UK WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Halma Falls After Warning On 2021 Profit

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

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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Halma, down 5.5%. The hazard detection company warned of a fall in financial 2021 profit due to the coronavirus pandemic. For the financial year that ended March 31, Halma's revenue was up 11% to GBP1.34 billion from GBP1.21 billion in financial 2019. Pretax profit rose 8% to GBP224.1 million from GBP206.7 million the year prior. The figure was just shy of the GBP227 million consensus forecast. Adjusted pretax profit rose by 9% to GBP267.0 million from GBP245.7 million, in line with consensus. Halma raised its total annual dividend 5% to 16.50 pence from 15.71p, which it said was the 41st consecutive year of dividend per share growth. Looking ahead, Halma expects financial 2021 adjusted pretax profit to be 5% to 10% below 2020.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

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QinetiQ Group, up 2.0%. The defence contractor said its order intake continued to be strong in the first quarter of its financial year despite Covid-19 disruptions, as cost cuts reduced the hit to revenue and profit from the virus pandemic. QinetiQ saw a limited impact from Covid-19 on EMEA Services in three months to June 30, it said, as the company has long-term contracts and provides what is considered essential work to its clients. Small impacts on customer trials and training activity were experienced which caused reduced flying hours in Germany, but most of this activity is now resuming. QinetiQ on Tuesday revealed a new acquisition, spending GBP25 million on Manchester-based Naimuri, a software development and data analytics company that provides cloud-based services and technology to UK intelligence and law enforcement. The company also said it has received a GBP30 million five-year contract with the UK Ministry of Defence to provide mission data and technical services to the RAF Typhoon delivery team.

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IP Group, up 1.7%. The intellectual property investor has netted GBP53.6 million from sale of a 5.4% stake in clean energy company Ceres Power Holdings, sole bookrunner Berenberg said. Under the placing, which was announced on Monday, IP Group sold 9.2 million Ceres Power shares at 585 pence per share. Following the completion of the placing, IP Group continues to own 288,784 shares in Ceres Power, representing 0.2% of the issued share capital. Ceres Power shares were down 7.2% at 584.78 pence each. Ceres Power did not receive any proceeds from the share placing.

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AO World, up 0.2%. The online electrical goods retailer said it has benefited from a surge in online shopping, even as lockdown measures ease and high street stores reopen. AO World's revenue in the year ended March 31 climbed 16% to GBP1.05 billion from GBP902.5 million. The Bolton-based online-only retailer reported a pretax profit of GBP1.5 million, swinging from a GBP20.2 million loss. Although Covid-19 lockdowns were introduced shortly before its year-end, AO World still noted it made "significant market share gains".

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

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Rotork, down 4.5%. RBC Capital downgraded the flow control and instrumentation company to Underperform from Sector Perform.

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Centamin, down 3.5%. Berenberg cut the gold miner to Hold from Buy.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS

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Fevertree Drinks, down 5.1%. The premium tonic water maker reported a solid start to its current financial year, but flagged there continues to be short-term uncertainty as bars and pubs reopen across many of its markets. Fevertree said for the first two months of 2020, prior to the Covid-19 outbreak trading was solid; however from March onwards trading was affected by the pandemic. In the UK, Off-Trade sales for the last 12 weeks to June 14 increased by 34% year-on-year, with positive momentum in both the spirits and mixer categories. In addition, Off-Trade sales have grown in the US, with Nielsen data, which covers nearly half of Fevertree's US Off-Trade sales, reporting a sales increase of 89% year-on-year for the 12 weeks ended June 13. Looking ahead, Fevertree said its On-Trade business is gradually reopening across most of its regions, even though the easing of restrictions has been varied, leading to short-term uncertainty.

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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

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