LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
CRH, up 4.6%. The Irish building materials group is the index's leading gainer after its operating profit beat its previous guidance and the chief executive said 2013 would mark the low-point for its earnings. The company, hit hard by the financial crisis and economic downturn, said it swung to a pretax loss of EUR215 million in 2013, compared with a profit of EUR646 million in 2012, as margins remained under pressure due to lower volumes and it booked higher impairment charges for restructuring. It revenues were almost flat at EUR18.0 billion. Still earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of EUR1.48 billion were ahead of the guidance CRH gave in November, and Chief Executive Albert Manifold said he is confident about the outlook for 2014, with trading in the year so far ahead of last year.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
GKN, down 2.2%. The auto and plane parts engineer reported that its pretax profit declined in 2013, as it made smaller gains on its FX hedging contracts than in 2012. Pretax profit fell 15% to GBP484 million, from GBP568 million. However, operating profit rose 20%, driven by a 10% rise in revenues and as trading margins increased significantly, buoyed by recent restructuring and efficiency gains. It said it expects further progress in 2014.
Anglo American, down 3.2%, Rio Tinto, down 3.2%, Antofagasta, down 2.5%, Fresnillo, down 2.2%, and Randgold Resources, down 1.4%. The mining and metal stocks are amongst the heaviest fallers Tuesday on the back of ongoing concern over a slowdown in Chinese economic growth. Investor worries resurfaced Monday after reports in China of a reduction in bank lending to the property market, which saw the Shanghai Composite close more that 2% lower over night. "As with any Chinese story the miners lead declines," said CMC Markets senior sales trader Toby Morris.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
St. James's Place, up 4.3%. The wealth manager said it is in "advanced talks" to acquire an adviser business in Asia, as it reported a 42% increase in annual profits. The group reported a GBP190.7 million profit before shareholder tax for 2013, compared with GBP134.6 million in 2012, driven by a surge in both fee and commission income and investment return. Together, those items resulted in a 60% increase in net income, which amounted to GBP6.85 billion. After investment contract benefits, which cost GBP5.45 billion, and other expenses, that left a GBP461.2 million pretax profit. St. James's Place also increased its dividend by 50% to 15.96 pence and said it expects to increase it by 30-40% in 2014. The jump in share price means that the group is once again the largest FTSE 250 company by market cap.
Capital & Counties Properties, up 2.7%. The property investment and development company reported an increase in full-year profit, as it continued its strategy to grow the value of its Covent Garden and Earls Court estates. The firm posted pretax profit of GBP347.2 million for 2013, up from GBP218.7 million a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP118.8 million from GBP109.4 million in 2012. The group benefited from strong valuations across the business. Its portfolio is now valued at GBP2.25 billion in total, up from GBP1.72 billion in 2012.
Ladbrokes, up 2.3%. Pretax profit of GBP67.0 million was just a third of the GBP200.7 million profit it posted in 2012. However, expectations had been low after the company warned on trading several times during the year. Earnings were still slightly behind expectations, but Ladbrokes was ahead on cash generation, while net debt is lower and current trading much stronger than consensus had expected, said Deutsche Bank analyst Richard Carter. In addition, there has been encouraging commentary since the recent launch of the new mobile and desktop sports products, says the analyst.
NMC Health, up 2%. The company has raised its final dividend and expressed confidence for 2014, as it saw pretax profit rise in 2013. Higher general and administrative expenses, depreciation costs and a GBP210,000 impairment charge weighed on the figure, but NMC still recorded pretax profit of USD69.1 million, up from USD59.8 million in 2012 as revenue increased to USD550.9 million, from USD490.1 million. NMC raised its final dividend dividend 7.3% to 4.4 pence from 4.1p.
Dechra Pharmaceuticals, up 1%. The pharmaceuticals company has raised its interim dividend and said it is confident that it will meet its full-year expectations, as it saw pretax profit rise in the half year to the end of 2013. Revenue rose to GBP95.9 million from GBP92.0 million in the previous year. This, combined with lower sales costs, lifted pretax profit to GBP10.3 million, up from GBP5.8 million in the previous year. The firm posted an interim dividend of 4.75 pence, up from 4.34 pence in the previous year.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
Ashmore Group, down 7.7%. Ashmore has reported weak first-half results, with pretax profit down by a third and a USD2.9 billion net outflow, as emerging markets instability hurt the investment manager. The group made a GBP79.5 million pretax profit for the six months to the end of 2013, compared with GBP120.2 million in for the corresponding period in 2012. The net outflow drove assets under management down by 2.7% to USD75.3 billion over the first-half. Revenue fell to GBP155.3 million from GBP167.8 million, as performance fees slumped to GBP700,000 from GBP15.3 million.
Genus, down 3%. The animal genetics company's profits for the first half of the year dipped slightly, despite good revenue growth during the period. For the six months to the end of 2013, the group said revenues rose 9% at actual exchange rates to GBP181.7 million, up from GBP167.2 million for the comparable period, but it also reported a slight decline in pretax profit to GBP22.0 million, down from GBP22.3 million a year earlier, as the company incurred GBP1.5 million in acquisition and integration costs and made investments in China.
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AIM - WINNERS
Stellar Resources, up 11%. The mining company said it has bought up a fully integrated gold processing plant for its Clogau Gold Mine in North Wales. The company said the plant is capable of processing up to 2 tonnes of ore per hour, and will be used to process previously identified high grade areas that have been re-opened as part of the underground clean-up operations which have been ongoing over the past 18 months.
Synety Group, up 7.4%. The cloud-based telephony company said it has secured a significant new customer win, as Peninsula Business Services, a UK employment law and health & safety services provider, agreed to integrate Synety's CloudCall software. Synety said the contract is to provide its CloudCall software - which includes features such as enabling calls to be recorded, logged and categorised - to a limited number of Peninsula staff, and is expected to be worth approximately GBP100,000 per year depending upon actual telephony spend.
Pan European Terminals, up 6.7%. Pan European is set to increase capacity at its Baltic Top subsidiary by a further 10%, after only just raising it by about 10% by extending its storage facilities to over 12,000 metric tonnes with the addition of new tanks.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Anglo American (AAL)
Rio Tinto (RIO)
Genus (GNS)
CRH (CRH)
Ashmore (ASHM)
St James's Place (STJ)
Fresnillo (FRES)
Strip Tinning (STG)
