(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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Tesco, up 2.0%, WM Morrison Supermarkets, up 1.8%. Take-home grocery sales in the UK rose by 17% during the 12 weeks to July 12, the fastest growth rate since 1994, data from research agency Kantar showed. Kantar said total sales reached a record GBP31.6 billion in the period, up from GBP27.05 billion, reflecting three months of increased grocery purchasing during lockdown while most other retailers, bars and restaurants were either closed or experiencing significant reductions in trade. Among the "Big Four" UK grocers, Tesco's market share dipped to 26.7% from 27.1%. This was despite sales rising 15% annually to GBP8.45 billion. Morrison's sales rose 17% to GBP3.25 billion, and its market share increased to 10.3% from 10.2%.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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GVC Holdings, down 10%. The gambling company said the UK HM Revenue & Customs has expanded its investigation launched in November in relation to the company's former Turkish-facing online gambling business, which was sold in December 2017. The company, which owns the Ladbrokes and Coral betting chains, said at the time the probe was launched that it believed the investigation was concerned with a number of former third-party suppliers and the processing of payments for online gambling in Turkey. However, on Tuesday, GVC said was surprised to learn that the UK tax authority is now examining "potential corporate offending" by an unidentified entity - or entities - within the GVC group, providing no further information except making reference to the section 7 Bribery Act 2010. "Until the position is made more transparent, investors will be forced to fill in the gaps by speculating about the impact it might have on the business and its prospects," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.
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BHP Group, down 2.6%. Citigroup downgraded the Anglo-Australian miner to Neutral from Buy. BHP on Tuesday said annual petroleum production was marginally short of guidance, with lower gas demand due to Covid-19, but it met its targets for iron ore and metallurgical coal among others.
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Antofagasta, down 1.5%. Citi cut the Chilean copper miner to Neutral from Buy.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Babcock International, up 7.5%. Barclays raised the defence contractor to Overweight from Equal Weight.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Capital & Counties Properties, down 5.0%. The central London-focused property investor said the value of its Covent Garden estate has fallen since the end of 2019. The total property value for Capco's Covent Garden property has fallen 17% since the end of December to GBP2.2 billion at June 30. More or less all of the valuation movement comes from Capco's retail, leisure, and food & beverage portfolio which accounts for 75% of total property value. The main contributors to the drop were a 12% like-for-like decline in estimated rental value plus yield expansion of 17 basis points to 3.8% and other movements such as the valuer's assumption of a loss of near-term income amounting to GBP31 million.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Ted Baker, up 13%. The fashion retailer reported a sharp drop in revenue, but said that trading has been "resilient" and and ahead of its base-case estimates. For the 11 weeks to July 18, total retail revenue fell 55% year-on-year to GBP60.9 million, with online revenue up 35% to GBP35.2 million and retail store revenue down 79% to GBP15.8 million. The company attributed the sharp drop in store revenue to closures globally, but noted the decline was not as bad as the 83% predicted in the company's base-case revenue scenario after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Like-for-like store sales were down 52% in the 11 weeks versus last year. Ted Baker said 95% of its store estate is now open with 75% of stores operational for the past four weeks. Like-for-like store sales were down 50% year-on-year for the last four weeks of the trading period to July 18. Online sales during the 11-week period represented 69% of total retail sales, versus 25% a year ago, and their 35% rise was significantly ahead of the 19% decline in the base-case revenue scenario.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Forterra, down 2.0%. Jefferies cut the building products company to Hold from Buy.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Tesco (TSCO)
Babcock (BAB)
Antofagasta (ANTO)
Forterra (FORT)
BHP Group (BHP)
