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(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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Aveva Group, up 3.5%. The industrial software company was extending gains after announcing on it had agreed to buy US rival OSIsoft for USD5 billion. The stock closed up 7.3% on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Polymetal International, down 0.5%. Shares were lower despite the Russian gold miner doubling its interim dividend as a much higher gold price boosted performance. Revenue jumped 17% to USD1.14 billion from USD941 million, and net earnings more than doubled to USD381 million from USD153 million. Polymetal declared a USD0.40 per share interim dividend, twice its USD0.20 per share dividend the year before. The stock remains 62% higher so far in 2020.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Provident Financial, up 17%. The subprime lender's shares were sharply higher despite swinging to an interim loss and scrapping its dividend. For the six months ended June 30, Provident swung to a pretax loss of GBP28 million from a profit of GBP43.1 million a year prior. This was as revenue fell 11% to GBP445.6 million from GBP501.5 million. No interim dividend was declared, compared to 9.0p paid for the first half of 2020, as Provident said it needs to preserve capital and provide financial stability. However, Provident said it built strong capital and liquidity positions during the period, with regulatory capital of GBP705 million at the end of June. This equates to a CET1 ratio of 35.4% and a surplus of GBP215 million above the minimum regulatory requirement. Looking ahead, Provident noted since the end of June, there were some encouraging signs of increased activity levels in its markets, with improving customer demand and spending trends evident.
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Inchcape, up 5.0%. JPMorgan raised the car dealer to Overweight from Neutral.
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Go-Ahead Group, up 4.1%. The transport operator said the Land Transport Authority of Singapore has granted a two-year extension to the contract allowing its Singaporean arm to continue bus operations. Go-Ahead said the extension allows it to continue operating around 450 buses in the Loyang region, which is in the east of the island near Singapore Changi Airport. The extension will begin in September 2021 and run until September 2023. This follows the initial five-year contract which saw the company's entry into the Singapore bus market in September 2016, Go-Ahead said.
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WH Smith, up 3.0%. Goldman Sachs started coverage on the books and stationery retailer with a Buy rating.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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4D Pharma, up 32%. The pharmaceutical company said results of Part A of its Phase I/II trial of MRx0518 in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda were "extremely encouraging". MRx0518 is single strain live biotherapeutic product in development for the treatment of cancer. 4D said in 12 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, the combination of MRx0518 with Keytruda achieved a disease control rate of 42%, with five of the 12 patients experiencing a clinically meaningful benefit from the combination. Three patients saw their tumours shrink by around 30%.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Vela Technologies, down 43%. The suspension of trading in Vela shares was lifted on Wednesday after the tech investor completed a capital restructure. Vela on Monday got approval from share and bond holders for disposal of some assets, plus a share capital reorganisation and the conversion of GBP550,000 of outstanding bonds to shares, as well as a GBP1.0 million share placing. The Bingley-headquartered company's suspension on AIM was lifted with bond conversion shares, placing shares, fee shares, broker shares, and new ordinary shares all admitted to trading. Following admission, Vela has 7.17 billion shares in issue.
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Pebble Beach Systems Group, down 17%. The software firm said Covid-19 hit its order intake in the first six months of 2020, with customers a bit more cautious about pursuing large projects. In the period to June 30, Pebble Beach's revenue fell 20% year-on-year to GBP4.5 million from GBP5.6 million. Pretax profit, however, rose 3.4% to GBP739,000 from GBP715,000. Sales and marketing expenses were trimmed by 14% to GBP901,000, research and development expenses by 16% to GBP605,000, and administrative costs by 15% to GBP878,000. Orders received were 26% lower during the half at GBP3.9 million from GBP5.2 million a year earlier.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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