(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Royal Dutch Shell 'A', Shell 'B', up 10%, BP, up 7.2%. The oil majors were benefitting from a stabilisation in oil prices. Brent oil was quoted at USD36.92 a barrel Tuesday morning, up from USD36.22 at the London close Monday. Brent touched an intraday low of USD31.26 on Monday - its lowest level since early 2016 and suffered the biggest percentage drop since the Gulf War in 1991.
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easyJet, up 9.6%. The budget airline was upgraded to Buy from Neutral by Bank of America and to Outperform from Market Perform by Bernstein.
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Informa, up 5.5%. The events and publishing company reported a strong 2019 performance, with double-digit rises in profit and revenue. For the recent year, Informa reported a 13% rise in pretax profit to GBP318.7 million from GBP282.1 million in 2018. On an adjusted basis, however, pretax profit rose by 26% year-on-year to GBP821.4 million from GBP649.7 million, above consensus expectations of GBP809.5 million. The higher profit figure was driven by strong revenue growth of 22% to GBP2.89 billion from GBP2.37 billion the prior year, also ahead of market forecasts of GBP2.86 billion by 1.0%. On an underlying basis, revenue rose by 3.1%.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Polymetal International, down 0.8%. The Russian gold miner was tracking spot gold prices lower quoted at USD1,657.52 an ounce, down from USD1,668.05 late Monday as demand for the safe-haven asset waned.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Ultra Electronics, up 12%. The defence contractor upped its payout after posting a sharp profit rise in 2019. Ultra reported pretax profit of GBP91.0 million, more than doubled from GBP42.6 million. This was on revenue which climbed 7.7% to GBP825.4 million from GBP766.7 million. Ultra Electronics added that it ended the year with a "healthy" order book which stood at GBP1.02 billion, a 4.0% year-on-year rise from GBP983.9 million. The company raised its dividend per share by 5.0% to 54.2 pence from 51.6p. Chief Executive Simon Pryce said: "2019 was a busy year for Ultra, and one in which we made great progress."
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Future, up 8.0%. The magazine publisher and events organiser said it isn't expecting its annual profit to be hit by the coronavirus outbreak, despite postponing two events. The company has opted to postpone two UK events, the Photography Show and Homebuilding & Renovating Show. These had been planned for later in March but the Photography Show is now expected to take place in September, while the National Homebuilding & Renovating Show is scheduled for July. Future stated that is is not expecting the coronavirus outbreak, which had infected 319 people in the UK with five deaths in British hospitals as of Monday, to hurt its financial 2020 profit, or its profit in financial 2021 "given the continued momentum within the group".
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Ryanair Holdings, up 9.1%. The Irish carrier was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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DFS Furniture, down 5.5%. The sofa retailer reported a decline in interim earnings. DFS reported pretax profit of GBP15.9 million for the 26 weeks ended December 29, compared to GBP35.3 million a year earlier, as revenue declined by 5.7% to GBP488.0 million from GBP517.6 million. DFS Furniture maintained its interim payout at 3.7 pence a share. The company said its first-half performance was hurt by challenging market conditions, with consumer confidence and political uncertainty reducing retail footfall.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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