WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Plus500 Rises As Leadership Snaps Up Shares

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Royal Bank of Scotland, down 8.6%. The lender was cut to Hold from Buy by HSBC just a day after being downgraded to Neutral from Outperform by Macquarie. In addition, the bank went ex-dividend on Thursday, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest payouts. A number of other FTSE 100 stocks went ex-dividend on Thursday, including steelmaker Evraz, down 4.3%, miner Anglo American, down 2.8% and oil major Royal Dutch Shell, with 'A shares down 2.2% and 'B' shares down 2.0%.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Plus500, up 10%. The contracts-for-difference provider said several senior executives including the chief executive and chief financial officer purchased more GBP7 million in shares in the company in transactions on Tuesday and Wednesday. CEO Asaf Elimelech bought 30,460 shares at an average price of 683.674 per share, worth GBP208,300 in total. CFO Elad Even-Chen acquired 30,460 shares for 685.8p each, a total of GBP208,900. Chief Operating Officer David Zruia bought 12,000 shares for 680p each, totalling GBP81,600. Plus500 Co-founder Alon Gonen made the largest transaction of all, purchasing 987,553 shares at an average price of 681.0p per share, totalling GBP6.7 million.----------FirstGroup, up 5.4%. The transport operator has hired former Arriva chief executive David Martin as the new chair of its board, effective immediately. Arriva provides bus, coach and rail operations across 14 countries, and was bought by Deutsche Bahn in 2010. Martin is currently a non-executive director at waste management firm Biffa and served as interim chair for six months, and was previously a non-executive at Ladbrokes, now owned by GVC Holdings. Martin had been a pick for the FirstGroup board by activist investor Coast Capital a few months ago. Hermes-Golden, managed by Coast Capital, in mid-May called a general meeting to remove nearly half the FirstGroup board. However, Martin missed the deadline to confirm his plans to stand for election. At the meeting, FirstGroup noted at the time that, on average, the company's shareholders voted 4-to-1 against Coast Capital's resolutions. Shareholders voted against the removal of Non-Executive Chair Wolfhart Hauser, but he stood down nonetheless. ----------GVC Holdings, up 4.2%. The betting firm upped its full-year guidance following a first-half revenue rise and despite profit falling due to charges related to recent acquisitions. Pretax profit for the six months ended June 30 fell sharply to GBP2.1 million from GBP113.8 million, largely attributed to GBP184.3 million in amortisation charges related to GVC's acquisitions of Ladbrokes Coral Group in 2018 and bwin Interactive Entertainment in 2017. Underlying earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation, a preferred performance measure, jumped 56% to GBP366.8 million from GBP235.0 million. Looking ahead, GVC said it expects full-year Ebitda to be GBP10.0 million ahead of initial expectations and within the range of GBP650.0 million and GBP670.0 million.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Kaz Minerals, down 10%. The miner reported a fall in interim profit and revenue amid lower copper prices. For the six months ended June 30, the company posted a 4.2% year-on-year fall in revenue to USD1.05 billion. Pretax profit sunk by 19% to USD355.0 million. Earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation were down 10% to USD620.0 million from USD690.0 million. The copper price per tonne averaged USD6,165, 12% down on the USD6,917 per tonne recorded in the same period last year. This contributed to revenue from the copper division falling 5.9% to USD849.0 million despite sales rising 2.6% to 144,400 tonnes. The company proposed an interim dividend of 4.0 US cents per share, down on 6.0 cents from the previous year. ----------Capita, down 2.3%. JPMorgan cut its rating on the outsourcer to Neutral from Overweight.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Kibo Energy, up 25%. The Africa-focused energy company confirmed it has received seven new mining rights for the Mbeya coal to power project in Tanzania. In July, Kibo had said its special licence application at Mbeya had been converted into seven separate applications, a "better economic outcome" for the firm. These have now been granted, Kibo said, and the company just now needs to make the required payments. The licences at Mbeya cover a 120.8 million tonne thermal coal resource, with a feasibility study already completed having confirmed the economic viability of the mining. Kibo can now begin mining following the grant of the licences. ----------Thor Mining, up 14%. The exploration and development company reported a "substantial" initial copper resource estimate of 114,000 tonnes for the Moonta project located in South Australia. Thor said the estimate is derived from an inferred resource of 66.1 million tonnes of ore at 0.17% copper. The company also said that the additional 308 drill holes over Wombat, Bruce, and Larwood deposits are to be included in the Moonta resource resource modelling once scheduled quality assurance processes are complete. "Global copper pricing outlook, despite some recent falls, remains firm. At the date of this announcement of approximately USD5,700 per tonne, this inferred resource demonstrates that the project has considerable potential value," Thor Executive Chair Mick Billing said. At that price, 114,000 tonnes of copper would fetch USD650 million.----------Plant Health Care, up 14%. The agriculture-focused biological products provider said it will commercialise the PHC279 plan fungal treatment product in Brazil following successful trials. Plant Health Care conducted field trials on PHC279 to establish its effectiveness in dealing with asian soybean rust, a fungal disease that negatively impacts soybean yields in Brazil. Following application of the peptide treatment, which comes from natural proteins and encourages the plant to defend itself, Plant Health Care reported a 16% increase in soybean yield, controlling the effects of the disease even in areas facing "heavy disease pressure". Foliar fungicides, treatments usually used for disease control in soybeans, were 45% more effective when treated with PH279, the company said. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------ASOS, down 3.8%. Jefferies cut the online retailer to Underperform from Buy.----------