UK WINNERS & LOSERS: RSA, CSR Lead FTSE 350 Fallers; M&S Gains On Online Sales

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on the main London indices midday Tuesday.

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FTSE 100 - Winners

Marks & Spencer is up 3.7%. The company reported flat pretax profits for the first half of the year but an uptick in group sales, as its food business continued to offset lagging fashion sales. The M&S food division reported like-for-like sales growth of 2.5% in the first half, driven by a strong second quarter. M&S also reported a strong performance from its international business, and M&S online. International sales were up 8% in the first half, while M&S's online sales rose 29%. The group reported first half revenues of GBP4.88 billion, compared with GBP4.70 billion a year earlier.

Imperial Tobacco climbs 1.9% after it reported results for the year ended September 30. The company said pretax profit increased to GBP1.26 billion from 1.08 billion in the previous year. The company has declared a final dividend of 81.2 pence per share. This brings the total dividend for the year to 116.40 pence, an increase of 10% over 2012, ahead of the growth in adjusted earnings per share and in line with its dividend policy.

Shire is up 1.5% after it reported positive top-line results from two Phase 3 studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of Vyvanse or lisdexamfetamine dimesylate capsules in adults with binge eating disorder. Vyvanse, a prescription medicine currently only approved for the treatment of ADHD in the US, Canada, Australia, and several European countries, was found to be statistically superior to placebo on the primary efficacy analysis. Additionally, the company said the trials showed significant and consistent treatment effects for Vyvanse across the key secondary efficacy endpoints that have been analysed so far in the top-line data. Shire expects to file for FDA approval of Vyvanse by third quarter of 2014.

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FTSE 100 - Losers

RSA Insurance Group, down 6.4%, is the biggest faller on the FTSE 100. The company warned that it expects its full-year weather losses to be "materially above planning assumptions", as it felt the force of severe weather in Europe, Scandinavia and the worst Canadian natural catastrophe on record in the case of the Alberta floods. Return on equity for the full year is expected to come in at under 10% as a result. RSA Insurance's investment portfolio was broadly stable but still saw a 0.5% decline in its value since June 30, falling to GBP14.20 billion, primarily because of adverse foreign exchange movements, it said.

Legal and General Group is down 3.1% despite being optimistic in its trading outlook. The company's net cash generation over the third quarter to September 30 grew to GBP740 million, compared with GBP616 million for the corresponding quarter in 2012. Legal & General's investment management arm had a particularly successful quarter, with net inflows at GBP3.1 billion versus GBP200 million in net outflows in the year-earlier period. Total assets under management rose to GBP443 billion at the end of the third quarter from the GBP433 billion reported at the end of the half year.

G4S is down 2.4%. The company, which is later Tuesday facing investors looking for reassurance after a series of high-profile contract issues, reported flat profits for the first nine months of the year despite an increase in revenues. G4S reiterated that it will restructure underperforming businesses. In a trading update, the company didn't explain why profits had failed to rise in line with revenues. It said it had faced continuing challenging trading in the US and Europe. Alongside this, it expects the challenging conditions in its developed markets to continue in the fourth quarter. The company is expected to face tough questioning from investors later, some of whom are expected to ask whether the company is just too big to control and needs to be broken up.

Associated British Foods falls 2.1%. The food producer and clothing retailer reported higher profits and revenues for its recent financial year. But AB Foods is expecting its profits excluding one-off items to be flat this year as price declines and EU regulatory changes will weigh on its sugar business. Despite encouraging 2013 full-year results, with adjusted pretax profit growing by 13% and both adjusted earnings-per-share and the dividend beating Numis's expectations, the investment bank has downgraded the company to Reduce from Hold, with a price target of 1,845.00p. Charles Pick, analyst at Numis, believes that an inflated share price in the build up to the results means that now is the "time to take some profits."

