24th May 2018 11:05
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Intertek Group, up 3.6%. The safety testing and quality assurance firm said its revenue at actual rates for the first four months of 2018 was down 2.5% year-on-year, however, at constant rates it was up 4.4%. The company said it is on track to deliver good organic growth in 2018.----------Paddy Power Betfair, up 3.5%. The betting firm said after Wednesday market close that it has reached a definitive agreement to combine its US business, Betfair US, with US fantasy sports operator FanDuel. Under the terms of the deal, the bookmaking business will contribute with its US assets plus USD158 million in cash. After the transaction the group will have a 61% stake in FanDuel.----------St James Place, up 2.1%. Deutsche Bank raised the asset manager to Buy from Hold.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Mediclinic International, down 4.4%. The private hospital group reported a pretax loss of GBP479 million for the year to the end of March, swinging from a profit of GBP307 million the year before on revenue that rose 4% to GBP2.87 billion. Changes in "the market and regulatory environment" in Switzerland gave rise to impairment charges recorded against properties and intangible assets of GBP84 million and GBP560 million, respectively. In addition, an impairment of GBP109 million was recorded against Spire - in which Mediclinic holds a 29.9% stake - as Spire saw its own profit after tax tumble to GBP16.8 million from GBP53.6 million during 2017.----------United Utilities, down 3.3%. The water services company saw pretax profit for the year ended March 31 slide to GBP432.1 million from GBP442.4 million the year before, as a rise in operating profit was more than offset by a bigger rise in net finance costs. This was on revenue that remained flat at GBP1.70 billion.----------Bunzl, down 2.1%. Goldman Sachs cut the distribution company to a Neutral from a Buy. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Electrocomponents, up 9.6%. The engineering firm reported 33% rise in pretax profit to GBP168.6 million versus GBP127.1 million the year prior, as revenue grew 13% to GBP1.71 billion from GBP1.51 billion. Electrocomponents proposed a final dividend per share of 8.0 pence, up 19% from 6.75p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend rose 7.7% to 13.25p from 12.30p the year prior.----------Renewi, up 7.1%. The waste-to-product business saw an underlying pretax profit of GBP51.5 million for the year to the end of March, doubled from GBP25.7 million the year before and ahead of management expectations, on revenue that grew by 8% to GBP1.57 billion from GBP1.45 billion.----------Tate & Lyle, up 6.8%. The food ingredients company saw a double digit increase in pretax profit for its recently ended financial year, up 23% to GBP286.0 million from GBP233.0 million the year before, on revenue that declined by 2.0% to GBP2.71 billion from GBP2.75 billion. Tate & Lyle declared increased its dividend to 28.7 pence per share from 28.0p the prior year.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Ibstock, down 6.2%. The brick manufacturer saw a slower start to 2018 than expected in the UK, due to an extended winter season. However, in the more recent weeks, volumes have started to return to more normal levels. Price increases by sales channels were achieved in line with management expectations, although energy prices in the year to date were higher than anticipated and is likely to remain this way throughout the year. US activity was also affected by weather conditions in the first quarter to the end of March, however volumes have returned to traditional seasonal levels.----------Paragon Banking Group, down 5.1%. The bank said it was continuing its major restructuring programme to change its business model to a more broadly-based bank from a buy-to-let lender. This was amid a profit increase of 11% for the year ended March 31 to GBP77.2 million from GBP69.4 million, on net interest income of GBP121.3 million, up from GBP113.5 million.----------Spire Healthcare, down 2.7%. The healthcare group said earnings for the first half of current financial year are expected to be below the comparative year ago period due to challenging market conditions. For the first six months of 2017, the company's earnings before interest, taxes, deprecation and amortisation totaled GBP83.2 million. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Katoro Gold shares more than doubled to 1.77 pence each. The Tanzania-focused gold miner said that following its economic feasibility assessment of the Imweru Gold Project, it declared the opinion that there is still good upside exploration and development potential for the project. ----------Thor Mining, up 16%. The miner noted that the US Department of the Interior confirmed that tungsten, the primary resource material at Thor's Pilot Mountain project in Nevada, US, was included in the final list of Critical Minerals for 2018, as an internal scoping study for the project neared completion.----------Rockrose Energy, up 13%. The oil and gas company signed an agreement to acquire Dyas BV, which owns non-operating gas and condensate assets in Netherlands, for EUR107 million. The acquisition is expected to add 5,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production to the group.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------GoTech Group, down 19%. The cash shell said it will cancel AIM market stock listing and instead seek admission of shares to the NEX Exchange Growth Market as an investment vehicle focused on the cannabis market. ----------Petra Diamonds, down 14%. The diamond company announced a five for eight rights issue to raise USD178.0 million, through the issue of 332.8 million shares at a price of 40.0 pence per share, reflecting a 47% discount to the closing price of 76.0 pence on Wednesday.----------