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(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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M&G, 5.5%. The savings and investments business said first-half performance was "resilient" amidst the global economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the company does not intend to raise shareholder payouts while the "threat of Covid-19 remains". M&G, which was demerged from Prudential in 2019, however, added that it remains committed to its dividend policy of stable or increasing payouts. It declared an interim dividend of 6.0 pence per share, in line with its policy of paying one-third of the previous year's final dividend. The London-based company posted pretax profit of GBP665 million for the six months to June 30, down 53% from GBP1.43 billion profit recorded a year ago. Gross premiums fell year-on-year to GBP3.46 billion from GBP5.91 billion. First-half adjusted operating profit before tax - the company's preferred profit measure - totaled GBP309 million, down 57% from GBP714 million a year ago. "All-in-all M&G is a bit of a 'wait and see' story at the moment. But with the dividend now looking set to remain intact this year, investors prepared to back the group are being richly rewarded for their patience," said analysts at Hargreaves Lansdown.
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Admiral Group, up 4.7%. Shares in the motor insurer were higher after it lifted its shareholder payout as lower insurance claims boosted first-half performance. For Amiral, strong prior-year reserve releases at home and outside the UK, along with some non-recurrence of negative items in 2019 including the GBP33 million Ogden discount rate impact helped push pretax profit for the six months to June 30 up 31%, to GBP286.1 million from GBP218.2 million recorded a year ago. Operating profit increased 30% to GBP292.3 million. The Wales-based company said it also declared a dividend payment of 70.5 pence per share, including a special 15.5p per share payment.
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Just Eat Takeaway, up 2.7%. The online takeaway platform said revenue rose as demand increased for food deliveries as people were deprived of eating out due to lockdown restrictions. Just Eat reported revenue for the half-year ended June 30 multiplied to EUR675 million from EUR179 million last year, while orders increased 32% to 257 million during the period. The figures are presented as if the combination was completed on January 1, 2019 to provide comparable information for the full six-month period, the company said. Like-for-like revenue grew by 44% to EUR1 billion from EUR715 million a year ago. However, Just Eat, recorded a loss of EUR158 million compared to EUR127 million a year prior, as a result of amortisation, advisory, transaction and integration-related expenses of the integration of the firm with Takeaway.com, plus the proposed takeover of GrubHub.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Spirax-Sarco Engineering, down 2.5%. The thermal energy management company was more pessimistic about the pace of recovery in rest of the year but maintained expectations after a good first half. The company reported a GBP106.3 million pretax profit for a six months ended June 30, down 1.7% from GBP108.1 million the year before. Revenue fell 3.6% to GBP569.7 million from GP591.2 million with all three of its segments posting lower revenue, including a 9.3% revenue drop from largest segment Steam Specialties to GBP331.7 million. The company increased its dividend per share by 4.7% to 33.5 pence from 32.0p a year before. The company, which is headquartered in Cheltenham, noted that 85% of its demand is from customers' operating, rather than capital, budgets, with a high proportion of its revenue coming from sectors less hurt by the pandemic like water treatment of healthcare.
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International Consolidated Airlines, down 2.0%. Davy cut the British Airways parent to Neutral from Outperform.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Dunelm Group, up 4.5%. Barclays started coverage on the homewares retailer with an Outperform rating.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Balfour Beatty, down 3.5%. The infrastructure firm chose not to pay an interim dividend as it swung to a loss in the first half of 2020, with Covid-19 hurting all operations, with Construction the hardest hit. For the six months ended June 26, the FTSE 250 group reported a pretax loss of GBP26 million, compared to a profit of GBP63 million for the same period a year before. Balfour Beatty made a loss from operations of GBP16 million compared to a profit of GBP71 million, as Covid-19 had a material impact on Construction services. In the UK, London had reduced productivity as public transport availability affected employees and subcontractors, while the South region was hit by the almost entire shutdown of aviation. Construction in the US also was badly affected by the pandemic, as contractual recoveries were reassessed on a number of projects. Balfour Beatty has suspended its interim dividend, but is looking to reinstate it "as soon as is appropriate".
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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ASOS, up 4.0%. The online fashion retailer said its annual sales and profit are likely to be "significantly ahead of market expectations" as customer returns did not increase as fast as expected. ASOS said revenue growth is now expected to be between 17% and 19%, with pretax profit in the region of GBP130 million to GBP150 million. In its financial year ended August 2019, ASOS reported pretax profit of GBP33.1 million on GBP2.73 billion in revenue. Assuming a 19% increase, that would mean an annual pretax profit for ASOS of around GBP39.4 million on revenue of roughly GBP3.25 billion for financial 2020. Higher expectations are driven by better than expected underlying demand amid the lockdown, with more people shopping at home, as well as continuation of its "beneficial returns profile". The company had expected to see underlying returns normalise when lockdown measures eased and it became easier to ship returns, but with "better visibility on this pattern in customer behaviour" it has become clear that returns are not increasing at the rate ASOS had originally expected. The company noted that the second half of its year "has been a period of tremendous change" and it is exiting financial 2020 "in a strong position".
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Appreciate Group, down 12%. The multi-retailer revealed an annual profit fall and said it will end production of its famed Christmas hampers. In the financial year that ended March 31, revenue inched 2.1% higher to GBP112.7 million from GBP110.4 million. However, pretax profit fell 32% to GBP7.7 million from GBP11.3 million. Appreciate, which provides gift cards and vouchers, was hurt by impairments of goodwill and impairments of assets held for sale totalling GBP1.3 million and GBP1.7 million, respectively. Such exceptional costs were not incurred a year earlier. Administrative expenses climbed 15% to GBP20.0 million from GBP17.4 million. Appreciate, formerly known as Park Group, said its first 11 months went according to plan before Covid-19 lockdowns hit its trading in March. The company decided against making any payout during the year, after a 3.20p dividend in the year prior. Appreciate said: "We are now proposing to cease production of hampers and merchandise. This decision was initially taken for the Christmas 2020 season to protect the health of our workforce and provide our customers with certainty given the potential for disruption in the supply chain during the ongoing lockdown and potential of further restrictions.
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By Neetika Kurup; neetikakurup@alliancenews.com
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