WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Playtech Jumps As Snaitech Boosts Earnings

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------CRH, up 1.9%. The Irish building materials firm reported a rise in both interim profit and revenue. For the six months to June, CRH's pretax profit increased to EUR497 million from EUR475 million a year prior, with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation rising 1% year-on-year to EUR1.13 billion. CRH's like-for-like Ebitda increased by 1%, with Europe up 1%, the Americas 3%, though Asia plummeted 59%. Revenue for the interim period was EUR11.94 billion, 1% higher year-on-year, while like-for-like sales were up 2%. In Europe, like-for-like sales rose 1%, the Americas by 3%, though in Asia they fell 2%. CRH has lifted its interim dividend by 2% year-on-year to 19.6 cents a share. So far this year, it has bought back EUR350 million from shareholders under its previously announced EUR1.0 billion buyback programme.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Royal Bank of Scotland, down 1.3%, Prudential, down 1.0%, Imperial Brands, down 1.0%, Carnival, down 0.7%, Berkeley Group, down 0.6%. The stock went ex-dividend meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Playtech, up 9.7%. The gambling software provider said its profit rose in the first-half of 2018, helped by new client wins, license awards and acquisitions. The company said pretax profit rose to EUR124.2 million in the six months to the end of June from EUR91.4 million reported for the same period a year earlier, helped by revenue, which improved by 4% to EUR436.5 million from EUR421.6 million. On a constant currency basis, revenue rose 6%. The company maintained its interim dividend at EUR12.1 per share. Playtech said its gaming division was the best performer in the first-half, with revenue rising by 53%. The result was boosted by new client wins and new license awards in key markets. During the period, the company acquired Italian gaming company Snaitech, after Pluto - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Playtech - transferred off the remaining 3.5% minority holding in SnaiTech to the company. Prior to that, Playtech's holding in Snaitech totalled 96.5%.TalkTalk Telecom Group, up 7.9%. The home phone and broadband provider was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight by Barclays. John Laing, up 7.7%. The infrastructure investor said its profit grew significantly in the first half of 2018, boosted by portfolio value growth and disposal gains. The company said net asset value per share improved to 307 pence in the first six months of 2018 compared to 281p reported as at the end of 2017. John Laing said pretax profit surged in the first half to GBP174.3 million versus GBP36.6 million reported for the same period a year earlier, as its portfolio value jumped 18% to GBP1.26 billion. The company lifted an interim dividend by 2.9% to 1.80p per share from 1.75p paid the year before. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Quilter, down 8.5%, Ferrexpo, down 3.0%. The stocks went ex-dividend. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------ThinkSmart, up 60%. The digital payment solutions provider said it has sold a 90% stake in point of sale provider ClearPay Finance. ThinkSmart sold its holding in ClearPay to acquire 1.0 million shares in ASX-listed AfterPay Touch Group, which is currently valued at AUD18.6 million. The 1.0 million shares will be issued in two tranches, with 750,000 shares will be issued on Thursday, and the remaining 250,000 shares will be issued six months after the first. The remaining 10% interest held by ThinkSmart will be available to employees of ClearPay under an employee share ownership plan. AfterPay is acquiring ClearPay, along with its contracts with relevant service providers with knowledge of the UK market and regulatory landscape.Toople, up 30%. The telecom services provider said it signed a new contract with an unnamed reseller based in the South East of England for the provision of broadband and closed-based telephony services. Specifically, the services and for two of the reseller's national high street retail customers, with multiple sites across the UK. The retail estates are planning to migrate from traditional services to fibre broadband and Voice over Internet Protocol telephony, in response to a notice from BT that its legacy copper products in use by the reseller are due to close down by 2025. The contract is expected to provide significant revenue opportunities.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Rosenblatt Group, down 9.7%. The law firm said Finance Director Patrick Firebrace will leave the company for personal reasons with effect on August 31. He will be replaced by Robert Parker on an interim basis. Parker's recent roles include interim CFO at Newlyn, Tantalum, CLA, as well as permanent roles at Ubisense and Immedia Broadcasting.----------