WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Failed Talks Send Oil Down, Travel Stocks Up

LONDON (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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Travel stocks - TUI, up 3.7%; easyJet, up 2.3%; International Consolidated Airlines, up 2.0%; Carnival, up 1.5%. Shares of fuel-consuming travel companies rose in response to a slide in oil prices. Crude prices dropped heavily after top oil producers failed to reach a deal on a production freeze on Sunday. OPEC member countries and major producers from outside the cartel delayed an agreement to freeze crude output levels to shore up low prices, saying they needed "more time for further consultations". The decision followed marathon talks in the Qatari capital of Doha from which OPEC member Iran stayed away.

Reckitt Benckiser Group, up 0.8%. The consumer goods company said it delivered strong like-for-like sales growth in its Health and Hygiene product portfolios in the first quarter, offset by a flat performance in its Home business and a decline in sales for its Portfolio Brands. Reckitt said like-for-like sales for its Health product business grew 11% in the quarter to the end of March. It saw good performances from its Durex range, Gaviscon heartburn relief and Strepsils throat lozenges in the quarter. Hygiene product sales were more muted, up 1.0% in the quarter.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Centrica, down 2.6%. The power company said it is on track to meet its targets for 2016 following a solid performance in the first quarter. Centrica, which has both upstream and downstream oil and gas operations and which runs the British Gas consumer energy business, said it expects to deliver GBP200.0 million in efficiency savings in 2016 as part of its plan to cut GBP750.0 million in costs out of the business. Like-for-like operating costs are set to be lower in 2016 year-on-year, Centrica said, adding that around 3,000 jobs will be cut across the business over the course of 2016, 800 of which were cut in the first quarter to the end of March. Centrica noted that its number of UK home energy supply accounts shrank by 1.5% in the first quarter, primarily due to long-term contract churn.

ARM Holdings, down 2.2%. The microchip designer was downgraded to Hold from Buy by Jefferies.

Oil stocks, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', down 1.8%, Shell 'B', down 1.7%, BP, down 1.3%. Brent was trading at USD41.87 a barrel, compared to USD42.80 at the London equities close Friday, following the failed oil production talks. The North Sea benchmark touched a low of USD40.08 a barrel in early trade Monday, a level it hasn't seen for several weeks.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Thomas Cook Group, up 2.3%. The travel agent was benefiting from the oil price decline and also was upgraded to Hold from Sell by Berenberg.

Lancashire Holdings, up 2.3%. The specialist insurer was upgraded to Buy from Neutral by Citigroup, according to traders.

Interserve, up 1.9%. The support services and construction company said it has been awarded a five-year contract with the Ministry of Defence's Defence Infrastructure Organisation operating arm worth GBP230.0 million. The group said under the contract it will be providing facilities services to the six US Air Force bases in the UK and their associated satellite services, combining four existing facilities support contracts.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Polymetal International, down 0.7%. Citigroup downgraded the miner to Sell from Neutral.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Energy Assets Group, up 39% at 678.51p. The industrial and commercial gas metering services provider agreed to be acquired by Alinda Capital Partners in a GBP198.0 million deal. Alinda, a US infrastructure fund manager, will pay 685.00p per share to acquire Energy Assets, a 40% premium to its closing price on Friday and 41% premium to its volume-weighted average closing price for the month prior to Friday. Energy Assets said its directors, advised by investment bank Numis, consider the offer to be fair and reasonable and unanimously recommend shareholders accept the bid.

Hurricane Energy, up 23% at 12.63 pence. The oil and gas company said it raised GBP52.1 million through a share placing as it posted a narrowed pretax loss in 2015. Hurricane said it will issue 347.2 million shares at 15.00 pence per share, the vast majority of which will be taken up by private equity manager Kerogen Capital. Kerogen will subscribe for 293.9 million of the shares on offer, raising GBP44.1 million of the total.

Immedia Group, up 4.8%. The digital audio content services group said it has signed a five-year deal to provide in-store radio services to franchisees of fast-food chain Subway. Immedia said it has signed a five-year deal with the European Independent Purchasing Co, an organisation owned by Subway franchisees, to supply seven Subway-branded in-store music and marketing channels under the moniker Subway Radio.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Sprue Aegis, off 46%. The home safety products supplier downgraded its expectations for 2015 after it decided to increase its warranty provision following an issue with batteries from a third-party supplier. Sprue Aegis said it has recently identified an issue in certain batteries from a third-party supplier which may cause a premature low-battery warning in some of Sprue's smoke alarm models sold in the UK and Europe. Due to this, Sprue Aegis has increased its 2015 warranty provision to GBP6.8 million, compared to GBP900,000 a year earlier, a GBP5.5 million hike from the previous provision made for 2015.

Northbridge Industrial Services, down 10% at 76.30p. The industrial equipment company swung to loss in 2015 due to the downturn in spending by oil and gas companies, adding it will not offer a final dividend to shareholders and will raise further equity in a share placing and open offer. Northbridge posted a pretax loss of GBP8.6 million for the year ended December 31 from a profit of GBP6.3 million a year earlier. The company said it is not proposing a final dividend, meaning its full year dividend is 1.00p, down from 6.20p for 2014. Northbridge said it plans to raise between GBP4.0 million and GBP4.5 million in the placing, consisting of 1.8 million shares placing firm and up to a further 4.2 million shares being placed subject to shareholder approval. The placing will be an accelerated bookbuild, and the shares will be sold at a price of 75.00p each.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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