LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
Taylor Wimpey, up 1.5%, Barratt Developments, up 1.2%. Berenberg started coverage on the housebuilders with Buy ratings. ----------
3i Group, up 1.5%. The private equity investor said it made a "good start" to the year as it increased its first quarter net asset value per share. The company's total return for the three months to June 30 stood at 5.1%, and 3i made cash realisations of GBP337 million in the quarter. "This was another productive quarter for 3i with good portfolio performance as well as significant investment and realisation activity," Chief Executive Officer Simon Borrows said. The company said it remains "well positioned" to deliver another year of growth. ----------
ITV, up 1.1%. The broadcaster said reality show Love Island and the football World Cup were behind its 9% increase in half-year external revenue. For the six months to June 30, the broadcaster posted external revenue up 8.9% to GBP1.59 billion from GBP1.46 billion reported in the comparative year-ago period. Revenue from advertising increased 2%, "as expected", with a 48% growth in online advertising revenue. Non-advertising revenue was up 14% to GBP958 million. Pretax profit widened slightly to GBP265 million from GBP259 million a year ago, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation dipped 7% to GBP375 million from GBP403 million year-on-year. The company declared an interim dividend in respect of the six-month period of 2.6 pence per share, up 3% on last year. ITV said it remains "committed" to an 8p full-year dividend, despite the period of investments. ----------
Kingfisher, up 0.9%. Citi raised the DIY retailer to Neuttral from Sell. ----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
Fresnillo, down 4.1%. The miner tweaked its annual production guidance, raising gold guidance but lowering silver, following its second quarter production report. Silver production in the second quarter of the year was up 5.7% on year, whilst production over the first six months of 2018 was up 9.7% to 30.8 million ounces. This was due to the start up of operations at San Julian JM in July 2017. Gold production in the second quarter was up 4.6%, up 4.4% over the half to 465,000 ounces. Looking to 2018 as a whole, Fresnillo sees total gold production between 900,000 ounces to 930,000 ounces - previously guided between 870,000 ounces and 900,000 ounces - while silver is seen slightly lower, between 64.5 million ounces to 67.5 million ounces, from the previously guided 67 million ounces to 70 million ounces.----------
Informa, down 3.8%. The events and business information group reported a decrease in profit for the first half of 2018, hit by costs related to its takeover of peer UBM. For the six months ended June 30, the company reported pretax profit of GBP120.3 million, down 19% from GBP148.6 million for the same period a year before, despite 4.6% revenue growth to GBP957.1 million from GBP915.3 million. Adjusted pretax profit rose 3.3%, however, to GBP264.7 million from GBP256.2 million. The adjusted results exclude the GBP52.2 million booked by Informa in acquisition & integration costs, following its purchase of peer UBM which completed in June. UBM contributed 15 days to Imforma's first half results, generating revenue of GBP69.0 million and an operating loss of GBP26.3 million. ----------
Croda International, down 3.3%. The speciality chemicals company said strengthening of sterling adversely impacted first half sales and profit, but the company saw good organic sales in its core business across all geographic regions. The company added that it remains confident for the full year due to an encouraging momentum in consumer businesses and double digit percentage profit growth in its performance technologies division. For the six months to June 30, the company recorded pretax profit of GBP170.8 million, up slightly from GBP168.0 million recorded in the year ago period, on revenue of GBP702.8 million and GBP707.3 million, respectively. ----------
Rio Tinto, down 2.3%. RBC Capital downgraded the miner to Underperform from Sector Perform. ----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
Brewin Dolphin, up 6.5%. The investment manager said total funds increased in the third quarter from a quarterly total income record. In the three months ended June 30, Brewin Dolphin total funds increased 6.6% to GBP42.3 billion from GBP39.7 billion at the end of the previous quarter. The company increased its core funds by 7.3% in the third quarter to GBP40.90 billion from GBP38.10 billion. Brewin's discretionary funds increasing 7.3% to GBP36.80 billion from GBP34.30 billion. Brewin Dolphin attributed the rise to continued strong organic flows and positive investment returns.----------
QinetiQ, up 3.2%. The defence contractor said its underlying trading in the first quarter met expectations leaving expectations for the full financial year unchanged. The company said its EMEA Services division delivered against its growth strategy by winning a GBP95 million five-year competition for the Battlefield and Tactical Communications & Information Systems from the UK Ministry of Defence. QinetiQ said the EMEA Services division has increased both its revenue and orders organically compared to the same period the previous year.----------
Tullow Oil, up 2.5%. The oil and gas company reported a swing to pretax profit for the first half of 2018 due to the absence of a large impairment charge taken a year earlier and increased revenue generation. For the six months to June-end, Tullow recorded pretax profit of USD150.5 million, compared with a pretax loss of USD557.9 million a year before, on a revenue of GBP905.1 million and GBP787.5 million, respectively. Impairment costs relating to property, plant and equipment for the period totalled USD8 million versus USD642 million a year ago. First-half working interest production averaged 79,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from 82,400 boepd recorded a year previously. The drop was primarily attributed to shut downs at Jubilee operations in the recent period.----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------
Indivior, down 20%. The drugmaker reported a drop in half year earnings with revenue down 5% and operating profit down 18%. For the six months to June 30, the company posted net revenue down to USD524 million from USD553 million in the comparative year ago period. At constant currency, the revenue decrease was 7%. Operating profit dropped to USD200 million from USD244 million a year ago, leading to a narrowed USD189 pretax profit compared to USD219 last year. The company said it is still unable to issue new annual guidance, after it withdrew it earlier in July, due to the brief market entry of Indian rival Dr Reddy's Laboratories generic buprenorphine/naloxone sublingual film. ----------
Wizz Air Holdings, down 3.5%. The central and eastern Europe-focused airline said profit in the first quarter of its current financial year decreased, hurt by higher costs and air traffic disruptions. For the three months ended June 30, pretax profit declined 14% to EUR52.1 million from EUR60.5 million in the same period the previous year, while revenue rose 18% to EUR553.4 million from EUR469.3 million. The lower pretax profit came in due to the increased expenses. Staff costs were 37% higher year-on-year at EUR46.4 million compared to EUR34.0 million while fuel costs jumped 32% to EUR154.7 million from EUR117.1 million. Airport, handling & en-route charges also climbed 23% to EUR138.9 million from EUR113.2 million a year earlier.----------
Thomas Cook, down 3.4%. UBS started coverage on the travel agent with a Sell rating. ----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------
Burford Capital, up 12%. The litigation finance provider said its profit grew in the first half of 2018 as its investment income accelerated. Burford reported a pretax profit of USD164.6 million for the six months to June 30, up 14% from USD144.9 million it reported for the same period in 2017. Total income also grew 17% to USD205.2 million from USD175.5 million. This was driven by a sharp increase in investment income to USD195.2 million, up 21% from USD161.6 million. Burford declared an interim dividend of 3.67 US cents per share, up 20% from 3.05 cents paid the prior year.----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------
Ricardo, down 12%. The engineering consultant warned profit for its recently ended financial year will be towards the lower end of analyst consensus. For the 12 months to June-end, Ricardo said its order intake was "good" at GBP410 million compared to GBP366 million a year earlier. Ricardo's Technical Consulting business did well in the second half of its year, while in the UK its Automotive saw declining orders due to market uncertainty. Overall, revenue is expected by Ricardo to be above GBP380 million compared to GBP352 million in its prior financial year. However, Ricardo nevertheless expects underlying pretax profit to be "towards the lower end of the range of analysts forecasts". In its last financial year, the figure rose to GBP38.3 million from GBP37.7 million. ----------
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