WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: SIG Hurt By Challenging Construction Market

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Carnival, up 2.8%. The cruise line operator was raised to Buy from Hold by Shore Capital.----------Ashtead, up 2.7%. The equipment rental firm was upgraded to Neutral from Sell by UBS. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------WM Morrison Supermarkets, down 3.9%. The supermarket chain's shares were lower despite posting its fourth straight year of Christmas sales growth. For the 9 weeks to January 6, the grocer reported group like-for-like sales excluding fuel up 3.6%, with retail up 0.6% and wholesale up 3.0%. Like-for-like sales including fuel were 3.4% higher. Company-compiled consensus based on 11 analysts forecast Morrisons to have seen retail like-for-like sales up 0.5% and group like-for-like sales up 4.1% in the holiday period, meaning that the retailer fell slightly short of analysts' expectations. "Despite this representing a fourth consecutive Christmas of like-for-like sales growth, the market appears unconvinced. This is perhaps down to the supermarket's retail business only providing a small proportion of the growth in the period and because overall, and despite a good contribution from the wholesale arm, sales were modestly behind expectations," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould. ----------Vodafone, down 1.9%. RBC Capital double downgraded the telecommunications firm to Underperform from Outperform. ----------Unilever, down 1.0%. UBS cut the consumer goods company to Neutral from Buy. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Rotork, up 4.4%. Merrill Lynch double upgraded the valve actuators maker to Buy from Underperform. ----------Electrocomponents, up 4.0%. The electrical parts manufacturer was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Jefferies and to Buy from Neutral by UBS. ----------Greene King, up 3.5%. The pub operator and brewer reported sales growth in its financial year to date, underpinned by strong trading over the festive season with record Christmas day sales. For the 36 weeks to January 6, the company reported like-for-like sales up 3.2%. Just in the two weeks covering Christmas and the New Year, Greene King said like-for-like sales were up 11%, with GBP7.7 million achieved just on Christmas day, a "record" according to the firm.----------Safestore Holdings, up 2.5%. The self storage company reported its annual profit doubled and that it made an "encouraging" start to its 2019 financial year. In the year that ended October 31, pretax profit more than doubled to GBP185.3 million from GBP78.9 million the year before. Safestore's revenue increased 11% to GBP143.9 million from GBP129.9 million. As a result of this "strong" trading performance, the company upped its dividend payout 16% to 16.25 pence from 14.00p. Safestore's final dividend was hiked 14% to 11.15p from 9.8p. Looking ahead, the company said it is encouraged with the start of its new year. In the two months to December 31, the company's like-for-like revenue was up 6.4%.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------SIG, down 6.2%. The building products supplier said challenging trading conditions in UK and European construction markets continued to hit its performance. SIG expects to report adjusted pretax profit of GBP75 million, which includes a benefit of between GBP2 million and GBP3 million of property profits in the year. In 2017, SIG's underlying pretax profit was GBP79.2 million. Revenue from continuing operations in the year to the end of December decreased by 1.4%, with a further 0.7% decrease from currency and 0.2% from more working days. In 2017, the company generated revenue of GBP2.78 billion. SIG's like-for-like revenue is expected to come in 2.3% lower year-on-year. In the UK, commercial construction demand remained dampened by macroeconomic uncertainty, while house price inflation slowed and secondary housing market transactions continued to fall. This weaker trading environment hurt demand for SIG's products, it said, and is a key factor behind the lower like-for-like revenue in the UK & Ireland, which was down 8.8% in the second half of 2018. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Codemasters, up 12%. The video game developer said it expects earnings to come in ahead of market expectations as it has signed an agreement with Chinese game services provider NetEase to develop a new mobile game. Under the terms, NetEase will commit an internal mobile development team, apply its proven knowledge of mobile game design, and take on all operational and publishing activities globally with regard to the game. In turn, Codemasters said it will provide assistance with its proprietary technology, resources and existing game assets. The company said it will receive a minimum of USD8 million in revenue over the next three years, commencing with an expected USD4 million in the current financial year, which will end on March 31. As a result, Codemasters said it now expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for financial 2019 to be ahead of market forecasts. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Accrol, down 36%. The toilet paper manufacturer warned that weakness in sterling against the dollar and higher tissue prices will hurt profit "considerably" in the first half. Accrol said the negative impact of foreign exchange rates and rising costs are expected to reduce profit by about GBP5 million. Should the current conditions continue into the second half, Accrol is guiding for a further GBP3.5 million hit to profit. For the previous financial year ended April, Accrol swung to a pretax loss of GBP24.1 million on revenue of GBP139.7 million. Accrol, which also manufactures kitchen towels and face tissues, said the current macreconomic headwinds could add a total of GBP8.5 million in additional costs in the current financial year, ending April. The company expects to post a one-off additional charge for exceptional costs of GBP8.0 million for the year, to account for its restructuring.----------Footasylum, down 17%. The footwear retailer warned on lower than expected margins and earnings for 2019 financial year due to heavy discounting in a challenging trading environment. Footasylum reported revenue growth for the 18 weeks to December 30, however, it explained that the challenging trading conditions reported in the first half of its financial year have continued throughout the key Christmas trading period. Moreover, UK economic uncertainty and weakening consumer sentiment have led to "some of the most difficult trading conditions seen in recent years". As a result, the company now expects annual gross margins to be lower than consensus expectations and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to come in "towards the lower end of the current range of analyst forecasts". During the 18 week period, however, the company saw total revenue up 14% to GBP102.3 million from GBP89.8 million. ----------