LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Shire, up 2.6%. The Irish drug maker has seen some buying interest after confirming that the deal for it to be bought by AbbVie Inc has collapsed. Shire said that it has maintained its momentum through the offer period and reiterated its target of USD10 billion in product sales by 2020. The pharmaceutical giant will also now benefit from a break fee of USD1.635 billion from AbbVie, which is due before 1700 BST.
GKN, up 2.3%. Shares in the engineering group have risen after it reported higher pretax profit for the third quarter, as higher trading margins in its aerospace and driveline businesses offset a decline in sales that was caused by the strength of sterling and weak agricultural sales. GKN reported a pretax profit of GBP139 million for the three months to end-September, up from GBP131 million a year earlier, even though revenue declined to GBP1.79 billion, from GBP1.87 billion, due to the strength of sterling. Its overall trading margin improved to 8.9%, from 8.2%.
Tesco, up 2.2%. The recently troubled supermarket has continued to see a small share price recovery ahead of the release of its interim results on Thursday. Weekend reports suggested that Tesco will not have to adjust its earnings, despite its previous warning of a GBP250 million accounting error. Furthermore, Kantar grocery market data Tuesday has shown that Tesco managed to slow the decline of of market share over the 12 weeks to October 12. Tesco's market share was 28.8%, down from 30.1% a year earlier, but unchanged from the previous 12 weeks. A 3.6% drop in sales over the 12 week period was the best reading for the supermarket since June, Kantar said.
Tullow Oil, up 2.5%; Royal Dutch Shell, up 2.1%; BG Group, up 2.0%. The oil producers are performing well on the back of a rising oil price. The price of oil has fallen significantly over the last four months, but the price of Brent Crude is up about 1.0% Tuesday at USD86.15 per barrel.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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ARM Holdings, down 6.0%. The microchip maker has had a volatile morning, initially opening as one of the best performers in the index, before quickly becoming the worst. ARM is a key supplier of components for Apple products and received a boost in early trade after the US technology giant reported better than expected sales numbers overnight, and expressed confidence heading into the Christmas period. ARM Tuesday said it expects to meet its own expectations of about USD350 million in revenue for the fourth quarter as it posted a pretax profit of GBP79.2 million for the quarter to end-September, up from GBP68.3 million a year before, as revenue rose to GBP195.5 million from GBP184.0 million. Analyst have expressed concern, however, over ARM's ability to continue to convert licensing into royalties. "We remain cautious on ARM's royalty growth rates in coming years, given our concerns on the slowing down of the smartphone and tablet markets," said Liberum analyst Janardan Menon.
Reckitt Benkiser Group, down 1.7%. The consumer goods giant is lower after reporting that its third quarter earnings were heavily impacted by the strength of the pound. The maker of products including Strepsils cold remedy, Nurofen pain relief and Durex condoms, reported net revenue of GBP2.37 million for the third quarter, up 2% at constant exchange rates, but down 7% at actual rates. In the year-to date, revenue of GBP7.04 billion is down 7% at actual exchange rates, but up 3% at constant currency. While reporting growth in most of its divisions at constant currency, at actual exchange rates, all divisions posted declines, hit by currency fluctuations, particularly a strong British pound.
Whitbread, down 1.6%. The hotel and restaurant operator has seen a little profit taking after it reported a reasonable set of interim results, with its Premier Inn and Whitbread brands both continuing to grow and take market share. The company reported a pretax profit of GBP241.8 million for the six months to August 28, up from GBP200.7 million the year before, as revenue rose 13% to GBP1.29 billion, from GBP1.14 billion. The groups management warned of toughening comparatives as the year progresses due to the "benign winter weather last year which caused minimal trading disruption".
Intercontinental Hotels Group, down 0.4%. Shares in the hotel operator have fallen despite the company reporting a 7% rise in its compatible revenue per room in the third quarter, it's best quarterly performance in over two years. Numis analyst Wyn Ellis believes that there could be modest consensus upgrades for IHG, having posted such strong third quarter growth. The hotels company, whose brands include Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and InterContinental Hotels, said RevPAR grew in every region, but its performance in the US was particularly strong with RevPAR up 8.7%. Elsewhere, the figure was up 6.1% in Europe, 4.4% in Asia, Middle East and Africa, and 0.8% in Greater China.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Informa, up 5.1%. Shares of the publishing company have risen after it said it remains on track and its expectations for the full year remain the same. In fiscal 2015, the company plans to implement its Growth Acceleration Plan and also its new operating structure, which was first unveiled in July. This in turn, is expected to drive growth across all the divisions over time.
