18th Sep 2014 10:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Thursday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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TUI Travel, up 3.5%. Morgan Stanley has raised the travel operator's rating to Overweight, from Equal-Weight, and increased its price target to 500 pence, from 470p. The stock currently trades at 379.9p.
EasyJet, up 1.9%. The low-cost airline has decided to increase its ordinary dividend payout ratio to 40% from the current financial year, and has also reached agreement with Airbus to exercise purchase rights over 27 A320 aircraft. The company said that, in light of its strong financial performance and confidence in the future, it has decided to increase the payout ratio for the ordinary dividend from one third of profit after tax to 40% of profit after tax from the financial year ending September 30. EasyJet also said it has reached agreement with Airbus to exercise existing purchase rights over 27 current generation A320 aircraft for delivery between 2015 and 2018.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Booker Group, up 3.6%. The UK food wholesaler said sales inched up in the second quarter of its financial year, helped by non-tobacco sales, and said its turnaround plans for the Makro business remain on track and on budget. Total sales in the 12 weeks to September 12 were up 0.1% including sales from Makro. Non-tobacco sales were up 0.8%, while tobacco sales declined 1.4%. Booker's non-tobacco sales on a like-for-like basis excluding Makro, were up 3.1%, while tobacco sales declined by 0.5%. Total like-for-like sales excluding Makro increased by 1.8%. The group also said its Makro's cash and profits are both in line with its expectations.
Premier Farnell, up 2.4%. The electronics company reiterated its expectations for the full year despite seeing its pretax profit dip in the half year to February 1. It expects its investments and reorganisation to lead to accelerated revenue growth, helping it achieve its target profitability in its second half. First-half pretax profit was GBP36.4 million, down from GBP38.1 million in the year-earlier period, as revenue fell to GBP479.3 million from GBP498.2 million. It booked GBP2.3 million in restructuring costs relating to its business reorganisation, and GBP100,000 for the acquisition of AVID Technologies. The company also said it had made progress towards its sales growth target of 6%; it posted sales growth of 3.3% in the first half, and 4.7% growth in the second quarter.
Just Retirement, up 2.3%. The company reported a 6% increase in new business sales, as its entry into the defined benefit de-risking space and strong lifetime mortgage volumes offset weak individual annuity sales following the shake-up of the market in the wake of the Budget. Just Retirement reported GBP1.75 billion of new business sales in the year ended June 30, compared with GBP1.65 billion last year. Individually underwritten annuities fell to GBP1.11 billion from GBP1.27 billion in the wake of the pension reforms introduced in Chancellor George Osborne's Budget. The group also sold GBP92.1 million of defined benefit derisking, while a new immediate needs annuity product launched towards the end of 2013 saw GBP2.2 million of sales. Lifetime mortgage advances increased by 54% to GBP476.4 million, stimulated by house price rises, a continued low interest rate environment, and increasing numbers of retirees with inadequate pension savings.
Kier Group, up 2.2%. The property, construction and services company reported higher underlying profits for its last financial year as its acquisition of May Gurney and strong organic growth drove up revenue. The group also appointed Balfour Beatty executive Beverley Dew as its Finance Director, although it hasn't yet decided when the 43 year-old will start in the job. Kier reported underlying pretax profit of GBP73.1 million for the year to end-June, up from GBP47.6 million a year earlier, as revenue grew by half to GBP3.0 billion, from GBP2.0 billion. Its pretax profit fell, however, to GBP14.8 million, from GBP25.9 million, as exceptional items more than doubled to GBP42.2 million due to the costs related to its acquisition of May Gurney. It raised its total dividend for the year by 6% to 72.0 pence, from 68.0p, which it said reflected its confidence in its prospects. The final dividend will be 49.5p, up from 46.5p.
UBM, up 1.9%. The events marketing and communications company confirmed that it has been involved in discussions to potentially acquire its trade show rival Advanstar Communications Inc, following recent media speculation. The company said the discussions may or may not lead to an offer, and said it will make a further announcement in due course.
