WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Spread Betting Firms Fall After Plus500 Woe

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Micro Focus International, down 0.9%. Barclays downgraded the enterprise software provider to Equal Weight from Overweight. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Games Workshop, up 11%. The tabletop gaming retailer said trading has "continued well" since its half year report in January and profit is set to rise for its current financial year. In its financial year ending June 2, Games Workshop expects to post a pretax profit of around GBP80 million, a 7.4% increase from its GBP74.5 million profit the year before. The company also said, for the period since its January half-year report and Sunday last week, its sales and profit are ahead year-on-year. The company's royalties receivable are also ahead for the same period after the signing of new licence agreements. Games Workshop also declared a 35 pence per share divided "in line with the company's policy of distributing truly surplus cash". The dividend will be paid on May 31 and lifts the annual dividend declared and paid in the company's current year to GBP1.55 per share, up 23% from GBP1.26 per share the year before.----------KAZ Minerals, up 2.5%. UBS upgraded the miner to Buy from Neutral. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Plus500, down 26%. The online trading firm said its first quarter revenue fell sharply on "subdued" financial markets. In the three months to March 31, Plus500 recorded revenue of USD53.9 million, far lower than the USD297.3 million reported in the first quarter of 2018 and 65% lower than the USD154.8 million reported in the previous quarter. The company's average revenue per user fell 60% year-on-year to USD550 from USD1,363 and 64% compared to the previous quarter where Plus500 reported average revenue per user of USD1,523. Plus500's number of active customers, decreased 3.7% to 97,921 from 101,634 compared to the previous quarter. Compared to the corresponding quarter last year, Plus500's active customers are down 55%. Compounding its woes, Berenberg cut the stock to Hold from Buy. Peers IG Group and CMC Markets were down 3.1% and 4.8% respectively. ----------Pets At Home, down 12%. The pet products retailer's shares were lower after Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has sold 11% stake in the firm, Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Friday said. Canada Pension Plan, or CPP, is selling 54.2 million shares in the FTSE 250 company at 148 pence each, for a total of GBP80.2 million. Pets at Home shares closed at 163.20p on Thursday in London. Pets at Home will receive no proceeds, and Merrill Lynch did not say how many shares the pension plan now holds. Merrill Lynch acted as sole book runner in the sale. ----------Entertainment One, down 3.5%. The Canadian film and television content producer said it successfully completed its placing announced late Thursday, raising GBP130 million. Entertainment One has placed 28.9 million shares at a price of 450 pence per share for its Audio Network acquisition. The 450p per share placing price is a 5.6% discount to its closing price on Thursday and a 2.3% discount to its share price of 460.80p on Friday morning. On Thursday, Entertainment One said it will buy UK-based Audio Network to enhance its presence in music. The aggregate consideration for Audio Network is GBP178 million, which will be partially financed through the placing. Debt financing will provide the rest. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Integumen, down 15%. The personal healthcare company has agreed to buy scientific data management company RinoCloud for GBP3.0 million, funded through a share issue. Integumen will issue 214.3 million shares at a price of 1.4 pence each, representing a 19% discount to its closing market price on Thursday. In 2018, RinoCloud's revenue totalled EUR26,911 and pretax profit was EUR5,123. Integumen believes the acquisition provides science-data management services, enabling the scale up of its Labskin artificial intelligence. Separately, Integumen will conduct a placing and subscription through broker Turner Pope Investment, raising a total of GBP2.5 million before expenses. The fundraising will comprise of a firm placing of 151.4 million shares, a conditional placing of 10.7 million shares, and a subscription of 17.9 million shares, all at 1.4p a share. ----------