UK WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Games Workshop And Beazley Top FTSE 250

Fri, 08th Nov 2019 10:30

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

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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International Consolidated Airlines Group, down 0.5%. The British Airways parent cut its annual earnings per share growth forecast for three years from 2020 to 2022 due to reduced planned capacity growth. The Anglo-Spanish airline holding company now expects average EPS growth of 10% per annum for the three years, compared with 12% per annum estimated previously. IAG attributed the EPS guidance cut to lower planned available seat per kilometre growth, which is now predicted to be 3.4% per annum compared with around 6% per annum estimated previously for 2019 to 2023. Separately, IAG said that October traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, increased by 4.8% to 24.9 million from 23.8 million a year ago. Year-to-date traffic increased 5.6% to 241.6 million revenue passenger kilometres. October capacity, measured in available seat kilometres, increased by 2.7% year-on-year to 29.4 million from 28.6 million. The company carried 10.4 million passengers in October versus 10.0 million a year ago. Load factor increased to 85.0% from 83.3%.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

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Games Workshop, up 14%. The wargames manufacturer and retailer guided for a solid increase in profit and revenue for the first half of its financial year. Games Workshop said its trading to November 3 has remained robust since its last update on September 18, with sales and profit ahead of the same period the year before. Royalties receivable are also significantly ahead of the prior year, driven by the timing of guarantee income on the signing of new licences. As a result, for the six months ending December 2, Games Workshop expects pretax profit to be no less than GBP55 million, and sales to be at least GBP140 million. At the very least, this reflects a 34% rise from GBP40.8 million pretax profit, and 11% from GBP125.2 million in revenue the year before.

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Beazley, up 7.6%. The insurer posted a 12% increase in year-to-date gross premiums due to double-digit premium growth across its business, driven by organic growth and rate rises across several business lines. For the nine months to September 30, Beazley recorded gross premiums of USD2.19 billion versus USD1.99 billion a year before. Year-to-date investment return stood at 4.0% versus 0.5%. The company, however, also warned that increased storm insurance claims will hit its 2019 combined ratio, a key profitability measure for insurers. Beazley expects a combined ratio of between 100% and 102% for 2019, assuming normalised claims levels for the remainder of the year. In 2018, the company's combined ratio was 98%. A ratio below 100% indicates that the company is making an underwriting profit, while a ratio above 100% means that it is paying out more money in claims that it is receiving from premiums.

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Dunelm, up 3.5%. UBS upped the home furnishings retailer to Buy From Neutral.

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Tate & Lyle, up 1.6%. Kepler Cheuvreux raised the supplier of food and beverage ingredients to Hold from Reduce.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

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IMI, down 2.4%. Morgan Stanley reduced the engineer to Equal-Weight from Overweight.

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G4S, down 1.5%. RBC chopped the security firm to Perform from Outperform.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS

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W Resources, up 13%. The tungsten, tin and gold mining company said commissioning and ramp-up activities at La Parrilla continue to advance. Over five tonnes of tungsten concentrate has been produced which will be purified and tin separated next week, W Resources said. Tungsten concentrate production for the T2 phase at La Parrilla will be underway during November. Also, W Resources said it is in advanced stages of finalising finance facilities and additional equity investment from local Spanish investors.

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Faron Pharmaceuticals, up 11% at 236.75. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company has raised GBP7.5 million through a private placing, which will go towards the clinical development of Clevegen, which is used for cancer treatment by supporting the hosts immune systems against tumours. Faron said it issued 3.9 million shares at a price of 190 pence per share, reflecting a 13% discount to its closing price of 220.00p.

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Savannah Petroleum, up 8.9%. The oil and gas company said it has agreed final long-form documentation in relation to Seven Energy International Ltd financial restructuring. In 2017, Savannah agreed to buy an interest in two assets of Seven Energy. As such, Savannah said the procedural transaction completion process has now commenced. As part of this process, a court hearing has been scheduled by the High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts on Wednesday next week at which Seven Energy will request the appointment of administrators in order to effect the transfer of its assets to the group of companies controlled by Savannah and AIIM.

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Aura Energy, up 6.9%. The minerals company has provided Sweden a written notification under Energy Charter Treaty. Uranium in Sweden was banned in August 2018 and Aura Energy is seeking compensation for the financial loss resulting from this decision. In the trigger letter Aura Energy has requested Sweden for amicable settlement. Discussions shall be ended within a three months period, the company said.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS

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Cap-XX, down 11%. The supercapacitors retailer reported pretax loss of USD2.8 million for the year to the end of June compared to USD2.5 million a year prior, as revenue declined to USD3.2 million from USD4.9 million. The major factor underlying this decrease was the last tranche of the "up-front" component of the AVX license being received in financial 2018, Cap-XX said. Over the past twelve months, the company said it has made "good progress" towards achieving its objectives, despite "strong headwinds" from global uncertainty around free trade and the UK's membership of the EU. Looking ahead, Cap-XX said it has entered the current financial year with a strong pipeline of enquiries and a strengthened portfolio of licensing agreements.

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Beowulf Mining, down 7.2%. The exploration and development company has raised GBP250,000 in gross proceeds through a share subscription to support Vardar Mineral's Mitrovica and Viti projects in Kosovo and for general working capital purposes. Beowulf said it will issue 4.3 million new ordinary at price 5.75 pence per share. At October 31, the company held GBP1.1 million in cash. The company owns about a 42% stake in Vardar Mineral, which holds exploration licences for the Mitrovica and Viti projects. On Wednesday, Beowulf invested a further GBP100,000 in Vardar Minerals, increasing its ownership to 41.5% from 40.1%.

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By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com