WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Miton Group Rises On Merger With Rival

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

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Prudential, up 5.9%, Standard Chartered, 3.7%, Burberry Group, up 3.5%, HSBC, up 2.0%. China-exposed stocks were higher after the Financial Times and local media reported Hong Kong's embattled pro-Beijing leader is planning to permanently shelve a loathed extradition bill on Wednesday, a potentially major concession to pro-democracy protesters after three months of crippling demonstrations. Carrie Lam, the city's unelected chief executive, is expected the make the announcement Wednesday afternoon, the South China Morning Post and the HK01 news website reported, citing sources. "It remains to be seen whether it will be enough to reverse the poison and mistrust between the people of Hong Kong and its executive, but it is at least a start, and this optimism has rippled over into a positive open here in Europe this morning, with strong gains across the board from financials as well as luxury stocks, with Asia focussed HSBC, Standard Chartered, Prudential and Burberry amongst the biggest risers," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed 3.9% higher.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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Barratt Developments, down 2.6%. The housebuilder said its annual profit climbed due to successful "margin initiatives". Barratt posted a GBP909.8 million pretax profit for the financial year ended June 30, up 8.9% from GBP835.5 million the year before. This was just shy of the company's guidance of GBP910 million provided in July.This was attributed to "margin initiatives, a strong close to the year and additional contribution from joint ventures". Revenue fell 2.3% to GBP4.76 billion from GBP4.87 billion year-on-year. This was below company-compiled consensus of 16 analysts, which forecast revenue of GBP4.83 billion. The company said it has "strong total forward sales", standing at 12,911 homes on Sunday last week, up from 12,648 homes a year prior. This represents a value of GBP3.00 billion, down slightly from GBP3.05 billion a year before. Peel Hunt cut the stock to Hold from Add.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

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Dunelm Group, down 7.5%. The homewares retailer reported a double-digit profit rise but said it is cautious on its future outlook as a result of Brexit uncertainty. For its financial year ended June 29, Dunelm posted a 4.8% rise in revenue to GBP1.10 billion from GBP1.05 billion the year before. On a like-for-like basis, not including stores recently opened and websites that have been closed, it rose 11% to GBP1.02 billion from GBP924.7 million. Pretax profit jumped 35% to GBP125.9 million from GBP93.1 million and on an underlying basis by 23% from GBP102.0 million. The latter figure does not consider 2018's exceptional cost of GBP8.9 million largely from efforts to integrate the Worldstores website, which subsequently was closed in the first quarter of financial 2019. Dunlem said it is cautious about its financial 2020 outlook as a result of Brexit uncertainty.

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Kainos Group, down 5.0%. The digital services and platforms firm said annual results for its year ending March 2020 are aligned with market expectations. Kainos said it "has delivered a solid Digital Services performance", and momentum has been good across its commercial, healthcare and government clients. Kainos said its Digital Transformation unit has "made progress within the commercial sector" while remaining a "key supplier in the UK government's digital transformation programme". Kainos said it is cautious regarding public sector spending given the political environment in the UK at present.

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Avast, down 3.3% at 373.40p. Shares in the antivirus software maker were lower after a shareholder sold off all of its remaining stake. On Tuesday, Jefferies International had said Sybil Holdings would be selling 120.9 million shares, or just over 12% of the cybersecurity company, in a sale worth GBP466.4 million at Tuesday's closing price in London. Jefferies on Wednesday confirmed this has been completed, at a price of 367 pence per Avast share, giving a gross value of GBP443.7 million. Avast received no proceeds from the sale.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS

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Miton Group, up 24% at 50.6p. Money managers Premier Asset Management Group and Miton have agreed a merger, Premier AM said, creating a business with assets of over GBP11 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Miton shareholders will get 0.30186 Premier AM shares per Miton share. Based on a closing price on Wednesday in London for Premier AM of 171.75p, this values Miton at 56.74p. Additionally, Miton shareholders would also get a special dividend of 4.9p per share. Following the merger, Miton shareholders would own around 33% of the new business, which will continue to trade on London's AIM as Premier Miton Group. Premier Asset Management shares were down 1.0%.

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