(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Coca-Cola HBC, up 3.0%. Goldman Sachs upgraded the soft drinks bottler to Buy from Neutral.
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Smith & Nephew, up 2.2%. The medical devices maker guided for a 4% drop in underlying revenue growth for the third quarter to September, a significant improvement from a 29% decline recorded for the second quarter of 2020. "All three franchises showed significant recovery following an overall underlying revenue decline of 29.3% for the second quarter," Smith & Nephew said. The company's three units are orthopaedics; sports medicine and ear, nose & throat; and advanced wound management. The improvement was strongest in the Orthopaedics division, the company said, as global levels of elective surgery continued to recover. Monthly group growth rates were broadly stable through the third quarter, with some seasonality and monthly variation across division and regions due to Covid-19, Smith & Nephew added.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Rolls-Royce, down 11% at 116.00 pence. The jet engine maker's shares fell to the lowest levels since 2003 after it set out plans to raise up to GBP5 billion in new funding, including a deeply discounted rights issue of new shares. Rolls-Royce intends to raise gross proceeds of around GBP2 billion by way of a fully underwritten 10 for 3 rights issue of 7.4 million new shares at 32 pence each. In conjunction with the rights issue, Rolls-Royce said it intends to commence a bond offering to raise gross proceeds of at least GBP1 billion. The Trent 1000 engine maker also agreed commitments for a new two-year term loan facility of GBP1 billion and received an indication of support from UK Export Finance for an extension of its 80% guarantee to support a potential increase of the existing GBP2 billion five-year term loan of up to GBP1 billion. "Investors taking part in the share and bond issue need to have considerable faith in the aviation industry getting back on its feet. Handing over money now to back Rolls-Royce would also require considerable patience as this is unlikely to be a rapid recovery story," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.
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DCC, down 6.0%. Goldman Sachs downgraded the Irish support services firm to Sell from Neutral.
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InterContinental Hotels Group, down 3.5%. Exane BNP cut the hotel operator to Neutral from Outperform.
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British American Tobacco, down 3.0%. The stock went ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest payout.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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TP ICAP, down 4.9%. The stock went ex-dividend.
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Britvic, down 4.5%. Goldman cut the soft drinks maker to Neutral from Buy.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Corero Network Security, up 23%. The cybersecurity company hailed its third-quarter performance, which was a record for the company. In the three months to September 30, Corero secured record order intake with USD6 million booked during the period. "The orders include Corero's largest ever customer order; nine new customer wins, including three customers in APAC," Corero added.
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Halfords Group, up 21%. The car parts and bicycle retailer said it expects its interim profit to double as demand stays strong, even as the UK's "staycation" season draws to a close. In the five weeks to September 25, like-for-like sales surged 22%, with cycling alone seeing a 46% jump during the period. Many holidaymakers in the UK have opted to stay closer to home in their travels during summer 2020, amid ever-changing international quarantine requirements, boosting demand for outdoor products firms such as Halfords. "Motoring in our Retail business improved to 7.5% life-for-like in the five-week period. Our Autocentres business continued to grow strongly, up 18% like-for-like (64% including acquisitions)." Halfords now expects interim underlying pretax profit before IFRS16 in excess of GBP55 million, more than doubled annually from GBP25.9 million achieved in the six months to September 27 of last year.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Boohoo Group, down 1.1%. Credit Suisse downgraded the online fashion retailer to Underperform from Neutral. Boohoo on Wednesday reported its first-half profit doubled and expects annual revenue to climb by almost a third as the fast-fashion firm promised "substantive" changes following an independent review into its supply chain.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Corero Network (CNS)
Britvic (BVIC)
InterContinental Hotels (IHG)
Smith & Nephew (SN.)
British American Tobacco (BATS)
Coca-Cola HBC (CCH)
Halfords (HFD)
TP ICAP (TCAP)
DCC (DCC)
Rolls-Royce (RR.)
Boohoo (BOO)