(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS
----------
TUI, up 1.5%. The Anglo-German tour operator said it is to assess the financial impact of smaller rival Thomas Cook Group's collapse. Thomas Cook went into insolvency in the early hours of Monday, after talks with lenders and shareholders on Sunday failed to come up with crucial funding. TUI is preparing measures to support its customers booked on Thomas Cook flights, it said on Tuesday, offering replacement flights. TUI is currently assessing the financial impact this will have on its year ending September 30. However, trading in the Markets & Airlines division has been stronger since mid-August, in terms of both bookings and selling prices, meaning summer 2019 bookings are flat year-on-year. Positive growth in bookings was recorded in Turkey and North Africa. Elsewhere, the Hotels & Resorts unit is delivering "balanced results". Demand is shifting to the eastern Mediterranean from the west, with demand for Spanish holidays "normalising" after recent record annual performances. In addition, UBS raised the stock to Neutral from Sell.
----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS
----------
AG Barr, up 6.2%. The soft drinks maker raised its interim dividend and said it is on course to deliver a full-year performance in line with its revised expectations, following a profit warning in July. For the six months ended July 27, the FTSE 250 maker of IRN-BRU reported pretax profit of GBP13.9 million, down 23% from GBP18.2 million a year before. This was on revenue that dropped by 10% to GBP122.5 million from GBP136.9 million. AG Barr's performance was hampered by one-off benefits in the same period the prior year, including a benefit from soft drink volumes in 2018 because of favourable weather, including a hot summer in the UK. AG Barr declared an interim dividend of 4.00 pence per share, up 2.6% from 3.90p the year before.
----------
Card Factory, up 3.0%. The greeting card retailer returned to like-for-like sales growth, with its interim performance strong despite continued weakness on the UK high street. Card Factory's like-for-like sales were up 1.5% on a year before in the six months to July 31, having declined 0.2% a year ago. Store like-for-like growth rose 1.2%, despite lower High Street footfall, with online sales surging 25%. This helped the gift card retailer's revenue for the period climb 5.5% to GBP195.6 million, though pretax profit did decline 14% to GBP24.3 million. Underlying pretax profit slipped 7.9% to GBP22.0 million. Card Factory kept both the ordinary and special dividends flat for the half, at 2.9 pence and 5.0p respectively.
----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS
----------
Primary Health Properties, down 5.3%. The healthcare-focused property firm said it planned to raise up to GBP100 million to fund its acquisition and development of new healthcare centres. The firm intends to place shares through a bookbuild to raise GBP75 million, with the ability to upscale the offer to GBP100 million. The bookbuild will open immediately and will be run by Numis Securities and Peel Hunt. It is expected to close at 1600 BST on Tuesday. Pricing will be determined as part of the bookbuild process. Primary Health will use the proceeds raised to fund the "rise in the number of opportunities" for new developments in both Ireland the UK over the last year.
----------
Royal Mail, down 3.5%. Liberum cut the postal operator to Sell from Hold.
----------
Close Brothers, down 1.5%. The merchant bank announced the departure of Chief Executive Preben Prebensen, in tandem with its annual results. For the financial year ended July, pretax profit slipped 2.4% to GBP264.7 million from GBP271.2 million the year prior. This was despite operating income rising 1.3% to GBP816.4 million from GBP805.8 million the year before. Profit performance was hurt by operating costs increasing at the faster pace of 3.5% to GBP497.4 million from GBP480.5 million the year prior. Prebensen said he will step down as boss of the FTSE 250-listed firm after a decade in the role. He will remain at the firm for another year in order to "ensure a smooth handover".
----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
----------
Tritax Eurobox REIT, up 93%. The industrial warehouse investor said it has acquired two logistics facilities in Bremen, Germany, for EUR60.3 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 4.8%. The two facilities were purpose built in 2013 and 2019, respectively, and have a combined gross internal area of 57,537 square metres. The 2019 property is exclusively let to logistics operator Kieserling Spedition & Logistik on a 10-year lease starting from February. The 2013 asset is let to Kieserling, THIMM Packaging Systems and Bremer Spirituosen on shorter leases. Tritax EuroBox said its current portfolio value totals EUR670 million, of which EUR212 million in Germany.
----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
----------
Metro Bank, down 14%. The high street bank confirmed it has postponed a debt issue due to "current market conditions". Metro Bank said a "broad number" of investors showed interest in a maiden MREL issuance, which it needs to complete to meet EU rules. MREL stands for minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities and relates to EU solvency legislation. On Monday, the Financial Times had reported Metro Bank had been forced to withdraw a GBP200 million to GBP250 million bond offering, after only received orders for GBP175 million. The latest blow comes after UK regulators spotted an error in the bank's loan book, though Metro Bank had originally said it found the problem itself.
----------
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2019 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Close Bros (CBG)
Primary Health (PHP)
Barr (A.G.) (BAG)
Metro Bank (MTRO)
TUI AG (TUI)
Card Factory (CARD)
Tritax Eurobox (EBOX)