WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Retailers Rise After Next's Christmas Sales

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Next, up 5.5%. The clothing and homewares retailer said strong sales in the three weeks prior to Christmas along with a good half-term holiday week at the end of October made up for disappointing sales in November. For the period from October 28 to December 29, the retailer recorded full price sales growth of 1.0% on the period year ago period, with online sales rising 15% and retail sales declining 9.2%. Total full price sales including interest income for the period grew 1.5% on the prior year, in line with the company's September guidance. However, the said it now expects group pretax profit for the year ending late January to total GBP723 million, down 0.6% from previous guidance of GBP727 million after higher levels of online sales and lower margin seasonal products. Clothing, food and homewares retailer Marks & Spencer was up 3.2%, while Primark parent Associated British Foods was up 1.7% as the stocks benefited from a positive read-across following Next's Christmas update. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Experian, down 1.6%. Shares in the credit checking firm went ex-dividend on Thursday, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the company's latest payout. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Games Workshop, up 3.7%. Peel Hunt raised it rating on the wargames manufacturer to Buy from Hold. ----------Wizz Air, up 1.9%. The central and eastern Europe-focused airline posted a 18% increase in passenger traffic to 2.660 million from 2.248 million the year before. On a rolling annual basis, traffic rose to 33.8 million from 28.3 million. Wizz Air's load factor increased 1.3 percentage points to 88.8% from 87.5% year-on-year and its capacity increased to 3.0 million seats from 2.6 million. Wizz Air said it continued to grow its network in December, with 14 new routes announced and the expansion of its fleet with a new Airbus A321, bringing its total fleet to 106 aircraft.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Sunrise Resources, up 15%. The mining company said it received positive results from expansion testing of perlite samples at its NewPerl project in the US. Testing at the company's project, which is located in the US state of Nevada, found that the majority of samples were suitable for the production of horticultural grade perlite. Sunrise Resources said the NewPerl project can now "move quickly to drilling and bulk sampling and commercial scale testing".----------Vectura, up 10%. The respiratory disease-focused pharmaceutical firm said it expects earnings for 2018 to be above market expectations, while revenue is set to be in line. Vectura expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation above consensus expectations, due to margin improvements, productivity initiatives and overall revenue mix. Research and development investment for 2018 is expected in the range of GBP55 million to GBP65 million, while guidance for 2019 has been kept at GBP45 million to GBP55 million.----------ASOS, up 6.1%. Peel Hunt resumed it Buy rating on the online retailer. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Corero Network Security, down 6.3%. The network security company said it expects to show a "record" second half order intake, though annual revenue is likely to fall short of expectations. The company said there has been "strong" demand for its SmartWall threat defence system, which 2018's order intake expected to be 20% higher year-on-year at approximately USD11.0 million as a result of a record second half. Revenue for 2018 is expected to be USD10.0 million, up from USD8.5 million the prior year. Despite the 18% growth, this is short of Corero's expectations, and it is due to a longer time required to "ramp up new go-to-market partners and secure contracts". Corero has guided for a much narrowed earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation loss. The Ebitda loss is guided to halve to USD2.5 million in 2018 from USD5.0 million in 2017. Overheads are expected to fall 10% year-on-year. ----------