(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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Barratt Developments, up 2.0%, Persimmon, up 1.6%, Berkeley Group, up 0.1%. The housebuilders were higher amid growing expectations that UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak will announce a temporary stamp duty holiday to revive activity in his summer statement on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Whitbread, down 5.0%. The Premier Inn hotel chain owner said lockdown restrictions dealt a serious blow to first-quarter sales. The company said 24 of its UK restaurants and more than 270 of its UK hotels are open again after the Covid-19 lockdown with the majority of the rest reopening in July. All 19 of its German hotels are open again. However, as expected given that lockdown restrictions forced almost all of Whitbread's estate to close from the end of March, sales fell sharply in the 13 weeks ended May 28. UK like-for-like sales dropped 80%, including an 81% drop in Food & beverage sales and 79% fall in Accommodation sales. Total UK sales were also down 80% with a 79% Accommodation drop and 80% decline for Food & beverage. UK & International total sales fell 79% in Whitbread's first quarter, with an 80% fall for Food & beverage and Accommodation sales dropping 79%.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Plus500, up 5.5%. The online trading company said that it has experienced a sharp rise in revenue for the six months to June 30. Plus500 said it has onboarded a record number of new customers in the first half. Plus500 added 198,176 new customers in the first half, compared to 47,540 the year before. As a result, Plus500 said its revenue is expected around USD564.2 million, significantly higher than the USD148.0 million reported the year before. The company said its second-quarter revenue was about USD247.6 million versus USD94.1 million the year before. Plus500 saw a record interim customer income, the company said, of about USD556.9 million - up sharply from USD175.0 million the year before. Plus500 said its financial position remains "robust".
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Micro Focus International, down 8.7%. The software firm said its loss widened substantially in the first half of its financial year following a USD922 million impairment charge on Covid-19 compared to no such charge the year before. Micro Focus posted a USD1.04 billion pretax loss for the six months ended April 30, hugely widened from a loss of only USD99.6 million the year before. This resulted from exceptional USD922.2 million goodwill impairment charge "attributable to the increased economic uncertainty as a result of Covid-19, which has led to an increase in the pretax discount rate and expected disruption to new sales activity and timing pressure on renewals." No such charge was seen in financial 2019. Revenue was 13% lower at USD1.45 billion from USD1.66 billion the previous year. No interim dividend will be paid, after the company's board opted to suspend its final financial 2019 dividend amid Covid-19 uncertainty.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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