11th May 2016 10:08
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Miners - Anglo American, up 3.2%, BHP Billiton, up 1.7%, Glencore, up 1.6%, and Antofagasta, up 1.6%. The stocks continued to recover from losses at the start of the week. The FTSE 350 Mining Sector Index was up 1.9% after being down 7.9% on Monday, as China's exports decreased unexpectedly in April after rising sharply in the previous month, and imports fell at a faster-than-expected pace. The sector index had started to recover on Tuesday, rising 1.8%.
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Gold miners - Randgold Resources, up 2.7%, and Fresnillo, up 1.1%. Gold was quoted at USD1,272.12 an ounce compared to USD1,259.09 at the London equities close Tuesday.
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Compass Group, up 0.5%. The caterer and support services business reported growth in profit in the first half of its financial year and said it has positive expectations for the full year. Compass said pretax profit in the six months ended March 31 grew to GBP666 million from GBP621 million in the same period the year before, as revenue rose to GBP9.54 billion from GBP8.94 billion. Compass said it achieved growth in each of the regions it operates in, comprising North America, Europe and rest of world. It will pay an interim dividend of 10.6 pence, which is up 8.2% year-on-year.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Experian, down 2.2%. The data and analytics company increased its annual dividend, reported higher pretax profit at actual exchange rates, and said it expects to make share repurchases amounting to USD400 million in its new financial year. Pretax profit rose to USD1.03 billion in the financial year ended March 31, from USD1.01 billion a year earlier, on revenue from continuing activities of USD4.47 billion, with both total and organic revenue at constant exchange rates up 5%. At actual exchange rates, total revenue from continuing activities fell by 4% due to foreign exchange headwinds during the period. Experian increased its dividend for the year as a whole to 40.00 US cents, from 39.25 cents a year earlier.
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TUI, down 2.0%. The travel operator reported a wider loss in the first half of its financial year but said trading so far in the summer season is in line with expectations. The company said its group loss in the six months ended March 31 widened to EUR394.9 million from EUR218.7 million, as revenue grew slightly to EUR6.79 billion from EUR6.61 billion. TUI said results were hit by negative movements in foreign exchange rates. TUI said summer 2016 trading remains in line with expectations with source market booked revenue up 2%, a strong performance by Western Mediterranean and long-haul hotels, and continued growth in cruises.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Renishaw, up 3.7%. The British engineering company said revenue, profit and its cash balances fell in the first nine months of its current financial year, but said it still expects to deliver results in line with its guidance. The British engineering company said revenue in the first nine months of the financial year ending June 30 dropped to GBP308.1 million from GBP369.7 million the corresponding period a year earlier, dragging the company's pretax profit down to GBP46.3 million from GBP109.8 million. Despite the decreases, Renishaw said it still expects to deliver full-year revenue in the range of GBP420.0 to GBP440.0 million and a pretax profit of GBP67.0 to GBP83.0 million.
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Melrose Industries, up 0.7%. The manufacturing business buyer said its trading in 2016 so far was in line with expectations, and noted it was continuing to seek an acquisition opportunity. Melrose said its Brush Turbogenerators, which it had previously said would face a challenging year over 2016, was performing "satisfactorily". Melrose added it continues to seek an acquisition which will create value for shareholders and "remains confident of finding the right opportunity in due course". Melrose sold its Elster and Bridon businesses in 2014 and 2015 respectively, meaning electricity generation business Brush is Melrose's remaining business.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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William Hill, down 4.0%. The bookmaker said net revenue was down in the 17 weeks to April 26 year-on-year, but said trading remains in line with its previous full-year operating profit guidance. William Hill said group net revenue was down by 3% in the 17-week period, as gross win margins benefited from English Premier League football results but were harmed by unfavourable European football results and a "disappointing" Cheltenham festival. Wagering in online core markets continues to grow, but is slower than expected, William Hill said, while retail gaming machine performance has improved. Geographically, both the Australian and US brands performed well in the period.
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OneSavings Bank, down 2.3%. The lender said it is confident in the outlook for 2016, as it reported net loans and advances grew by GBP460 million during the first quarter. The increase in loans and advances was driven by originating loans and accelerating acquisitions of first and second charge residential mortgage portfolios totalling GBP131 million. Margins on GBP627 million of organic origination in the quarter remained strong, OneSavings said. Net interest margin in the first quarter was in line with its expectations, prompting the bank to say it remains confident in its guidance of around 300 basis points for the full year.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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PipeHawk, up 25%. The electronic systems developer said its subsidiary QM Systems has been awarded further business worth GBP400,000 from Mann & Hummel (UK), following the completion of its first large scale project with the company. QM Systems will deliver its services over the next five months, after establishing a partnership with Mann & Hummel to provide production and test equipment for the foreseeable future.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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MX Oil, down 30%. The oil and gas company said none of the assets in Mexico that were set to form the basis of the entire company are worth progressing, prompting it to consider cancelling a deal to sell its interest in a Nigerian asset. MX previously agreed to sell an option to GEC Petroleum allowing the firm to purchase its indirect interest in the Aje field offshore Nigeria, and said the option was likely to be exercised once production from the field had started. That production started earlier this month, with hope MX was set to complete the sale of the Aje field, as the company moves its focus to Mexico. However, MX said oil prices have been "steadily increasing" and it is expecting those prices to continue rising in the medium-term, making its indirect interest in the field "more valuable and further de-risked".
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Hague & London Oil, off 25%. The oil and gas company launched a huge restructuring plan which will lead to its higher-risk assets being spun-out into a subsidiary, and said it has also had to terminate its deal to acquire a stake in an Indonesian asset. Hague & London said the restructuring plans will allow the business to move towards lower risk opportunities within the oil and gas market whilst retaining exposure to higher risk assets. The plans will also generate some liquidity for the business without diluting its existing shareholders. The company plans to spin-out its higher risk assets into its wholly-owned subsidiary, Vemeer Exploration, including all licence interests in the Western Sahara.
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Tengri Resources, down 7.2%. The miner said the proposed deal to sell its exploration and development operations in Talas in the Kyrgyz Republic will not be completed until at least the end of this month. Tengri is in the process of selling the two subsidiaries that own the operations within the Talas area to Socagest. Those two subsidiaries are Kami Associates and Tatianna. Socagest is paying USD6.0 million in total and has already paid a USD1.0 million deposit. The deal has cleared all of the necessary hurdles and is only subject to the remaining USD5.0 million being paid by Socagest to Tengri. Tengri said Socagest has asked to defer the payment schedule, but has also proposed numerous instalments over the rest of this month in an attempt to complete the deal on the last day of May, and Tengri has accepted the proposed schedule.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; [email protected]; @ArvindBhunjun
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