(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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WPP, up 6.2%. The advertising firm maintained its annual guidance for 2019 following an improved performance in the third quarter. WPP said third quarter reported revenue from continuing operations, excluding Kantar, was up 5.2% at GBP3.29 billion. Revenue in constant currency was up 1.9%. WPP explained that the difference to the reported number reflecting the weakening of the pound against a number of currencies, particularly US dollar. Looking ahead, WPP said its financial guidance remains unchanged, both including and excluding Kantar. The company expects to deliver like-for-like revenue less pass-through costs down between 1.5% and 2.0% year-on-year. In the third quarter, there was an improvement in revenue less pass-through costs from continuing operations, with constant currency and like-for-like growth of 0.5%. WPP highlighted that it was the first quarter of growth since the second quarter of 2018.
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Barclays, up 1.8%. The company reported a sharp drop in quarterly profit as the lender's operating expenses rose steeply, though Chief Executive Jes Staley described it as a "resilient" period for the bank. In the three months to September 30, the lender recorded a pretax profit of GBP246 million, 83% lower than the GBP1.46 billion posted a year earlier. Excluding litigation and conduct charges, third-quarter pretax profit rose 18% to GBP1.81 billion. The sharp quarterly drop was attributed to a GBP1.4 billion payment protection insurance provision. Operating expenses rose 42% to GBP4.86 billion from GBP3.43 billion, with litigation & conduct charges jumping to GBP1.57 billion from GBP105 million the year before. In better news for the lender, third-quarter net interest income rose 2.5% to GBP2.45 billion from GBP2.39 billion the year before. Total income grew 8.0% to GBP5.54 billion.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Airtel Africa, up 4.1%. The telecommunications and mobile money services firm reported a strong interim growth, with all of the company's businesses reporting rises in revenue as it passed 100 million customers in the period. In the six months to September 30, the telecommunications and mobile money services firm recorded a pretax profit of USD316 million, almost triple the USD122 million reported a year before. Airtel's interim revenue rose 8.6% year on year to USD1.64 billion from USD1.51 billion. The company saw growth across all of its services, with Voice, Data and Mobile Money revenue rising by 3.2%, 38% and 47%, respectively. Airtel declared an interim dividend of 3 US cents per share.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Synthomer, down 11%. The speciality chemicals company issued a profit warning due to a challenging backdrop for the chemicals industry, depressed European industrial activity and increased political and economic uncertainties. The Essex, England-based chemicals company said if current weakness continues through fourth quarter then 2019 underlying pretax profit will be 10% below the GBP135.1 million recorded in 2018 and 10% off the current GBP135.3 million consensus estimate. Synthomer also expects slower trading environment to continue through the remainder of 2019 and into 2020, particularly in Europe.
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Ascential, down 6.0%. The events company said its Money20/20 China event, previously planned to take place between December 4 and 6, has been deferred and now will not take place in 2019. Money20/20 China is the space where the industry's "smartest visionaries" and innovators come together "to create the future of money", according to the event's website. Ascential, a London-headquartered exhibitions, festivals and information services provider, said the previous edition of Money20/20 China in 2018 generated GBP2.5 million of revenue. For 2019, Ascential said the one-off costs relating to Money20/20 China are not expected to impact its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization by more than GBP1.5 million.
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Hammerson, down 2.5%. UBS downgraded the shopping centre operator to Sell from Neutral.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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VR Education, up 17%. The education and training-focused virtual reality tech firm said its ENGAGE platform was chosen by social media behemoth Facebook to be included within Facebook's Oculus Independent Software Vendors programme. VR Education's ENGAGE platform is a VR training and education platform, while Facebook's Oculus ISV programme is designed to accelerate the consumer adoption of VR technology by encouraging software firms and developers to build applications using Oculus products. Under the agreement, VR Education's ENGAGE will be made available through a special portal for Oculus enterprise clients to access and use. In addition, VR Education will be one of the few developers that can provide services using Facebook's equipment. The adoption will take place in early 2020, following Facebook's anticipated roll-out of Oculus for Business.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Coro Energy, down 15%, Empyrean Energy, down 10%. Shares in the oil and gas firms were lower as both companies announced failed attempts to bring up gas from a well in the Duyung production sharing contract in the West Natuna basin, offshore Indonesia. Coro, a southeast Asia-focused oil & gas firm, holds a 15% interest in the Duyung, while explorer Empyrean has an 8.5% stake. Following the completed drilling of the Tambak-2 well, a full logging suite was acquired, including formation pressure measurements, which confirmed a a 33 feet gross gas pay zone. However, while preparing for a drill stem test across the Intra-Muda reservoir, an inflatable open hole bridge plug, which is used to isolate the gas-bearing reservoir for testing, had failed. During operations to recover the plug, the well began flowing natural gas to the surface, leading to the well being immediately shut in for safety reasons. Heavy mud containing barite was used to kill the well, however a large quantity was lost in the reservoir.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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