LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
Fresnillo, up 4.4%. Goldman Sachs raised the gold miner to Conviction Buy from Neutral.
Randgold Resources, which was raised to Buy from Neutral by Goldman, was up 1.9%.----------
Royal Bank of Scotland, up 1.9%. The state-backed lender was also benefiting from a broker upgrade, with Deutsche Bank lifting it to Buy from Hold.----------
Smith & Nephew, up 0.9%. HSBC raised the medical technology firm to Buy from Hold.----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
Smurfit Kappa, down 3.7%. The paper and packaging firm said it had received a revised takeover offer from the International Paper Co - the New York-listed firm having made an approach earlier in March - which it again rejected. Under International Paper's revised offer, Smurfit shareholders would receive
EUR25.25 in cash, and 0.3028 of a new share in International Paper. Based on International Paper's closing price of
USD50.15 on Friday, this would value each Smurfit share at
EUR37.54 compared to
EUR36.46 under the previous offer. Following "careful consideration", the board unanimously rejected the new offer.----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
JD Sports Fashion, up 2.7%. The sportswear retailer said it has agreed to purchase athletic footwear retailer The Finish Line for
USD558 million. Finish Line is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York with a market capitalisation of approximately
USD425 million, JD Sports said. The deal is expected to make "a small incremental positive contribution" to JD Sport's results and earnings per share for the financial year ending February 2, 2019.----------
Inchcape, up 2.3%. The car retailer said it has acquired Suzuki-focused distribution business Grupo Rudelman in Central America for
USD284 million on a cash-free and debt-free basis. Inchape said that the unconditional transaction, which is expected to be completed later Monday, includes acquisitions of Grupo Redelm subsidiaries Holding de las Americas and Fundacion Rudco. The company also said that in will not continue its share repurchase programme announced in February, due to the acquisition expenses. ----------
MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------
Stratex, up 17%. The gold-focused exploration company said the Senegal government has approved its option deal with IAMGOLD Corp subsidiary AGEM Senegal Exploration Suarl for the Dalafin gold project. Stratex now intends to start fast-tracked exploration at the site. The work will be centered on the southernmost Madina Bafe prospect, located 12 kilometres to the west-southwest of IAMGOLD's Boto project. The programme will look to prove the continuity of high-grade mineralisation at depth and along strike, with the intention of developing resources for either a stand-alone deposit or a satellite deposit for Boto. ----------
Speedy Hire, up 8.9%. The tools and equipment hire firm said profit for its financial year ending in March should beat board expectations. As a result of a focus on small to medium enterprise customers and services revenue, and despite the recent demise of Carillion, Speedy Hire is expected adjusted pretax profit for its year ending at the end of March to beat previous expectations, with revenue also expected to be 6% up year-on-year before disposals. The company is expected a return on capital employed of around 11%, compared to 7.7% its previous year. Speedy Hire said average asset utilisation was 55% in the 11 months to February, compared to 51% the same period the year before. ----------
YouGov, up 6.4%. The market research and analytics firm reported a sharp increase in profit for its first half due to a positive performance in both the US and the UK. Pretax profit for the six months to January climbed to
GBP4.5 million from
GBP2.5 million, as revenue increased 10% year-on-year to
GBP56.3 million from
GBP51.4 million. Revenue in the UK increased 15% to
GBP14.5 million, and in the US by 18% to
GBP23.3 million. Operating profit in the regions rose 89% to
GBP5.8 million and 56% to
GBP7.9 million respectively. The current Data Products pipeline is robust, YouGov said, and trading since the period end has been positive, with its geographically diverse revenue streams offsetting uncertainty in the UK and Europe. ----------
MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------
Billing Services, down 17%. The telecommunications clearing and financial settlement products provider said revenue fell to
USD21.1 million for 2017 from
USD30.2 million the year before, as it swung to a pretax loss of
USD9.1 million from a profit of
USD13.3 million the year prior. During the second half of 2017, the company said it recognised U7SD15.3 million of impairment charges relating to its wireline billing and clearing business and its third-party verification business. The impairment charges were due to declining operating income in the affected business lines, attributable in large part to the discontinuation of third-party billing by AT&T and Verizon. The company said its direct billing initiative has developed "solid traction", and this is to continue over 2018. However, this initiative did not offset the effects of AT&T's discontinuation of third-party billing during 2017, and will not offset the effects of Verizon's discontinuation during 2018.----------
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