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(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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Taylor Wimpey, up 3.6%. The housebuilder said it is progressing construction on a majority of its sites across England and Wales, with Scottish sites now also starting preparation for a return to construction. Total completions - including joint ventures - in the 22 weeks to the end of May were 2,455, down close to 40% compared to 4,052 a year earlier, reflecting the impact of site closures, Taylor Wimpey said. Its UK net sales rate was 0.51 for the week ended May 31 compared to 0.85 the previous year. For the five months to May end, the UK net sales rate is 0.72 per week, compared to 0.99 in 2019. The company said it is experiencing a "very high" level of demand for appointments, as majority of its show homes and sales centres have reopened in England, though on an appointment-only basis. Looking ahead, Taylor Wimpey said its order book remains "strong", with a healthy increase in reservations made in recent weeks. The UK order book has continued to increase. As at week ending May 31 its total value stood at GBP2.78 billion versus GBP2.52 billion the year before.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Premier Oil, up 12%. The oil & gas firm proposed an amendment to the terms for the acquisition of the Andrew Area and Shearwater fields in the UK North Sea from oil major BP. Premier Oil said it is in discussions with some of its creditors to waive the group's financial covenants through to September 30 and to provide continued access to its revolving credit facilities. For the BP deal, under the revised arrangements, the original payment of USD625 million will be set off by USD300 million of estimated cash flows to be retained by BP, and a further USD115 million to only be payable based on higher future oil and gas prices. As a result, the revised cash to be paid on the completion of the acquisitions is set to be USD210 million and is expected to be funded with equity. In addition, BP will retain 100% of the existing Shearwater abandonment costs and 50% of the existing Andrew Area abandonment costs.
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Morgan Advanced Materials, up 6.7%. The industrial products manufacturer said trading across its divisions has declined further as it announced measures to cut GBP20 million in annual costs. Morgan Advanced said it has implemented measures to slash costs and preserve liquidity, such as reducing capital expenditure, freezing hiring and temporarily reducing salaries for the executive team and board. It also is taking steps to improve its structural cost position for the longer-term. The steps are expected to further reduce costs by GBP20 million per annum by 2022, with anticipated one-time cash costs of GBP30 million to achieve this. In terms of trading, Morgan said sales for the 21 weeks to May 24 were 8.8% lower year-on-year on an organic, constant-currency basis. While sales for the 12 weeks to March 21 were 3.2% lower year-on-year, largely driven by shut-downs in China, in April and May, they declined by 20%. By business, for the 21 weeks to May 24, sales for the Thermal Products division were 15% lower year-on-year and Carbon & Technical Ceramics division sales were down 4.3%.
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John Wood Group, up 5.2%. The oilfield services provider said it has pledged to shrink its carbon emissions by 40% in the next ten years. John Wood said it intends to cut its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 using 2019 figures as its baseline. Scope 1 includes emissions from owned or controlled sources while scope 2 covers indirect emissions such as from the generation of electricity purchased by the company. Scope 3 emissions, which John Wood has not included in this target, includes all of the other indirect emissions from a company's value chain. John Wood said the 40% target put it "on a trajectory well beyond the 2-degree Celsius temperature goal identified by the Paris Agreement".
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Biffa, down 5.7%. The waste management company said it will pay no final dividend, as part of its Covid-19 cash conservation efforts. This means its annual dividend dropped by 66% to 2.47 pence a share from 7.20p paid in financial 2019. For the 52 weeks ended March 27, revenue grew by 6.6% to GBP1.16 billion from GBP1.09 billion a year ago. This resulted in more than doubled pretax profit of GBP56.4 million versus GBP21.5 million a year earlier. "Proactive steps to conserve cash have included temporarily suspending mergers & acquisitions activity and dividends; reducing capital expenditure, operating costs, pay and bonuses; utilising government assistance where appropriate and securing the necessary support from our lenders and suppliers," explained Chief Executive Michael Topham.
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Renishaw, down 1.2%. The engineering firm said it has decided against paying a final dividend for financial 2020 in a further effort to conserve cash. The company said that while no final dividend will be paid for its financial year to the end of June, it will review its position for financial 2021 with the intention of reinstating the dividend as soon as appropriate. Renishaw added that current trading remains in line with previous expectations, which anticipated continued tough conditions. Back in May, the company already had cancelled its 14.0 pence interim dividend. At the time, it forecast a dive in annual adjusted pretax profit to between GBP45 million to GBP55 million compared with GBP103.9 million reported for financial 2019. For the first three quarters of its financial year, Renishaw reported revenue of GBP389.9 million, down 10% year-on-year from GBP431.1 million. Pretax profit was down 77% to GBP19.7 million from GBP84.8 million.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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NetScientific, up 13%. The healthcare technology commercialisation company said its portfolio company PDS Biotechnology announced a phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate its lead immunotherapy product, PDS0101, in combination with standard of care chemoradiotherapy for treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer. NetScientific holds 7.2% of PDS's undiluted share capital. The clinical trial will investigate the safety and anti-tumor efficacy of the PDS0101-chemoradiation combination, and their correlation with critical biomarkers of an immune response in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. "We look forward to investigating PDS0101 as a potentially safe and effective immunotherapeutic combination with standard of care chemoradiotherapy to improve the treatment options for women with locally advanced cervical cancer," said Frank Bedu-Addo, chief executive of PDS.
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Applied Graphene Materials, up 13%. The graphene manufacturer said it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Dichem Polymers. The agreement helps to extend Applied Graphene's commercial reach directly into the coatings and polymers sectors across Greece, it said. Applied Graphene and Dichem have an exclusive agreement that will see the two companies collaborate on customer opportunities and introduce Applied Graphene's proprietary Genable graphene dispersions technology into the Greek coatings and polymers market. In addition to its own commercial hubs in the UK and the US, Applied Graphene said it now has distribution agreements with local expert chemicals and coatings distributors in Greece, Italy, South Africa and Japan. "We are keen to advance our development pipeline for revenue through this approach from the sale of both our easy-to-use Genable dispersions as well as customised product offerings to suit individual customer project requirements," said Applied Graphene Chief Executive Adrian Potts.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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SolGold, down 10% at 21.49p. The Australian gold & copper mining company said it completed a placing of 121.4 million shares and a retail offer via PrimaryBid platform of 4.8 million shares, all at a price of 21.5p each, raising gross proceeds of GBP27.1 million before expenses. In addition to the placing and the retail offer, the company said it remains in dialogue with a potential investor for an additional subscription of up to USD5 million at the placing price. The placing was conducted by Peel Hunt, Cormark Securities and Cantor Fitzgerald Canada acting as joint bookrunners and H & P Advisory as manager. Following the admission, the company will have 2.05 billion shares overall. "In additional to the completion of the FNV Royalty Financing, the new capital will see SolGold fully funded through to the delivery of the DFS study, whilst at the same time, allow our award winning geologists to rapidly explore the high priority regional exploration targets throughout Ecuador along the spine of the Andean copper belt," said Chief Executiove Nick Mather.
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By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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