WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Tobacco Stocks Rise As US FDA Chief Resigns

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------DS Smith, up 3.5%. The recycled packaging firm said it has agreed to sell its plastics unit for USD585 million, about GBP450 million, to private equity firm Olympus Partners, meanwhile trading continued to be strong. DS Smith explained the sale will see the firm receive net cash of GBP400 million after taxation and expenses. The proceeds will be used to reduce its debt. DS Smith added that trading since the start of November had "continued to be strong" and in line with its expectations. Corrugated box volume growth has continued, with market share gains driven by its large and e-commerce customers as well as its heavy weighting towards fast moving consumer goods clients. ----------British American Tobacco, up 3.4%, Imperial Brands, up 1.9%. Shares in the tobacco companies were higher after the Scott Gottlieb, head of the US Food & Drug Administration, said he will resign on April 5 in order to spend more time with his family. Under Gottlieb, the health agency has pushed to regulate e-cigarettes in the US, in particular to stem sales of flavoured e-vapour products to young people, and has also mulled a ban on menthol cigarettes. The potential move by the US regulator followed a report written in 2013 stating that menthol cigarettes were harder to quit and more than to be a greater harm to health than regular cigarettes. Worries over a potential menthol ban caused tobacco stocks to tumble, with British American Tobacco shares in particular shedding as much as 11% in one day alone on the news. This is due to BAT's exposure to the menthol cigarette market in the US. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Legal & General, down 4.5%. The insurer reported a rise in operating profit but missed market consensus as the company topped GBP1 trillion in assets. In 2018, Legal & General's pretax profit increased 1.9% to GBP2.13 billion from GBP2.09 billion the year before. Legal & General said its pretax profit was hurt by losses in its investment portfolio of GBP207 million for the year, from a profit of GBP35 million a year earlier. The company's solvency II operational surplus generation increased 14% to GBP1.4 billion. Legal & General has an estimated solvency II surplus of GBP6.9 billion over its solvency capital requirement, leading to a coverage ratio of 188% at the end of 2018 from 189% the year before. Consensus forecast Legal & General ending 2018 with a solvency II coverage ratio of 194%. "A lower than hoped for Solvency ratio, and a miss on cash generation, hit Legal & General's share price immediately after results were announced," Hargreaves Lansdown's Nick Hyett said. ----------Burberry Group, down 3.5%. Goldman Sachs cut the fashion house to Sell from Neutral.----------Intertek, down 2.0%. Barclays downgraded the testing and inspection company to Underweight from Equal Weight.----------Paddy Power Betfair, down 1.5%. The bookmaker said its annual earnings were both below its own guidance and consensus due to increased investments in its US sports betting business. In addition, Paddy Power said it intends to seek shareholder approval in May to change its name to Flutter Entertainment, saying the new name will better reflect the increasing diversity of its brands. Paddy Power delivered GBP451 million of underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization in 2018, 4.7% lower than GBP473.2 million the prior year, primarily as a result of investment in the US sports betting. In its own guidance, the company had said it would deliver Ebitda of between GBP465 million and GBP480 million, while the market's consensus forecast stood at GBP497 million. Meanwhile, pretax profit, including exceptional items, decreased 11% to GBP218.7 million from GBP246.6 million, without pre-exceptional items pretax profit fell by 8.1% to GBP356.9 million from GBP388.5 million.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Ultra Electronics, up 13%. The defence and energy firm hiked its 2018 dividend following a "good" second half. Ultra proposed a 37.0 pence per share final dividend, up from 35.0p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend rose to 51.6p from 49.6p the year before. In 2018, pretax profit narrowed to GBP42.6 million from GBP60.6 million the year prior. Revenue slipped 1.1% to GBP766.7 million from GBP775.4 million the year before, though rose 2.2% on an organic basis. Profit performance also was hurt by a sharp rise in finance costs to GBP25.1 million from GBP13.3 million the year prior, whilst investment income halved to GBP6.2 million from GBP12.4 million the year before. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------John Laing Group, down 4.5%. HSBC cut the infrastructure project investor to Hold from Buy. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Biffa, up 4.5%. The waste management firm said that, so far in the year ending March 29, it has traded in line with expectations. Trading in the second half of the year is anticipated to be in line with the board's expectations, the company added, leading to its annual performance to also match management views for the year. "Biffa has continued to deliver organic and acquisitive net revenue growth in the trading period which will result in underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation growth for the full year," the firm added.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Nautilus Marine Services, down 16%. The investment company said its loss narrowed in 2018, helped by a reduction in expenses. In addition, the AIM-listed company said Chair Mikel Faulkner is stepping down from the board with immediate effect, but will continue to offer his expertise to the company in an advisory capacity. Nautilus reported a pretax loss of USD9.1 million for 2018, narrowed from USD11.2 million a year earlier, primarily due to cost reduction initiatives that were implemented over the past two years. The company explained that it continued to struggle to identify opportunities to operate its offshore vessels and equipment profitably at prevailing market rates, and as a result did not generate any revenue during either year.----------