(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers among London Main Market small-caps on Wednesday.
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SMALL-CAP - WINNERS
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AO World PLC, up 4.5% at 65.69 pence, 12-month range 37.22p-114.8p. Shares in the electrical appliance retailer extend Tuesday's gains, after it guided towards annual adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation at the top end of its GBP20 million to GBP30 million range. It also noted that the cash costs of closing its German business are expected to be "around zero" compared to an original estimate of GBP15 million. This came despite less-than-stellar headline results, with its pretax loss widening to GBP12 million in the six months that ended September 30 from GBP4 million a year before. Revenue fell 17% to GBP546 million from GBP661 million.
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SMALL-CAP - LOSERS
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De La Rue PLC, down 19% at 80.83p, 12-month range 71.1p-169.26p. The banknote printer reports a "challenging" first half ending September 30, as revenue falls 8.3% to GBP164.3 million from GBP179.2 million a year before. This is mostly led by a decline in Currency revenue. The firm swings to a pretax loss of GBP15.9 million from a profit of GBP10.9 million a year before. De La Rue now expects full-year adjusted operating profit between GBP30 million and GBP33 million, which is below GBP36 million analyst consensus. Shortly after the release of the results, Numis cut the stock to 'add' from 'buy', and lowered its price target to 110p from 130p.
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Halfords Group PLC, down 6.7% at 199.28p, 12-month range 123.9p-374.4p. The motoring retailer reports a steep drop in profit in the 26 weeks to September 30, as pretax profit falls to GBP29.3 million from GBP64.3 million a year ago. Revenue rises 10% to GBP765.7 million from GBP694.8 million. The firm now expects underlying pretax profit in its full year to be at the lower end of its GBP65 million to GBP75 million range. Halfords also notes a softening in trade in its discretionary areas. "It remains challenging to predict consumer confidence for the remainder of financial 2023, but we don’t expect the challenges that businesses are facing to dissipate soon," CEO Graham Stapleton says.
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By Elizabeth Winter; elizabethwinter@alliancenews.com
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Ao World (AO.)
De La Rue (DLAR)
Halfords (HFD)