(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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Whitbread, up 2.1%. HSBC raised the Premier Inn hotel chain owner to Buy from Hold.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Diageo, down 1.5%. Shares in the distiller were lower ahead of the release of its interim results on Thursday. On Tuesday, JPMorgan cut Diageo shares to Underweight from Neutral.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Quilter, up 3.7%. Goldman Sachs restarted coverage on the Anglo-South African asset manager with a Buy rating. Quilter also on Wednesday said it managed to generate net client cash inflow for all of 2019, reversing the net outflow seen in the first three quarters of the year but lagging behind the previous year. The financial services firm was spun out of Anglo-South African financial services firm Old Mutual in 2018. Net client cash inflow for 2019 as a whole was GBP300 million, a significant improvement over the net outflow of GBP200 million recorded in the nine months to September. However, this was still far below 2018's annual net client cash inflow figure of GBP4.7 billion.
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Travis Perkins, up 1.7%. The builders' merchant said its soon-to-be-demerged home improvement retailer Wickes saw a sales rise in the fourth quarter of 2019. In the quarter to December 31, sales were 3.4% higher year-on-year, and climbed 4.5% on a like-for-like basis. For the whole of 2019, Wickes had 7.7% sales growth, or 8.7% like-for-like, Travis Perkins added. The Core unit, meaning the DIY stores, had a 5.7% sales rise in 2019, or 6.5% like-for-like. In July, Travis Perkins had announced the decision to demerge consumer-facing retailer Wickes as part of its plan to focus on trade customers and simplify the business. "Investors would probably settle for the company making the most of the strength of the Wickes brand, adapting to homeowners' changing needs and keeping a tight lid on costs as they've promised. That could lay the foundations for a solid future as a separate business," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Fresnillo, down 2.2%. The Mexican gold miner reported a rise in quarterly gold output but the annual figure fell short of revised guidance. Fresnillo produced 233,744 ounces of gold in the fourth quarter of 2019, 11% higher on the previous quarter and 0.7% higher year-on-year. For 2019 as a whole, Fresnillo gold production fell 5.1% to 875,913 ounces. In December, it had set guidance at 885,000 ounces, from previous guidance of 880,000 ounces to 910,000 ounces. The company's fourth-quarter production increase on the prior was driven by an improvement at the Herradura mine, offsetting lower throughput and grades at Noche Buena. Annual production declined due to the lower production at Noche Buena and lower grades at San Julian.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Hurricane Energy, up 15%. The oil and gas firm reported a strong start to life for the Lancaster field early production system in the UK North Sea. Hurricane said the system has continued to achieve "strong" production, with well productivity beating initial expectations. In the third quarter of 2019, production was 15,400 barrels of oil per day, well above guidance of 9,000 barrels, while fourth-quarter production was 11,800 barrels compared to 11,000 barrels guidance. For 2019, Hurricane expects to reported 3.0 million barrels of oil of production, equivalent to around 12,900 barrels per day. Production from Lancaster first started on May 11. Revenue is set to be USD170 million.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Pendragon, down 3.5%. The car dealer warned profit for 2019 will be towards the bottom of current expectations, despite a "significantly" improved second half performance. Pendragon said that despite weaker consumer demand, amid December's general election in the UK, the company recovered in the second half of 2019. In the first half ended June 30, Pendragon's revenue fell by 0.8% year-on-year to GBP2.46 billion and it swung to a pretax loss of GBP134.6 million, from a GBP27.3 million profit. The firm said in the second half however, it benefited from closing 22 underperforming units, better inventory management, and cost cuts.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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