LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - Winners
EasJet, up 2.3%. Absent of any specific news, the airline is performing well on the back of recent encouraging updates from Tui and Thomas Cook on the state of the holiday industry and following recent weakness after the Ryanair profit warning, says Wyn Ellis, airline analyst at Numis Securities. EasyJet will Thursday put out a trading statement and September traffic stats, and hold an analyst event, with Sam Dodson, analyst at Macquarie, citing speculation the airline may raise guidance or announce a special dividend.
Wolseley, up 2.2%. The distributor of plumbing and heating products reported full year results which came in ahead of consensus expectations. European, including the UK, results were less bad than feared, and a capital return of GBP300 million came as a sweetner. Pretax profit of GBP702 million, up from GBP635 million last year, was ahead of Liberum's forecast of GBP675 million. Wolseley's management has announced that trends look set to continue. This suggests that US like-for-like sales growth will continue at close to 8%, with UK growth at 5%, whilst European trends are expected to remain negative, but start to moderate, Liberum says.
Experian, up 2.1%, after it said it will acquire The 41st Parameter Inc., a fraud-detection services company in the US for a total of USD324 million, USD14 million of which is subject to limited two-year earn-out provisions. This acquisition will be funded from Experian's existing cash resources. The information services company says it expects 41st Parameter to deliver around USD26 million of revenue for the year ending December 31. Analysts at Jefferies calculate that turnover will need to treble to USD75-80 million to cover the cost of capital.
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FTSE 100 - Losers
Unilever, down 3.7%, after its warning that it is now seeing weakness in its emerging markets. Liberum Capital says it will have to cut earnings-per-share forecasts by 4-5% as a result of the update but does not intend to cut its Buy recommendation. The big issue say analysts is how temporary the impact is and how quickly Unilever can respond by making cost savings.
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FTSE 250 - Winners
ITE Group, up 5.3%. The international exhibitions group specialising in emerging and developing markets, Tuesday said it expects higher annual revenues in line with market expectations. In an update for the year ending September 30, the firm said revenues for the fourth quarter reflect positive trading conditions in most overseas markets. Revenue for the full year is expected to be about GBP191 million, compared with GBP172 million last year. The group ran 28 events in the fourth quarter producing revenue of circa GBP26 million, a slight drop from last year's GBP27 million. On a like-for-like basis, revenues are 4% up on last year.
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AIM - Winners
Vatukoula Gold Mines, up 27.8%, as it moved a step closer to getting the USD40 million in Chinese funding it has arranged after Chinese authorities gave an initial thumbs up. It's now awaiting final Chinese approval and a waiver from UK takeover authorities that Zhongrun International Mining Co. won't have to bid for the whole company once it takes a 66% stake by providing the mine development funding. It's hoping to close the deal by the end of the month. The company also announced an 18% reduction in cash costs per tonne for the year, to USD148 from USD180, while the total underground tonnes mined increased to 97,701, from 94,793.
AorTech International, up 8.4%. The biomedical company announced it has signed an agreement with Biomerics LLC to license the rights to manufacture and distribute the patented silicone/urethane co-polymers Elast-Eon and ECSil. Elast-Eon and ECSil are silicone products used throughout the medical-device industry. "AorTech will assist Biomerics in transferring the manufacturing know-how and, once the products are validated, Biomerics will supply the polymer requirements of AorTech's current licensees," AorTech said.
Tri-Star Resources, up 8.1%. The mining firm said Portage Minerals Inc, which it is acquiring, has filed the necessary paperwork to close the deal and it expects to get clearance for the deal on October 4. Tri-Star said Portage had filed a so-called articles of amalgamation. It expects its new shares to start trading October 8, the same day the deal is now expected to complete.
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AIM - Losers
Daniel Stewart Securities, down 39%. Stockbroker and wealth manager Daniel Stewart Securities PLC Monday reported it swung to loss in its last financial year as revenues slumped, mainly due to a balance sheet mark down of the value of unrealised assets but also because its corporate advisory and stockbroking operations were hit by the economic downturn. Shares continue to decline Tuesday after a heavy fall Monday.
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By Jon Darby; jondarby@alliancenews.com; @jondarby100
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Unilever (ULVR)
Experian (EXPN)
easyJet (EZJ)