Ophir Energy, up 4.4%. As well as benefiting from Tuesday's higher oil price, Ophir has said it is focusing on negotiating fiscal terms with the government and seeking a company to operate its project at Block R in Guinea before the end of the year, after successfully testing its Fortuna-2 well. The company has successfully completed a drill stem test on the Fortuna-2 well, in which it holds and 80% stake, with GEPetrol holding the remaining 20%.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate, down 0.6%. The real estate investor said it has raised GBP351.5 million through a placing of around 10.0 million shares and 25.0 million open offer shares at 1,006 pence each, representing a 3.7% discount to Monday's closing price of 1,045 pence. The company announced the placing and open offer earlier in October, and at that time said the funds raised will be used to fund future investments.
Hellermanntyton Group, down 0.6%. UBS initiated analyst coverage of the cable tie company with a Neutral rating. UBS said that the business is solid, but the shares are already well priced and are unlikely to see a re-rating any time soon.
Galiford Try, down 0.5%. The construction company said its new chairman Ian Coull will step down with immediate effect due to other business and personal commitments, and will be replaced by Chief Executive Greg Fitzgerald. It has started a search to replace the latter.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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StratMin Global Resources, up 70%. The Madagascar-focused flake graphite production and exploration company said it has entered into an offtake agreement to sell its natural flake graphite products to one of the world's largest independent processors and merchants of graphite. The five year agreement was signed on October 16, but StratMin has not revealed the identity of the buyer. The terms of the agreement will see the buyer purchase all the material that StratMin can produce within a pre-determined product specification, it said in a statement.
Northern Petroleum, up 20%. The exploration company said it will turn cash positive early next year, once newly completed wells in Canada are tied in to its existing operations. The company has finished three wells targeting the Keg River edge reef, with the first well producing a constrained rate of 1,300 barrels of oil per day. The well has been restricted to producing between 80 and 100 barrels of oil per day until it is tied in with the rest of its operations, expected before January 2015, it said in a statement.
Stellar Diamonds, up 19%. Shares in the mining company have risen after it said it has recovered large diamonds from trial mining conducted at the Baoulé Kimberlite mine in Guinea. Stellar said it had recovered 196 carats so far from kimberlite ore at the site, with an average grade of 17 carats per hundred tonnes, exceeding the minimum grade expectation of 13 carats per hundred tonnes.
ASOS, up 18%. Shares in the online fashion retailer have risen after it said it has started looking for a new chief financial officer after moving Nick Beighton to the role of chief operating officer, tasked with helping return it to growth after a couple of years where heavy investments in expansion and countering operational issues will hold it back. The retailer reported a drop in pretax profit to GBP46.9 million for the financial year ended August 31, down 14% on its GBP54.7 million pretax profit it reported a year earlier. The fall was in line with expectations, due to heavy investments and a hit due to the strength of sterling. Chief Executive Nick Robertson also warned the company also faces another year of stunted growth.
Egdon Resources, up 15%. The company said it has started drilling work at the Burton on the Wolds exploration licence in Leicestershire. Egdon said the Burton on the Wolds-1 well spudded on October 18 and it expects drilling work at the site to take around 26 days. Egdon holds a 32.5% stake in the licence.
West African Minerals, up 12%. The mining company has seen its shares rise after it unveiled a set of positive results from its South Sanaga licence in coastal Cameroon and from its Madina licence in Sierra Leone. West African said reconnaissance drilling at the South Sanaga licence intersected multiple magnetite gneiss package, with the grades and thicknesses sufficient to start a second drilling programme in order to deliver a maiden mineral resource estimate. It expects to issue the maiden estimate in early 2015. The company said the preliminary metallurgical test work carried out at the site showed concentrates with iron grades of around 69%.
Immupharma, up 12%. The biotechnology company said the French region of Acquitane in the Bordeaux region has awarded its Ureka subsidiary a EUR400,000 grant. The funding has been awarded to the company's subsidiary to develop its Urelix technology, which mimics natural peptides having a helical conformation with artificial residues in order to strengthen this conformation and protect it from enzymatic degradation.
InterQuest Group, up 11%. The recruitment company said it is starting a formal sale process, as part of a review of its options to maximise value for shareholders. In the first half of 2014, the company posted a pretax profit of GBP1.6 million, up from GBP1.2 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP73.0 million, from GBP56.2 million. At that time it expressed confidence for "further success" in its second half.
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By Jon Darby; jondarby@alliancenews.com; @jondarby100
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
1 Apr 2016 11:53
