2nd Oct 2018 10:40
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------BP, up 0.5%, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', up 0.4%, Shell 'B', up 0.3%. The oil majors were tracking spot oil prices higher quoted at USD84.80 a barrel compared to USD84.70 at the London equities close Monday. Brent oil touched an intraday high of USD85.30 in early trade - its highest since late 2014. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Royal Mail, down 8.0%. The postal operator late Monday revised its adjusted operating profit before transformation costs down to between GBP500 million and GBP550 million for its full financial year ending March. This compares to a GBP694 million adjusted operating profit the year before. Royal Mail's UK productivity performance was "significantly below plan" at just 0.1% in the first half of its financial year with full year performance expected to be "significantly below target" at the upper end of the 2% to 3% range. In addition, JPMorgan downgraded the stock to Underweight from Neutral. Ferguson, down 4.6%. The plumbing and heating products supplier said revenue was bolstered by strong trading in the US, however profit fell due to the impairment of an interest in an associate. For the year to the end of July, pretax profit fell to USD1.19 billion from USD1.42 billion the year before, due to a USD122 million impairment in its holding in Meier Tobler Group, which saw difficult trading conditions and has suspended dividends until 2020. Revenue was USD20.75 billion, up 7.6% from USD19.28 billion the prior year. While growth was led by the US, the UK remained difficult, commented Irish broker Davy. Trading profit for the UK disappointed as it came in at USD73 million versus the broker's prediction of USD80 million. The UK trading profit performance was also 29% lower than last year. Turning to the outlook commentary, Davy noted it was "slightly more cautious" with September trading slower compared to August. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Saga, up 3.5%. UBS raised the over-50s travel and insurance provider to Buy from Neutral. Last week, Saga reported a small rise in interim profit, in line with expectations. In the six months ended July 31, the FTSE 250-listed company increased pretax profit 3.2% to GBP109.0 million from GBP105.6 million.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------CYBG, down 4.5%. UBS started coverage on the challenger bank with a Sell rating. In addition, shares in peer Virgin Money - which CYBG agreed to acquire in June - were down 3.9%. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Ilika, up 19%. The battery technology company said it has started the shipment of pre-launch evaluation samples of its mm-scale Stereax batteries. The mm-scale battery, also known as Golden Hind, is designed for miniature medical implants, which stands for 50% of the current commercial opportunities in the Ilika's licensing pipeline. Shipments have now commenced to global original equipment manufacturers in the US and Asia, and Golden Hind prototypes are currently undergoing parallel evaluation at Ilika's facility to fully qualify the cells for a product launch in early 2019.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Defenx, down 20%. Shares in the cyber-security software group were restored to trading as it signed an agreement with BV Tech for an unsecured loan of EUR950,000, which is convertible into new shares at 1.8 pence per share. The convertible loan will incur an interest rate of 6.0% per annum, with any balance of the loan and accrued interest that remains outstanding as at January 1, 2020 replayable in full. EUR150,000 can be drawn down immediately from the loan, with the remainder available 45 days from October 1. Proceeds from the loan will go toward general corporate purposes. Should the convertible loan be drawn in full and BV Tech request the conversion into share, 10.6 million shares will be issued, equal to 27% of Defenx's entire issued share capital. The conversion of the loan is conditional on shareholder approval.----------