(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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BT Group, down 2.9%. Vodafone Group said its UK unit has agreed a five-year deal with Virgin Media to bring new services, including 5G, to more than three million mobile customers. Meanwhile, Vodafone noted Virgin Media's current agreement with BT Enterprise, which has been in place since January 2017, will come to an end in late 2021, at which point Virgin Media's mobile offering will transition to Vodafone. The new mobile virtual network operator agreement, which runs until 2026, will see Vodafone supply wholesale mobile network services, including both voice and data, to Virgin Mobile and Virgin Media Business. Telephone and internet services provider Virgin Media will also have full access to all of Vodafone's current services and future technologies. Vodafone was 1.0% higher.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Softcat, up 3.0%. Jefferies upgraded the IT infrastructure provider to Buy from Hold.
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Ultra Electronics, up 2.9%. The defence engineering company said there has been good order book development since interim results, and trading is in line with expectations. Ultra Electronics said for the nine months to September 30 there has been good order book development, as anticipated. The company said it continues to trade in line with expectations. The ongoing strategic evolution is progressing and there remains good long term opportunities and growth potential, Ultra Electronics asserted. "Our major markets are growing and our strong technology base is positioning us well on existing and potential future programs," it said.
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Marks & Spencer, up 2.4%. The retailer said its transformation plan is progressing rapidly as it makes up for "lost time" in its Clothing & Home unit, which saw a "difficult" first half. Revenue for the half-year to September 28 fell 2.1% to GBP4.86 billion, though pretax profit jumped 52% to GBP153.5 million. Profit before tax and adjusting items fell, however, by 17% to GBP176.5 million. M&S booked just GBP23.0 million in adjusting items in the recent half year, compared to GBP111.7 million a year ago. This includes costs relating to strategic programmes in areas such as its UK store estate and IT restructure. Like-for-like sales growth in the Food unit was 0.9% in the half-year, driven by volume. Clothing & Home like-for-like sales, meanwhile, fell 5.5%. M&S said it saw an improved Clothing & Home performance in October following a "difficult" first half.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Tyman, up 7.2%. The engineered components supplier reported an improved performance in its current financial year despite "challenging" market conditions. Tyman said revenue and adjusted operating profit for the full year are expected to be ahead of 2018 and in line with current market expectations. The improved performance was helped by contributions from last year's acquisitions and the strength of the dollar against sterling. Tyman highlighted that the growth was achieved despite its markets remaining "challenging", with European and UK markets having weakened further since the end of July. Meanwhile, the London-headquartered company said North American markets continue to be broadly flat with no clear signs yet of a return to higher activity levels.
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Thor Mining, up 12%. The miner said it has found "visible gold" in panning samples at the recently acquired and 100% owned Pilbara goldfield in Western Australia. Thor said "visible gold" was found in 13 out of 44 sediment trap sites selected, with maximum gold occurrence of 20 "very fine" grains from one trap site. Thor Mining said a follow-up field evaluation is likely to comprise detailed stream sediment sampling, soil sampling and geological mapping. Executive Chair Mick Billing said: "These preliminary results are very exciting, and we look forward to confirmatory laboratory assays." "To obtain results of this calibre in an initial reconnaissance survey is an excellent result," Billing said.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Sound Energy, down 12%. The company said it has now agreed with an undisclosed UK company to dispose of the majority of its eastern Morocco portfolio stake for a total of USD112.8 million. Back in May, the Moroccan-focused gas company has decided to explore monetisation options for its interests in the Tendrara production concession, the Greater Tendrara petroleum agreement and the Anoual permits, with a view to assessing a sale of this eastern Morocco portfolio prior to a final investment decision. On Wednesday, Sound Energy said it has granted an unnamed purchaser an exclusivity period, expiring on February 14 next year, to finalise a binding sale & purchase agreement for 51% of Sound Energy's stake in the eastern Morocco portfolio for USD112.8 million. On completion of the transaction it is anticipated that Sound Energy will retain a 23% overall stake in the eastern Morocco portfolio. The total consideration comprises a USD54.3 million in cash, Sound Energy said, payable in tranches, and an estimated USD58.5 million carry with respect to Sound Energy's future capital expenditure requirements, relating to its retained interest in the Tendrara production concession in order to achieve first gas production.
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Intu Properties, down 12%. The company said it experienced difficult trading conditions in the third quarter and warned that its like-for-like net rental income will fall in 2019. Intu said leasing activity slowed in the period to September 30, with customers more reluctant to dig into their coffers due to prevailing political and economic uncertainty. Shopping centre property peer Hammerson was down 3.6%. The firm has however seen an uptick in leasing activity with retailers. Intu said it struck deals with British luxury department store Harrods, Spanish retail chain Zara, and an Alibaba Group subsidiary. Elsewhere, Intu said it was hurt by company voluntary agreements of other retailers: UK-based Monsoon Accessorize and Topshop-owner Arcadia Group. Intu explained: "We anticipate that like-for-like net rental income for 2019 will be down by around 9%, with more than half the reduction coming from the impact of CVAs such as Arcadia and Monsoon." Intu footfall was up 1.2% year-on-year in the third quarter, and the company's rental income was lifted by 4% after 34 rent reviews during the period.
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Breedon Group, down 11%. The construction materials firm slumped as a major shareholder sold off its entire stake. After the market close on Tuesday, JPMorgan Securities said M1 Cement Holding would be selling 139.7 million Breedon shares, 8.3% of the company. Early Wednesday, JPMorgan confirmed all of the shares had been successfully sold at a price of 59 pence each, netting M1 Cement proceeds of GBP82.4 million. Breedon received nothing from the sale, as they were existing shares. Breedon, which is based in Breedon on the Hill in Leicestershire, was 11% lower on Wednesday in London at a price of 58.00p.
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4D Pharma, down 8.6%. The pharmaceutical company said that initial clinical observations show that oncology candidate MRx0518 and KEYTRUDA combination is well tolerated in patients with advance disease. 4D Pharma said that clinical observation in collaboration with Merck & Co were to evaluate company's lead oncology candidate MRx0518 in combination with Merck anti-PD-1 theraphy KEYTRUDA in patients with renal cell carcinoma, melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer and bladder cancer. The initial data revealed that the combination is well tolerated in the first six patients. Two out of six patients showed clinically relevant response in the phase 1/2 study, the company said. 4D Pharma said these are the first observations from an oncology study in humans involving a live biotherapeutic product.
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By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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