LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Associated British Foods, up 2.5%. The food, ingredients and retail group reported growth in profit in the first half of its financial year but slightly lower revenue due to unfavourable foreign exchange rates, but said it no longer expects currency translations to have a "material impact" on its full-year results. AB Foods, which owns discount fashion retailer Primark, said its pretax profit in the 24 weeks ended February 27 grew to GBP457 million from GBP213 million in the same period the year before, as it didn't book any exceptional items in the period. Revenue, however, retreated by 2% to GBP6.12 billion from GBP6.25 billion, although this would have grown by 2% on a constant currency basis, AB Foods said. AB Foods will pay an interim dividend of 10.3 pence per share, which is up 3% year-on-year.
Experian, up 1.3%. The information services company said it agreed to buy CSIdentity, a US provider of consumer identity management and fraud detection services, for USD360.0 million in cash from private equity and other investors, management and employees. Experian said its earnings will receive an immediate boost from the acquisition, which will be funded with bank borrowings already in place, and highlighted the "significant" opportunities for "cost synergies" over the next four years. The US identity protection market is estimated to be a USD1.6 billion industry, according to Experian.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Telecom Plus, up 5.7%. The utility services provider said it is confident in meeting its adjusted pretax profit guidance for the financial year that ended in March. The company said it expects adjusted pretax profit to be at least GBP54.0 million for the recent full year, in line with previous guidance, and said its total dividend guidance for the year of 46.00 pence remains unchanged. For the previous year, to the end of March 2015, the group paid a total dividend of 40.00p, while adjusted pretax profit came in at GBP52.2 million.
Meggitt, up 5.6%. The aerospace and defence components company said trading in the first quarter met its expectations, with solid performance in its civil aerospace and defence arms offset by weakness in its energy unit. Group revenue grew 1.0% in the quarter to the end of March on an organic basis, which strips out the effect of acquisitions and currency movements. Civil aerospace organic revenue grew 6.0%, helped by 7.0% growth in aftermarket sales, while military revenue increased 1.0%. Energy revenue declined 15% amid the ongoing pressures on the oil and gas industry.
AVEVA Group, up 4.3%. The engineering software company said it anticipates revenue and adjusted pretax profit, stripping out exceptional items, will broadly meet market expectations for the year to the end of March. The group did not, however, the adjusted pretax profit had taken a hit in March from the weakening of the dollar. AVEVA said its focus remains on ensuring it has allocated its resources as efficiently as possible as the market pressures on the oil and gas and mining industries continue.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Webis Holdings, up 86%. The gaming company and racetrack operator said its WatchandWager.com subsidiary has extended its deal with the French Pari Muteul Urbain to provide customers access to betting directly in French horseracing pools. The deal will also include video streaming of French racing for WatchandWager.com customers, Webis said. No financial details were disclosed.
Cloudbuy, up 8.2%. The cloud-based technology company said it has secured a new contract with HealthShare NSW in Australia, the service delivery arm of NSW Health, the public health services provider for New South Wales. The group said the GBP332,996 contract is for three years, with the option to extend for another two years. CloudBuy will provide its SpendInsight platform, along with other services, to help HealthShare NSW gain regular analysis on its historical spend data and help identify areas for savings and efficiencies.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Lombard Risk Management, down 8.1%. The risk management software company said it expects its accounts for the financial year ended March 31 to show that the software company sunk to a loss, and warned that investment spending will hurt profitability in the short term. The company now expects a loss in the region of GBP2.1 million and GBP2.3 million for the year ended March 31, versus a GBP2.3 million profit a year earlier, hit by non-recurring costs of GBP2.5 million
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun
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23 Jan 2015 13:36