Utilitywise Share News (UTW)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------DS Smith, up 1.3%. The paper and packaging firm said it has continued to be "excited at its prospects", with good like-for-like volume growth in its financial year to date, across all regions. For the period since May 1, the start of the company's financial year, trading remained in line with management expectations, as the recovery of cost input increases remained steady, leading to a positive margin impact. In addition, North American Paper & Packaging division Interstate Resources performed strongly during the period. Additional capacity has been added through the acquisition of Corrugated Container Corp in June, with customers in Europe and the US looking to partner with DS Smith, it said.----------Lloyds Banking Group, up 1.1%. Berenberg raised the bank to Hold from Sell. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------WPP, down 6.1%. The advertising firm said its new chief executive, Mark Read, intends to return the business to growth after seeing a decline in revenue in the first half of 2018. WPP posted a pretax profit for the six months to the end of June 8.6% higher at GBP846.5 million compared to GBP779.2 million reported a year earlier, despite revenue dropping 2.1% to GBP7.49 billion from GBP7.65 billion. Billings were down 1.0% to GBP26.66 billion in the first-half compared to GBP26.92 billion the year before, although up 4.1% at constant currency. WPP said it returned to a strong performance after winning net new business billings of USD3.2 billion during the period. On Monday, advertising company announced it had promoted Read, the head of its digital division, to CEO. The appointment was expected, having been reported by several media outlets.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Halfords Group, up 6.8%. The car parts and bicycle retailer said it continues to expect financial 2019 profit to be "broadly in line" with the prior year, as it reported a slight increase in revenue for the first 20 weeks of the financial year. For the 20-week period to August 17, the company recorded 2.7% growth in total revenue, with retail up 2.6% and Autocentres up 3.9% on the comparative year ago period. On a like-for-like basis, group revenue was up 2.8% in what the company described as a "solid performance despite a challenging retail environment". Online sales improved by 11%, with 85% of all orders collected in store. ----------Hunting, up 2.8%. Kepler Cheuvreux raised the oilfield services firm to Buy from Hold.----------BBA Aviation, up 2.0%. Berenberg started coverage on the aviation services company with a Buy rating. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Alfa Financial Software, down 7.1%. The asset finance industry software provider said delays in some major contracts, a smaller number of completed projects. Moreover the negative impact from a weakening in the dollar all led to a sharp fall in first half earnings and revenue. Alfa said it remains confident in the restarting and implementation of two major delayed projects and it continues to make incremental cost savings to achieve immediate operational efficiencies. For the six months to June-end, Alfa Financial recorded pretax profit of GBP8.6 million, down from GBP14.0 million in the comparative year ago period, on a revenue of GBP32.9 million and GB45.1 million, respectively.----------Inmarsat, down 4.5%. RBC Capital cut the satellite communications provider to Sector Perform from Outperform. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------European Metals Holdings, up 17%. The miner said work has started on updating the preliminary feasibility study for the Cinovec lithium-tin project in Czech Republic. The study will model the production of higher-value lithium hydroxide due to its growing use in lithium ion batteries. The study is expected to be finalised in the next two months, European Metals said. In addition, testwork has been restated at Dorfner Anzaplan in Germany, which managed to replicate leach recoveries of 94 to 95% lithium in six tests. European Metals will start geotechnical drilling for the portal and decline positions of the planned underground within two weeks. Four holes will be drilled on site with the results used to finalise the design of the box cut and initial decline.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Utilitywise, down 6.8%. The cost management consultancy firm said the "operational and commercial impact" of a series of delays and changes in trading "was greater and more far-reaching than the board had expected", leading to a 17% drop in annual order book. The group said its closing gross order book, for the year to July 31, fell to GBP54.7 million from GBP66.0 million a year prior. Order book delivery in the year, on a like-for-like basis was GBP55.6 million, down 16% compared to the year before at GBP66.1 million. The company's trading was affected by a series of commercial decision taken by its management to "improve the quality of the business" such as discontinuing trading with uneconomic sub-brokers and commencing a new inbound channel.----------