LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on the main London indices midday Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - Winners
TUI Travel, up 2.7%, is one of the biggest blue-chip gainers. The travel group has increased is underlying operating profit growth forecast and said that it expects to achieve full-year profit growth of at least 11% on a constant currency basis. TUI has seen strong high-season summer trading in the UK and Nordics. It said that so far it has sold around 31% of its overall mainstream programme for the winter 2013/2014 season. Numis has upgraded TUI to Add from Hold on the back of the positive reports.
Compass Group jumps 1.8% after it said it expects organic revenue growth for the full year to be just over 4%. The food and support services company attributes the encouraging growth to new business wins, good retention rates and modest inflationary price increases. Compass predicts that its full-year results will demonstrate positive like-for-like volumes in its 'fast growing and emerging' locations. It anticipates North America to report broadly flat volumes, with negative figures from Europe and Japan.
BAE Systems, up 1.4%. The global defence and security company's shares continue to climb, albeit at a slightly slower rate, after it emerged Tuesday that the company is back in the running as part of the eurofighter consortium on a USD7.2 billion fighter contract after South Korea restarted the bidding process to replace ageing planes.
Tullow Oil is up 1.2% on the back of its announcement that it had made a new wildcat oil discovery in Western Kenya. The oil and gas exploration and production group said the drilling results and samples at its Auwerwer and Upper Lokone sandstone reservoirs show a potential net oil pay of between 60 and 100 metres.
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FTSE 100 - Losers
Centrica, down 2.2%. The energy company is the biggest faller on the blue-chip index. This comes after JP Morgan cut it to Neutral from Overweight, decreasing its target price to 375 pence from 390p. The brokerage's decision follows the leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, announcing that he will freeze gas and electricity bills for two years if he is voted to power in 2015.
SSE, down 1.9%, is another energy company sliding on the back of Miliband's announcement.
Barclays is down 1.2% after the FT reported that the bank will pull out of more than 100 markets and cut staff in its wealth management business as it aims to boost the unit's feeble profitability.
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FTSE 250 - Winners
Workspace Group, up 2.1%. The serviced office company is gaining after Wednesday's announcement that it had secured planning permission for the re-devlopment of its Poplar Business Park in Canary Wharf. Workspace said it has received planning permission for 392 apartments, 20% of which will be affordable, alongside a new 58,000 square foot business centre and 12,000 square feet of light industrial workshops.
Domino's Pizza Group is up 2% after Numis raised its recommendation to Buy from Add. The brokerage believes that the company is in good shape, with the UK business remaining as strong as ever. Numis also believes that Germany and Switzerland will contribute substantially to pretax profit from 2014. The broking house is also confident that the countries will help triple company pretax profits to GBP158 million in 2021.
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FTSE 250 - Losers
Ladbrokes, down 6.7%. The betting company warned that its trading margins are still lower-than-expected across the business, due to poor betting results. Its stores and machines are performing better after hitting its interim results, but now digital is weighing and betting results have gone against it. Numis has downgraded Ladbrokes to Add from Buy. The brokerage is concerned that its digital division's profits are now expected to be between GBP10 million and GBP14 million, falling way short of Numis' forecast of GBP28 million.
Thomas Cook Group, down 4.7%, is one of the biggest fallers on the FTSE 250. Despite reporting positive conditions, traders have reacted negatively to the company as it left its profit forecasts unchanged compared to the upgrade at big rival TUI Travel.
Mitchells & Butlers is down 2.8% despite reporting that it expects full-year results to be in line with board expectations. Numis said its full year like-for-like sales rose just 0.4%, missing Numis' expectations of a 1% increase, although EBIT margins rose ahead of expectations. The brokerage has maintained an Add recommendation.
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AIM - Winners
Atlantic Coal jumps 112% after it said it swung to a pretax profit in its first half as it increases production. The coal production and processing company posted a pretax profit of USD2.5 million for the six months ended June 30 compared to a pretax loss of USD1.4 million the previous year. Sales were up 15% to USD10.5 million from USD8.9 million as the company increased its clean coal production by 37% to 81,965 tonnes.
African Minerals Limited, up 32%. The company has announced that it has entered into an agreement for investment at its flagship Tonkolili iron-ore site. Tianjin Materials and Equipment Group Corporation has agreed to pay USD990 million for a 16.5% economic interest in the project based on a site valuation of USD6 billion.
Crawshaw Group is up 14% following its announcement that the company had tripled profits in the first half of the year. The meat-focused food retailer's results were boosted as good BBQ weather in July boosted UK sales and a new sales drive led to an increase in staff hours within its shops. WH Ireland has almost doubled Crawshaw's target price to 10.00p from 5.50p.
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AIM - Losers
Altitude Group, down 32%, is the biggest faller on the AIM. The company has said that although it narrowed its losses for the first half, its full year results would be below expectations.
Suretrack Monitering, down 25%, continues to fall after the company announced that pretax losses widened and revenues declined in its most recent financial year, as it decided to jettison subsidiary IBP Limited. In the year ended March 31, the company posted a pretax loss of GBP1.1 million, compared with a GBP596,365 loss in the 14 months ended March 31, 2012. The company said that it had entered into a conditional agreement to dispose of IBP Limited after it decided that on-going losses at IBP were unsustainable.
Parity Group, down 13%. The company reported a pretax loss of GBP519,000 for the six months to end-June compared with GBP244,00 a year earlier as restructuring costs rose to GBP1.02 million. However, revenues rose to GBP46.5 million, from GBP42.9 million. Parity has announced that Chairman Philip Swinstead would take a much more hands on role at the company, taking charge of digital strategy.
Mountfield Group falls 12% on the news that pretax profit declined for the first half, as delayed contracts affected its results. The company posted pretax profit of GBP235,835 for the period ended 30 June, falling from GBP371,465 a year earlier, as a result of the delayed start on certain contracts. Revenue declined to GBP5.2 million, from GBP8.6 million in 2012 for the same reason, it said.
ZincOx Resources is down 11% after it said it swung to a pretax loss in its first half as equipment failures offset sales increases. The company suffered problems in its Korean gas handling system as a heat exchange failure resulted in the structural integrity of equipment being compromised and the plant having to be shut for several days at a time.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com
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