LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
Fresnillo, up 2.5%. RBC Capital raised the gold miner to Sector Perform from Underperform.
WM Morrison Supermarkets, up 1.6%. The latest industry data from Kantar Worldpanel showed the grocer's sales increased by 2.4%, with a resulting market share of 10.4%. "Growth at the retailer was helped by a strong performance in online sales, with Morrison's e-commerce offering proving particularly popular among younger, more affluent shoppers," Kantar said. Over the 12 weeks to March 25, Tesco saw sales rise 2.4% to keep its market share steady at 27.6%, the first time it has held share since December 2016. J Sainsbury saw a market share drop, down 0.3 percentage point to 15.8%, despite sales growth of 0.6%. Tesco and Sainsbury's shares were down 0.6% and up 0.3% respectively. ----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
WPP, down 1.1%. The advertising giant said that it has appointed independent counsel to conduct an investigation in response to an allegation of personal misconduct against Chief Executive Martin Sorrell. The investigation is ongoing, WPP said, and the allegations "do not involve amounts which are material to WPP". The Wall Street Journal had reported earlier that WPP's board was looking into whether Sorrell misused company assets, as well as investigating allegations of improper personal behavior made against the CEO.----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
Renishaw, up 2.0%. Goldman Sachs started coverage on the precision measurement products maker with a Buy rating. ----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------
Topps Tiles, down 9.5%. The floor coverings retailer said it anticipates revenue growth in the first half of its financial year, but remains cautious over its full year performance. Topps Tiles expects revenue to come in at
GBP109.4 million for the six months to the end of March, up from
GBP106.6 million reported the year before. Like-for-like revenue is expected to be up 0.6% year-on-year. Topps Tiles said that it saw a strong sales growth in the first quarter, but it was partly offset by a slow down in the second quarter, affected by weather conditions in late February and early March as well as early Easter break. The company said that it hopes to outperform the market and continue strong promotional positioning. It highlighted current investments in Parkside brand, used to launch a new website. "After a strong start to the year, market conditions have become more challenging over the second quarter. While the business has responded well with a performance ahead of the overall tile market, we are retaining a cautious view of market conditions for the remainder of the year," said Chief Executive Matthew Williams.----------
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