LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 - Winners
International Consolidated Airlines Group jumps 5.7%. The British Airways parent has reported a jump in profits and revenues for the first nine months of the year, buoyed by the its acquisition of Spanish carrier Vueling and as its turnaround of Iberia started paying off. Operating profits rose strongly at Iberia, where the company is cutting costs heavily, and also at British Airways, thanks to strong demand for trans-Atlantic flights. It reported an operating profit of EUR348 million for the nine months to end-September, up from just EUR9 million a year earlier as revenues rose to EUR14.11 billion, from EUR13.59 billion. Profit after tax rose to EUR77 million, from EUR57 million. In the third quarter, operating profit rose to EUR693 million, from EUR263 million as revenues grew to EUR5.41 billion, from EUR5.06 billion. Separately, the company said its traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, rose 8.9% in October, again buoyed by the addition of Vueling. Capacity, measured in available seat kilometres rose 8%.
Rolls-Royce, up 3.3%, said its full-year guidance remains unchanged as a better outlook for its defence business offsets a weaker one for its marine business. It still expects modest growth in underlying revenue in the current fiscal year and good growth in underlying profit. Cashflow should breakeven, it said. Analysts see strong future cash generation and new order prospects, with the Dubai Air Show set to start in under two weeks.
EasyJet is up 0.5% in the wake of the strong results from International Consolidated Airlines.
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FTSE 100 - Losers
Schroders, down 3.3%, continues to fall after Thursday saying that net inflows in the third quarter alone declined to GBP1.0 billion against GBP2.6 billion for the corresponding quarter last year. Chief Executive Michael Dobson put the third quarter decline down to a particularly strong performance in the year-earlier quarter, while Numis analyst David McCann also noted that the company's shares had been trading at a relatively high level in the run-up to the results.
WPP is down 1.2% after it acquired mobile game and application developer Bottle Rocket. Bottle Rocket posted revenue of USD17 million in the year ended September 2013. It has clients including NPR, ABC News, National Geographic and NBC Universal, WPP said. The company did not disclose any financial details of the acquisition.
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FTSE 250 - Winners
Bovis Homes Group is up 2.3%. The housebuilder said that net private reservations in the 44 weeks to November 1 stood at 2,390, up from the 1,650 it recorded in the same period in 2012, ahead of schedule. Net reservations per site per week increased 30% during the period, Bovis said, averaging 0.60, compared with 0.46 in 2012, while the average number of active sales outlets rose 11%. Bovis also said it had added to its land bank, with an additional 3,330 plots on 22 sites, and a further 1,200 plots on 13 sites in the pipeline. A number of these are expected to be added to the consented land bank before the year end, it said. Looking ahead Bovis expects that, with improved overhead efficiency, its operating margin for 2013 will approach 15%, ahead of the 13.4% it achieved in 2012. Jefferies raises Bovis's price target to 1,022.00 pence, from 995.00p, regarding it as the most attractively valued housebuilder it covers.
Balfour Beatty climbs 1.1% after the company's joint venture Gammon Construction won rail contracts in Singapore worth GBP148 million. Singapore's Land Transport Authority has awarded Gammon a GBP87 million contract for the design and construction of the Mayflower Station on The Thomson Line. The second contract was awarded by SMRT Trains for track system replacement on the North-South Line, in a deal worth GBP61 million. It involves the changing of sleepers from timber to concrete as part of the renewal and upgrade of the existing North-South Line.
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FTSE 250 - Losers
Tullett Prebon slips 6% after it said its revenue fell 9% in the past four months as a result of subdued market activity and uncertainty over new regulations governing derivatives trading. Revenue from January to October was GBP692 million, compared with GBP731 million reported for the corresponding period last year. Tullett Prebon said it has incurred GBP3.5 million in costs as a result of the legal action with BGC Partners, which Tullett described as a "raid" on its business in the second half of 2009. While Tullett remains "undoubtedly cheap," according to Numis analyst James Hamilton, challenging market conditions keep the investment bank cautious.
Countrywide is down 2.4%. The estate agency and property services company said Chairman Bob Davies has stepped down for personal reasons and will be replaced by audit and risk committee Chairman David Watson on an interim basis. The firm did not outline a table for appointing a permanent replacement but said it would make an announcement once the process had been concluded.
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AIM - Winners
Best of the Best is up 15% after it said that trading had been ahead of its expectations in the half-year ended October 30. The company said that revenues from its physical sites had been solid and online sales had been encouraging, increasing over the previous year. Best of the Best said it is confident it will see steady trading in the second half of the year and expects to announce its half-year results on January 13, 2014.
Victoria Oil and Gas jumps 7.3% after its subsidiary Rodeo Development Limited completed the connection and delivery of gas to the Koumassi plant in Cameroon. The company said the completion adds roughly 500,000 square cubic feet per day to Rodeo's gas production, bringing the total at the subsidiary to between 2.4 million and 2.9 million square cubic feet per day. Victoria Oil & Gas said the completion also brings the total number of customer sites with completed thermal generation at Rodeo, to 20.
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AIM - Losers
Uranium Resources falls 16% after it said it is looking for a merger, partnership or to create a joint venture in order to get funding allowing it continue exploration next year, as it reported a narrowed loss for its last financial year. The company said that it has now advanced its predictive discovery at the Mtonya Uranium project to a resource stage but that its ability to fund further exploration has been affected by adverse uranium market conditions. It expects these funding difficulties to be overcome in 2014 but in order to finance the 2014 programme, it is reviewing a number of strategic alternatives including, but not limited to, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, and mergers or other corporate transactions.
Condor Gold is off 15% after the company said its wholly-owned La India Project now holds a total mineral resource of 18.4 million tonnes at 3.9 grams per tonne, or 2.3 million ounces of gold. The company added that its total open pit mineral resources come to 1.1 million ounces at 3.1 grams per tonne of gold comprising 921,00 ounces at 3.0 grams per tonne of gold for its La India project, 160,000 ounces at 4.2 grams per tonne of gold at its America Open Pit and 57,000 ounces at 1.9 grams per tonne at the company's Central Breccia Open Pit.
XCAP Securities is down 9.1%. The investment bank said it has raised GBP905,000 after issuing 323.2 million new shares in the company, with the proceeds set to fund its general working capital requirements. The placing follows a GBP525,000 placing through the issue of 175 million new shares in June, at a price of 0.3 pence per share.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
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