GBP18.3 billion. Cashflow was guided at GBP800 million - excluding a GBP1 billion pension payment. Underlying earnings per share are now expected to be slightly higher than previously guided with good operational performance and an expected lower tax rate offsetting the negative foreign exchange impact. Previously, BAE guided for underlying earnings per share to fall by a mid-single-digit percentage from 2019's figure of 45.8 pence.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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InterContinental Hotels Group, down 4.5%. UBS downgraded IHG to Sell from Neutral saying a decline in corporate travel will continue into 2021 and damage the hotel operator's prospects.
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Croda International, down 3.0%. JPMorgan cut the speciality chemicals company to Underweight from Neutral.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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UDG Healthcare, up 3.8%. RBC Capital raised the healthcare services provider to Outperform from Sector Perform.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Workspace Group, down 4.0%. The office provider reported a loss in the first half following a "challenging" period. In the six months to September 30, Workspace swung to a pretax loss of GBP110.4 million compared to a GBP99.1 million profit a year before. Workspace's net rental income dropped 39% year on year to GBP36.5 million from GBP60.1 million. EPRA net tangible assets per share declined by 7.6% to GBP10.05 from GBP10.88 at the end of March. The company's property valuations fell 8.6% to GBP2.45 billion from GBP2.68 billion at the same point the year before. Workspace's EPRA net asset value per share. The number of lettable units fell to 4,147 from 4,969 the year before, while its occupancy reduced to 81.1% from 86.3%. Workspace has decided to defer its decision on its interim dividend, choosing instead to wait until the end of its financial year to make a decision on a full-year payout. In the first half last year, Workspace paid an 11.67p dividend.
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JD Wetherspoon, down 2.0%. The pub chain bemoaned the impositions of tighter coronavirus restrictions by the UK government after reporting a fall in first-quarter sales. For the 15 weeks to November 8, like-for-like sales decreased by 28%. Wetherspoon said sales in October were significantly lower than in previous months, following the imposition of a number of new UK restrictions on the hospitality sector aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19. These included changes in the virus tier categories, a 10pm curfew, a requirement to order all food and drink 'at the table', and the mandatory use of face masks when moving around inside pubs. "Like the rest of the industry, the company will be crossing everything that the UK government calls time on lockdown 2.0 on 2 December and that the positive early signs on a vaccine enable the desired return to normality," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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