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FTSE 250 - Winners

RPC Group is up 3.7% after it unveiled the final part of its restructuring and strategy programme. The company pledged to continue growing organically. It also said it will make some acquisitions in the still-fragmented plastic packaging market in Europe and will establish a "meaningful" presence outside Europe over the next few years, as well as selling some parts of its existing business. RPC set out the targets by which it will measure its performance. It is targeting a minimum 20% return on net operating assets, an adjusted return on sales of at least 8%, and a progressive dividend policy targeting 2.5x cover. In a statement ahead of the company's Capital Markets Day, RPC said it had also identified a number of efficiency targets during its review. It plans to shut one of its Swedish manufacturing plants, consolidating production at the Mullsjo facility, and shut down the Troyes factory in France that was hit by floods in May. Additionally, it will cut costs by making savings on overheads and refocusing its Spanish blow moulding operations.

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FTSE 250 - Losers

CSR falls 8.5% after reporting third-quarter results in line with expectations but weaker-than-expected fourth quarter guidance. The company forecasts that revenue for the fourth quarter will be in the range of USD195 million to USD215 million, lower than the USD218 million expected by Liberum Capital. Despite reporting better-than-expected third quarter sales of USD252.7 million, beating expectations of USD251.7 million, Lee Simpson, analyst at Jefferies, believes that this will be overshadowed by the weaker fourth-quarter guidance.

Intu Properties is down 2.1%. The company has revealed that it had signed 57 long leases between July 1 and November 5 as recovery in the UK retail market boosted tenant confidence. However, net debt was unchanged in the quarter at GBP3.6 billion, while occupancy levels remain unchanged at 95% at June.

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AIM - Winners

Bango jumps 19% after it said it believed its outlook for the coming year was very positive, and that it expects to benefit from the continuing roll out of its online payment service with Google Play. The company is currently rolling out the integration of its 'one click payment' services with Google Play, the marketplace for mobile applications and other media for Android powered smart phones. Following the successful integration of Google Play with Bango's services by two mobile wireless providers in Canada, the company expects to integrate at least five further operators with Google Play in the coming months, Bango said.

blinkx climbs 13% after it posted increases in revenue and a threefold growth in pretax profit in the half year ended September 30. Pretax profit increased to USD10.8 million in the first six months from USD2.5 million in the previous year, blinkx said. The company posted revenues of USD111.6 million, up 36% from USD82.0 million in the previous year. Revenues were primarily generated from online advertising, blinkx said, benefiting from strong underlying growth and the launch of its video syndication platform product, blinkx Video Advantage. The platform is used to distribute video content across multiple websites. The acquisition of US advertising and video content-syndication platform Grab Media also helped to boost results. Acquisitions made in 2012 had been successfully integrated, blinkx said, which helped it to increase the size of its audience.

Rare Earth Minerals is up 13%. The company released more good news from the Sonora Lithium Project in northern Mexico, saying latest tests showed its joint venture partner had achieved significant lithium recoveries from the La Ventana area of the site. It described the results as potentially economically significant to the company.

Next Fifteen Communications jumps 11% after it raised its final dividend on increased revenues. Next Fifteen raised its final dividend to 1.925 pence from 1.735 pence in the previous year, raising the total dividend 11% to 2.55 pence from 2.30 pence. In the full-year ended July 31 the company posted revenues in Next Fifteen increased to GBP96.1 million from GBP91.6 million. The company said that its subsidiaries Text 100, OutCast, M Booth and the Blueshirt Group had seen strong revenues, producing GBP96.1 million for the group between them. In the US, revenues grew by 10%, offsetting 3% declines in the UK due to client losses at the end of the previous year.

Intercede Group is up 8.9% after it won a contract with an unnamed US aerospace and defence contractor. The firm said the contract will contribute to revenues in the current financial period and beyond, noting that the average period of revenue generating engagement with a new Intercede customer is over five years. The contract award follows a similar win with a European aerospace firm announced in September this year.

Redstone climbs 7.4%. The company sold its IT infrastructure, data centre and smart building technology business Comunica Holdings to Coms PLC for a total of GBP9.5 million in cash. Redstone plans to change its name to Castleton Technology once the sale completes, made up of the Maxima Information Group software business and the QAD software consultancy business. It will be left with cash of GBP3 million after it gets the proceeds and no debt, bar certain liabilities on an interest rate swap derivative that it estimates to be GBP1.1 million.

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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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