Merlin Entertainments, up 1.6%. The company said a positive trading performance over the summer from its attractions and theme parks has left it confident in its outlook for the remainder of the year. Merlin customers continued to flood through the gates of its LEGOLAND parks over the summer, helping driving total revenue growth of 3.8% for the 36 weeks ended September 6. It was hit hard by the strength of sterling: revenue was up 9.3% rise at constant currency. In the year-to-date, Merlin said like-for-like revenue has grown 6.7%, with LEGOLAND parks up almost 14%, Midway Attractions up 3.2%, and its Resort Theme Parks up 4.2%.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Marston's, down 1.5%. Numis has cut the stock to Add, from Buy, with a price target decrease to 180p from 185p. The company currently trades at 148.11p.
Northgate, down 1.3%. The vehicle hire company is down despite saying it is trading in line with expectations and expressing confidence for the full year on the back of increased profit and revenue from its UK and Spanish businesses. The company said vehicles on hire in the UK rose by 900 between May 1 and September 18 to 48,500, lower than the 1,600 increase in the same period last year. It has opened 11 sites since February 2013 and average vehicles on hire were up 10%, with 4% of the growth from the new sites and 6% down to organic growth. Hire revenue per rented vehicle is in line with last year, Northgate said.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Mariana Resources, up 53%. The company leads the AIM All-Share gainers after it said it has entered into an agreement to buy Canadian explorer Aegean Metals Group in an all-share deal. The acquisition of Aegean will add four gold-copper-silver projects to Mariana's portfolio in Turkey and Chile. They include the Ergama and Hot Maden gold-copper exploration projects in the Tethyan Porphyry-Epithermal Belt in Turkey and the Doea Inos and Explorada East projects in Chile. Under the terms of the deal, Mariana will issue 1.902 Mariana shares for every one Aegean share.
Botswana Diamonds, up 16%. The diamond mining company said it plans to start drilling at Orapa in Botswana in the next 10 days. The company is embarking on an exploration programme with its joint venture partner AK Alrosa OAO on its licences in Orapa.
Caza Oil & Gas, up 15%. The company reported strong results from the first well drilled on the Broadcaster property in New Mexico, and said wells being drilled on two other properties in the same state are on track. The company said the well drilled on the Broadcaster property reached intended measured depth of about 15,818 feet and was fracture stimulated in 40 stages over the past 10 days. It said production rates are steadily increasing under controlled flowback, and the well produced at a 24 hour gross rate of 2,621 barrels of oil equivalent on September 17. That was made up of 2,062 barrels of oil and 3.36 million cubic feet of natural gas.
European Convergence Development Company, up 8.3%. The company said it has sold its entire 42.5% stake in Trade Centre Sliven, a Bulgarian shopping centre investment company, for EUR1.7 million to Property Capital Group AD. European Convergence said it would make a profit on the disposal of EUR22,298 and said the loan owed to Property Capital, or EUR91,426, has been repaid.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Monitise, down 25%. Payments giant Visa said it is considering its remaining investment in the mobile payments company, asking JP Morgan Securities to assist as it looks to lessen its dependence on external mobile development resources. Visa said it intends to continue increasing its investment in its own in-house capabilities and, as a result, will be reducing its use of external resources. Under the companies' agreement, Monitise will provide Visa with mobile platform development services through 2016. Visa invested in Monitise as a 14.4% owner in 2009 but its holding has since been reduced to its current 5.5% stake. Visa said the reduction is consistent with its practice to seed emerging players and, over time, taper that influence as the partner company grows.
Iofina, down 14%. The iodine producer said its production volumes in August dropped from July and its production guidance for the year has been revised below market and management expectations. The company said crystallised iodine production in August was at 23.6 million tonnes, down from the 24.5 million tonnes produced in July, due to a combination of factors, including continued fracking, unanticipated design changes at its IO5 and IO6 iodine extraction plants, and a delayed salt water disposal site upgrade. The company reviewed its production forecasts for 2014 and is now predicting 325-350 tonnes of crystallised iodine production for the full year.
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By Neil Thakrar; [email protected]
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Booker GroupBalfour BeattyMonitiseUBMKierMerlin EntertainmentsIofinaBotswana DiameasyJetTUI.LMarstonsNorthgateSAB.LPFL.LCAZA.LJRG.LMariana Resources