7th Oct 2019 10:31
(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Vodafone Group, up 1.1%. The telecommunications company said it has started the first European trials of OpenRAN in the UK, as well as in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique in Africa. Vodafone previously has undertaken trials of OpenRAN with JSE-listed subsidiary Vodacom Group in South Africa, and also has deployed the technology in Turkey. OpenRAN stands for open radio access networks. The technology is expected to reduce the cost of providing internet and voice services by setting a standard for the design and functionality of hardware and software in radio access networks. This is expected to increase the number of companies that can supply different components. Vodafone is currently working with several vendors which supply OpenRAN technology, including US firms Parallel Wireless and Mavenir, and Lime MicroSystems in the UK.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Carnival, down 2.0%. HSBC downgraded the cruise line operator to Hold from Buy.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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SIG, down 17%. The building products supplier warned on annual profit amid deteriorating trading conditions and said it has sold Air Handling and Building Solutions units for around GBP236 million in total as part of a programme of selling non-core businesses. SIG said the weakening of trading has accelerated over recent weeks and political and economic uncertainty has continued to increase. As a result, SIG said it is now anticipating significantly lower underlying profitability than previous expectations for 2019 in both the specialist distribution and roofing merchanting businesses. In 2018, SIG reported group underlying pretax profit of GBP72.7 million and revenue of GBP2.68 billion. "SIG has issued numerous profit warnings in the past few years as the UK construction market goes through a very difficult patch. Right-sizing its business now could be a sensible thing to do, particularly as it is managing to sell assets on decent valuation multiples," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould. Building product peers Travis Perkins and Grafton Group were down 3.7% and 3.6% respectively.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Totally, up 8.5%. The UK healthcare services provider said it has extended two contracts, worth a total of around GBP16.6 million. The first contract is the South West London NHS 111 & GP out of hours contract, which has been extended to September 30, 2020. The value of this extension comes up to GBP10.6 million. The second contract is the Scarborough integrated urgent care contract, which has been extended to March 31, 2022, from April 1, 2020, valued at GBP6 million.
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Franchise Brands, up 6.8%. The multi-brand franchising firm its second half of the year has started "encouragingly," whilst it acquired water pump services firm WPL Group Holdings for up to GBP7.5 million. The company said it would acquire WPL as well as its subsidiaries Willow Pumps and Willow Drainage for an initial GBP5.0 million, paid through GBP4.0 million in cash and the remainder in Franchise shares at a price of 82.5 pence each. In addition, Franchise said the second half of 2019 had "started encouragingly" with momentum at Metro Rod being maintained. Within its business to consumer brands, the firm experienced an "improvement" in franchise recruitment.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Crossword Cybersecurity, down 11%. The cyber security risk assessment firm reported its interim loss deepened on higher costs, despite revenue and order books rising. For the six months ended June, pretax loss deepened to GBP1.1 million from GBP823,679 the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 4.9% to GBP570,757 from GBP544,052 the year before. Profit performance was hurt by cost of sales rising faster than revenue ro GBP667,023 from GBP453,545 the year prior as well as administrative costs rising to GBP972,888 from GBP896,208 the year before. This was amid rising investment in product development and sales & marketing costs. Crossword does not pay an interim dividend.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; [email protected]
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Related Shares:
SIGCarnivalVodafoneTotallyTravis PerkinsFranchise BrandsGrafton GroupCrossword Cybersecurity