WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: JD Sports Rises After Strong Christmas

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Paddy Power Betfair, down 3.0%. Barclays downgraded the bookmaker to Equal Weight from Overweight.----------Next, down 2.7%. Credit Suisse cut the clothing and homeware retailer to Underperform from Neutral.----------HSBC Holdings, down 1.2%. Deutsche Bank downgraded the lender to Sell from Hold. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------JD Sports Fashion, up 7.8%. The sportswear retailer reported "significant progress", leading to a strong increase in sales across Black Friday and Christmas. JD now expects pretax profit, for its financial year ending February 2, to be "at the upper end of market expectations", which range between GBP325 million and GBP352 million. A year earlier, JD's pretax profit was GBP307.4 million. In the 48 weeks to January 5, total sales were up 15% across all the company's global shop brands, excluding the acquisitions of Finish Line in the US and Sport Zone in Iberia. Like-for-like sales in the same period was up by "more than 5%", JD said, driven by a positive performance from the Black Friday sales events and Christmas.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Premier Oil, down 9.5%. The oil and gas company said it has not made a firm decision to bid for US oil major Chevron Corp's assets, which are currently being marketed. On Sunday, The Times reported that Premier Oil was considering a fundraising to buy an approximately USD1.5 billion package of North Sea oil and gas fields from Chevron. According to The Times, Premier Oil is intending to fund the acquisition through a rights issue or share placing, and could also consider selling all or part of its Latin American business, Responding to the report early Monday, Premier Oil said that there is "no guarantee that the group will bid in any process or that any process will complete". The firm went on to say that it has also not yet decided on how its bid would be financed if it were to be successful.----------PageGroup, down 5.6%. The recruiter reported 16% growth in fourth-quarter gross profit due to strong performances across all business regions but said annual gross profit was dented by exchange rate movements. Page said foreign exchange movements decreased reported annual gross profit by GBP10 million and operating profit by GBP2 million. Gross profit for 2018 stood at GBP815.0 million, up from GBP711.6 million in 2017. Operating profit is anticipated to be in line with company-compiled consensus estimate of GBP141.8 million. The company recorded GBP211.1 million gross profit for the final quarter of 2018, up from GBP182.4 million in the year-ago period. Fee earning accounts totalled 58, with the company having added 561 fee earning accounts in the first three quarters of 2018.----------Countryside Properties, down 4.6%. JPMorgan cut the housebuilder to Underweight from Neutral. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Horizonte Minerals, up 14%. The nickel development company said it has been awarded the construction licence for the development of its Araguaia ferronickel project in Brazil. The company said the licence was granted by the Brazilian Para State Environmental Agency to construct the Araguaia rotary kiln electric furnace processing plant and associated infrastructure. Looking ahead, Horizonte Minerals said it is now in a position to commence construction, subject to funding. It highlighted that, over the initial 28-year mine life, Araguaia is expected to generate cash flows after taxation of USD1.6 billion and sits on the lower half of the global cost curve. ----------Highlands Natural Resources, up 14%. The natural resource investor said all wells in its East Denver project have started production. The company now holds a 7.5% stake in the eight producing wells and said it expects to receive "robust revenue streams" from them in 2019. ----------JPJ Group, up 5.5%. The online gaming firm said it expects to report annual revenue and earnings at the upper end of the current market expectations for 2018. The company said it has seen some consistent trends across the group in 2018, with unit Vera&John recording a "standout" performance of strong organic growth. Meanwhile, the JPJ division's performance reflected consequences of the introduction of enhanced responsible gambling measures in the UK.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Revolution Bars, down 18%. The UK bars operator said it expects to report lower earnings in its current financial year, hurt by a decline in like-for-like sales and increased expenses. Like-for-like sales performance for the 26 weeks ended December 29 was 4.0% below last year, with the first quarter down by 5.0% and second quarter 3.1% lower. The 26 week reporting period does not include New Year's Eve. Looking forward, the company said it expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization in the first half of 2019 to be GBP2.0 million lower year-on-year due to the like-for-like sales decline and increased operating costs. Accordingly, it expects adjusted Ebitda for the full year to be GBP12.0 million, down from GBP15.0 million reported in financial 2018. In addition, Peel Hunt cut the stock to Hold from Add. ----------Verona Pharma, down 21%. The biopharmaceutical company said its phase two clinical trial of nebulized Ensifentrine did not meet its primary endpoint but did perform better than placebo. The three-day phase two clinical pharmacology trial of Ensifentrine in moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients did not meet its primary endpoint. COPD is a the name for a number of conditions that cause difficulty breathing. In this trial, nebulized Ensifentrine was given in combination with Stiolto Respimat, a commonly used maintenance treatment for COPD patients. The trial evaluated the effect of two different doses, 1.5 milligrams and 6.0 milligrams, twice a day. The primary endpoint of the study was to achieve peak forced expiratory volume in one second, or FEV1, after the morning dose on day three of the trial, and this was not met with statistical significance.----------