WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: SIG Victim Of Weak UK Construction Market

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Anglo American, down 2.6%, Rio Tinto, down 2.3%, BHP Group, down 2.1%, Antofagasta, down 1.7%. The miners were in the red amid lower iron ore prices. "Mining stocks have slipped back a little on the back of reports that one of China's biggest producers called for an inquiry into the recent rally in iron ore prices. This call also prompted prices to slide over 6% from a 5-year high and has seen Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Antofagasta amongst others slip back," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson. ----------Berkeley Group, down 1.6%, Barratt Developments, down 0.8%, Taylor Wimpey, down 1.7%, Persimmon, down 2.4%. The housebuilders were lower following mixed UK house price data in June from mortgage lender Halifax. On a monthly basis, house prices fell by 0.3%, while year-on-year, house prices were up 5.7%. Halifax noted that the annual figures come against a "particularly low growth rate" in June 2018. In May, house prices had risen 0.4% on a monthly basis and 5.2% annually. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------John Wood Group, up 3.8%. The oilfield services company was raised to Buy from Hold by Berenberg. The German bank believes John Wood Group's cash generation worries will be short-lived and backed the firm to return to normal in the not-too-distant future.----------Tullow Oil, up 2.2%. Jefferies raised the oil and gas company to Buy from Hold. ----------Acacia Mining, up 1.1%. The gold miner said successful drilling at the North Mara mine in Tanzania has allowed it to upgrade reserves. As of the end of May, North Mara's Gokona mine had 1.3 million ounces of gold reserves at a grade of 5.5 grams of gold per tonne of ore, 13% higher than before, though at a marginally lower grade. This, Acacia said, is due to drilling on the east and west extensions of Gokona in late 2018 and early 2019. Overall, the measured and indicated resources at Gokona have risen 63% to 122,000 ounces of gold, and the grade has also improved. Acacia's inferred resource has climbed 65% to 849,000 ounces of gold, at a lower grade.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------SIG, down 6.6%. The building materials firm said it is set to meet annual profit expectations, despite continued difficult conditions. SIG said trading remains "challenging" in many end-markets, with UK construction activity in particular showing weakness. SIG said its own business transformation plans as well as normal seasonality "should enable a stronger second half". For the first half of 2019, total sales on a like-for-like basis fell 3.8% on a year prior, with the second half of 2018 having fallen by 4.3%. In the UK & Ireland, first half sales declined 13%, accelerating from an 8.0% decline in the last half of 2018, while in Mainland Europe SIG returned to sales growth, at 3.3%, after a 1.4% decline in the last half of 2018. "SIG has no choice in such market conditions but to seek to renovate its business model. This includes taking costs out of the business. While cutting your cloth accordingly in lean times is a prudent approach, it has to be balanced against taking out too much capacity. Many potential customers are in 'wait and see' mode as they await any kind of clarity on Brexit," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould. ----------Spectris, down 4.8%. Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the speciality chemicals firm to Underperform from Buy. ----------Victrex, down 3.0%. Peel Hunt cut the polymer supplier to Hold from Add. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Churchill China, up 9.9%. The ceramics producer said it has continued to perform well in the first half of its financial year, expecting its performance for 2019 to be ahead of expectations. This is mainly due to revenue growth in its Hospitality division for the six months to the end of June being ahead of management's initial expectations, driven by further progress made in Europe.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------John Menzies, down 14%. The aviation services group said it performed worse than expected in the first half of 2019 because of challenges in the aviation market. Menzies said fewer flights and weak cargo volumes have led to poor trading so far and earnings for 2019 will now not exceed last year's. In 2018, the aviation services provider earned GBP21.6 million in pretax profit and GBP1.29 billion in revenue. Chief Executive Giles Wilson said: "The overall aviation market is having a difficult year. This inevitably is having an impact on our full year outturn. However, I firmly believe in the structural growth dynamics within our industry and all historical data points to recovery."----------