UK WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Travel Stocks Left Behind By Market Rally

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

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

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J Sainsbury, up 2.5%, WM Morrison Supermarkets, up 2.5%. Bernstein raised the two UK supermarket chains to Outperform from Market Perform.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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International Consolidated Airlines Group, down 9.1%, Carnival, down 5.0%, easyJet, down 4.3%. Travel stocks remained under pressure amid coronavirus fears, despite a mild rebound in global equity markets generally. The FTSE 100 was up 0.9% at 6,637.42 on Monday morning. The large-cap index closed down 215.79 points, or 3.2%, at 6,580.61 on Friday and ended the week down 11%, its worst weekly performance since the 2008 financial crisis. "For this rebound to stick you really need to see a rebound in travel and leisure and at the moment we aren't seeing that, and that is a worry," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

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Senior, up 6.5%. The aerospace parts maker reported "robust" annual results despite the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX jet causing disruption. Senior's revenue increased 3% in 2019 to GBP1.11 billion, but excluding currency movements, the figure actually declined by 1%. Pretax profit for the year fell by 53% at actual rates to GBP28.7 million, and the adjusted figure declined by 5% to GBP78.5 million. Senior's profit was hit by a GBP22.0 million loss in disposal following the sale of its Flexonics operations in France early in 2019. Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire-based Senior has proposed a final dividend of 5.23 pence per share. This would take the year's total to 7.51p, meaning a 1.2% year-on-year increase.

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Hiscox, up 5.2%. The insurer raised its annual dividend, even as annual pretax profit more than halved due to large catastrophe events. For 2019, the company's pretax profit dropped by 61% to USD53.1 million to USD135.6 million the year before. Hiscox said the profit performance was affected by large catastrophes, with USD165 million reserved for hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas and typhoons Faxai and Hagibis. There was also higher claims and claim adjustment expenses at USD3.21 billion versus USD2.33 billion, as well as expenses for the acquisition of insurance contracts at USD944.9 million from USD882.0 million. Total annual income grew by 9.4% to USD2.91 billion from USD2.66 billion the prior year. Hiscox declared a final dividend of 29.60 cents per share, bringing the total payout to 43.35 cents, up 3.6% from 41.85 cents in 2018.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

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PageGroup, down 4.6%. Credit Suisse double downgraded the recruiter to Underperform from Outperform.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS

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Johnson Service Group, up 11%. The workspace clothing rental firm reported a "strong" financial performance in 2019. Revenue in the year rose 9.2% on the prior year to GBP350.6 million. Johnson Service reported organic growth of 6.5%. Pretax profit climbed 15% to GBP38.1 million, with the adjusted figure rising 13% to GBP48.2 million. Cheshire-based Johnson Service has proposed a dividend of 2.35 pence per share, which would take the total dividend to 2019 to 3.5p, a 13% rise on the year before. The Workwear division, which provides work clothing rental and laundry services to the food and industrial sectors, delivered a 5.0% revenue increase to GBP135.3 million. Trading was "strong", Johnson Service said.

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Starcom, up 8.5%. The Chicago-headquartered media company said it anticipates growth going forward despite its loss widening in 2019. Starcom reported a pretax loss of USD1.0 million for 2019 compared to USD831,000 loss a year earlier, as operating expenses increased to USD3.5 million from USD3.3 million. Starcom explained that costs grew mainly due to non-cash expenses such as depreciation and share option provisions. Revenue, meanwhile, grew by 14% to USD6.8 million from USD6.0 million year-on-year. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation totalled USD300,000 versus USD8,000 Ebitda loss a year ago. Looking ahead, Chief Executive Avi Hartmann said: "Based on our existing range of products, mature technology, global client base, recurring software-as-a-service revenue and substantial sales pipeline, the company anticipates continued growth in 2020."

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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

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