WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Mothercare Taking Baby Steps To Recovery

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Marks & Spencer, up 2.8%. HSBC resumed coverage on the food, clothing and homewares retailer with a Hold rating. Marks & Spencer on Wednesday reported a moderate decline in revenue but double-digit profit growth in its recently ended financial year, thanks to its transformation programme, but still cut its dividend as planned.----------Vodafone Group, up 2.2%. HSBC raised the telecommunications firm to Buy from Hold. ----------Anglo American, up 1.7%. RBC Capital raised the miner to Top Pick from Outperform. The Canadian bank deemed Anglo as its preferred diversified miner, saying the company is in a strong position going forward.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Royal Mail, up 3.5%. The postal operator was raised to Buy from Neutral by Goldman Sachs and to Hold from Sell by Liberum. The US bank said Royal Mail's current share price includes no prospect of profitability improvement "despite clear areas of efficiency potential". ----------Mitchells & Butlers, up 3.0%. The restaurant and pub operator was upgraded to Buy from Neutral by Citigroup and to Buy from Hold by Liberum. Mitchells & Butlers on Thursday said it outperformed the market in the first half of its financial year, delivering both revenue and profit growth. Mitchells & Butlers has now reached a tipping point with profit growth re-ignited, said Liberum, leading the broker to upgrade its rating on the stock.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------B&M European Value Retail, down 3.2% at 351.40p. RBC cut its price target on the retailer to 425p from 450p. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Luceco, up 17%. The LED products maker said it anticipates to beat the market's adjusted operating profit expectations for 2019, thanks to improved margins. Ahead of its annual general meeting, the company said it has built upon the improved trading performance delivered in the second half of 2018. Luceco said sales to the UK retail channel in the four months to the end of April are comfortably ahead of the comparable period in 2018. However, sales to UK professional customers continue to be subdued in the uncertain economic environment. Meanwhile, margins - which had benefited from an improved input cost environment, manufacturing savings and pricing changes in the second half of 2018 - have improved further in 2019, Luceco said.----------Mothercare, up 12%. The mother and baby products retailer said it narrowed its loss in its recently ended financial year as it progresses on restructuring. The company reported a pretax loss of GBP66.6 million for the 53 weeks to March 30 compared to the GBP94.0 million loss reported the year earlier, as operating costs were slashed by 29% to GBP47.3 million from GBP66.7 million. Revenue declined by 12% to GBP513.8 million from GBP580.6 million the year before, due to the chain's UK store closure programme. Mothercare said it now has 79 stores, down from 134 in the prior year, representing a reduction in space of 30%. Mothercare said in its recently commenced financial year, it is seeing some improving UK trends as it continue to rebuild as the specialist retailer for parents and young children. "The company is not out of the woods yet but may be starting to spot a path through the undergrowth after it reduced its cost base beyond initial guidance. The next baby steps involve getting its online business in the best possible shape and launching new customer credit options as well as exploiting its global brand," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould. ----------