UK WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Ashtead Hits Record High On Guidance Lift

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

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

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Ashtead Group, up 3.5%. Shares in the equipment rentals firm hit a record high of 3,341 pence after the company maintained its interim dividend and upped its guidance. The London-based company posted a pretax profit for the six months ended October 31 of GBP506.2 million, narrowing 23% from GBP660.2 million a year prior. Revenue dipped 6.1% to GBP2.30 billion from GBP2.45 billion the year before. Going forward, Ashtead expects full-year results ahead of its previous expectations. Current full-year guidance sees group revenue decreasing 3% to 7% from last year's GBP5.05 billion. Previous guidance saw revenue decreasing between 5% and 9%. Ashtead maintained its interim dividend at 7.15 pence per share. "It is remarkable that Ashtead’s shares are setting a new all-time high today given the still-uncertain economic backdrop, but its second-quarter figures do show a further improvement in business momentum and investors are clearly still in the mood to price in a full-blown recovery in 2021 and beyond," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.

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Intertek, up 2.5%. Bank of America double upgraded the quality assurance provider to Buy from Underperform.

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SSE, up 2.8%, National Grid, up 2.0%. The power utility firms both responded to news from Ofgem that it will not be cutting the amount energy networks can give to shareholders by as much as originally planned. The UK energy regulator will allow network companies to pay a return on equity of 4.3% to their investors between 2021 and 2026. This forms part of the final determinations of Ofgem's RIIO-2 network price control. The 4.3% figure is much lower than the high returns of between 7% and 8% that are currently allowed, but does exceed the originally planned 3.95% that energy networks were told they could be facing in Ofgem's preliminary decision in July. Ofgem also announced a GBP30 billion spending package, up from GBP25 billion in its July proposal. National Grid said it will be reviewing the full package of the final determination in detail "to see whether it delivers sufficient investment to maintain resilient and reliable networks". SSE said it was encouraged by the support for its stakeholder-led business plan throughout Ofgem's consultative process and cautiously welcomed Ofgem's movement "on a number of fronts".

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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InterContinental Hotels Group, down 2.8%. Jefferies downgraded the hotel operator to Underperform from Hold.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

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Virgin Money UK, up 4.0%. Liberum started coverage on the challenger bank with a Buy rating.

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Centamin, up 2.5%. UBS started coverage on the Egypt-focused gold miner with a Buy rating.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

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Meggitt, down 2.5%. Morgan Stanley downgraded the aerospace parts maker to Equal-weight from Overweight.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS

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Redde Northgate, up 2.2%. The vehicle hire company reported a higher profit for the first half of its financial year thanks to revenue contribution from Redde after a February merger. The company was created through the merger of light commercial hire business Northgate and incident and accident management, legal and other mobility-related services firm Redde. This all-share merger completed in February. For the six months ended October 31, its pretax profit was GBP25.9 million, up 4.4% from GBP24.8 million the year before as revenue climbed 55% to GBP556.0 million from GBP357.8 million. Excluding vehicle sales, revenue was up 61%, an increase attributable to Redde, which is included in revenue following the merger on February 21.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS

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Metro Bank, down 2.6%. Liberum initiated coverage on the high street bank with a Sell rating.

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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

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