WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Forbidden Technologies Up On Microsoft Deal

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Smiths Group, down 2.3%. The engineer said pretax profit rose in the first half thanks to better operating margins, though its John Crane business continues to suffer amid the tough oil and gas markets. The diversified engineer, which will be demoted from the FTSE 100 next week, said pretax profit for the six months to the end of July was GBP168.0 million, up from GBP131.0 million a year earlier. Revenue fell to GBP1.37 billion from GBP1.42 billion, but the group's operating margin improved to 13.3% from 11.6%. Smiths said it will pay an interim dividend of 13.25 pence per share, up from 13.00p a year earlier.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals, down 1.7%. The pharmaceuticals company, which will be demoted to the FTSE 250 next week, reported a fall in pretax profit in 2015, but forecast a significant rise in revenue for the year ahead, helped by its recent acquisition of the Roxane Laboratories, despite lowering its guidance for the Roxane business last month. The company reported a pretax profit of USD318 million, down from USD362 million in 2014, as revenue slipped to USD1.44 billion from USD1.49 billion the year before. Hikma proposed a final dividend of 21 cents per share, taking its total dividend to 32 cents for the year, in line with what it paid in 2014.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Tullow Oil, up 4.1%. The oil and gas company said it has encountered "good oil shows" across an interval of over 700 metres in the Cheptuket-1 well in Block12A in northern Kenya. The well is the first one to test the Kerio Valley Basin and was drilled by the PR Marriott Rig-46 to a final depth of 3,083 metres.

Greggs, up 1.5%. The food-to-go retailer was upgraded to Hold from Sell by Berenberg.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Thomas Cook Group, down 6.4%. The travel company was downgraded to Sell from Neutral by Citi.

Moneysupermarket.com Group, down 4.5%. The price comparison site's founder Simon Nixon has completed the sale of his entire remaining stake in the company, according to sole bookrunner Credit Suisse. Credit Suisse Securities placed 37.8 million shares on behalf of Nixon at 328.00 pence per share, raising a total of GBP124.0 million. The shares sold represent around 6.9% of the company's issued share capital. Moneysupermarket shares closed at 343.6p on Tuesday and were quoted at 328.20p Wednesday. The intended sale was announced soon after the market close Tuesday.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Forbidden Technologies, up 33%. The cloud-based video technology group said it has signed a deal with US technology giant Microsoft Corp for it Forscene cloud video platform. Under the deal, Microsoft will be able to sell the Forscene platform through its Azure cloud computing marketplace. "Not only is this agreement a further validation of the efficacy of our technology, it's an important milestone as we further expand our sales apparatus. Whilst we expect to generate some income directly from this agreement in 2016, we anticipate its financial impact being most acutely seen from 2017," said Aziz Musa, Forbidden's chief executive.

Kainos Group, up 4.7%. The software services company said trading remains in line with its expectations, with some signs of improvement in conditions in the public sector market. Kainos said a gradual brightening of conditions in the UK public sector market should drive further opportunities on its contracts with the Ministry of Justice and the Office of National Statistics. Kainos also remains optimistic on potential opportunities from the ongoing digitisation of the UK's National Health Service and said it is well positioned to benefit when work arises. Kainos also signed a partnership with InTouch Health, a telehealth services company, with the deal focused on Kainos's Evolve unit boosting InTouch's mobile capabilities.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Cambridge Cognition Holdings, down 16%. The neuropsychological tests developer said it is expecting net loss of GBP800,000 in its 2015 results, after a delay to one of the three clinical trial contracts announced in November. Cambridge Cognition said in November it had won three pharmaceutical clinical trial contracts totalling USD4.5 million with upfront payments and revenues to be recognised through to 2017. It said it expected trial initial revenue for the trials in its 2015 results. However, the group said the pharmaceutical partner for one of the three studies informed the company of delays in initiating the planned clinical study due to regulatory reviews, resulting in the revenue shifting to 2016.

Wandisco, down 16%. The Big Data company said reduced costs resulted in a narrowed loss in 2015, though revenue edged lower. WANdisco said its pretax loss for the year to the end of December narrowed to USD31.0 million from USD39.4 million a year earlier, despite revenue slipping slightly to USD11.0 million from USD11.2 million. The narrowed loss resulted from a lower cost of sales and fewer operating expenses.

Tribal Group, down 6.6% at 40.50 pence. The education software group announced a discounted rights issue to shore up its financial position as its loss for 2015 widened significantly. Tribal said it will raise GBP21.0 million through a fully-underwritten rights issue in order to reduce its debt pile. It will issue 94.8 million shares at 22.00p per share to raise the funds. The move came as the group's pretax loss for the year to the end of December widened to GBP47.3 million from a GBP6.3 million loss a year earlier, primarily due to impairment charges as it restructured its operations.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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