UK WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Hochschild Glitters After Strong Results

Wed, 19th Feb 2020 10:32

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

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

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Berkeley Group, up 2.8%. HSBC raised the housebuilder to Buy from Hold.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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NMC Health, down 4.5%. The embattled private healthcare company said late Tuesday it will "urgently seek clarity" about its former chair's "shareholding arrangements" after it received notice that his investment company sold GBP111.8 million worth of shares across a series of transactions earlier in February. Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, founder of the Abu Dhabi-focused hospital group, resigned as non-executive chair on Monday. He had been banned from attending board meetings for inaccurately reporting shareholdings in the company. Across six transactions between February 3 and February 6, BRS International Holding, which Shetty is the sole shareholder of, sold 10.9 million NMC shares for GBP111.8 million, according to an automatically generated statement received by NMC on Sunday.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

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Man Group, up 7.0%. Exane BNP raised the asset manager to Outperform from Neutral.

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Hochschild Mining, up 6.5%. The gold miner said profit doubled in 2019 as it delivered "further strong progress". The company said revenue rose 7% to USD755.7 million, compared to USD704.3 million in 2018. Pretax profit doubled to USD76.8 million from USD38.4 million a year ago. Hochschild said full-year attributable production was 477,400 gold equivalent ounces, exceeding guidance of 457,000 gold equivalent ounces. The company said it would target production of 422,000 gold equivalent ounces in 2020. Hochschild said this was mostly due to the record performances at Inmaculada mine in Peru and San Jose mine in Argentina. Hochschild proposed final dividend of 2.335 US cents, a 19% increase from 1.959 US cents a year ago.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

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Moneysupermarket.com, down 2.5%. The price comparison website said Chief Executive Officer Mark Lewis has indicated he intends to step down to "pursue his career in a new direction". The FTSE 250-listed company did not give a specific date for his departure, but Lewis has said he wished to ensure a "smooth transition" to his successor. The comparison website operator has started a formal search process for his replacement, looking at both internal and external candidates. Lewis, who became CEO three years ago, remains in the role and fully engaged with the business in the meantime, the company said.

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Elementis, down 2.4%, Aston Martin Lagonda, down 2.1%. Peel Hunt started coverage on the speciality chemicals company and the luxury carmaker with Hold ratings.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS

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Vitec Group, up 3.0%. Peel Hunt started coverage on the photography and video products maker with a Buy rating.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS

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RPS Group, down 15%. The professional services firm reported a deteriorated performance in 2019 but said it expects earnings to stabilise going forward. RPS said revenue declined in 2019 to GBP612.6 million from GBP637.4 million in 2018 amid lower fee income, which fell to GBP556.5 million from GBP574.2 million. Pretax profit also came in lower year-on-year, at GBP4.8 million compared to GBP41.0 million as the company booked an exceptional charge of GBP23.4 million versus none a year ago. This included a goodwill impairment charge relating to the impairment of the RPS business in Asia-Pacific. Performance of this business was poor in the first half of 2019, RPS noted. Elsewhere, RPS said the Energy unit benefited from improving market conditions and had a "good" year. Meanwhile, the political uncertainty in the UK hurt Consulting UK & Ireland division, although the uncertainty was reduced by the outcome of the UK general election, which took place in December.

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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com