LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Aberdeen Asset Management, up 3.3%, Standard Chartered, up 2.8%. China-related stocks, including the emerging markets-focused fund manager and similar bank, were benefiting after a weak set of economic data from China raised expectations of further stimulus measures being taken by the country's central bank. China's exports fell for the fourth straight month in October providing little support to economic growth, while imports plunged on weak domestic demand.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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InterContinental Hotels Group, down 3.9%. Following recent market speculation, the hotel operator said that it was not considering a potential sale or merger of the company. On Friday, Bloomberg reported that IHG was exploring strategic options including a potential sale or merger after attracting interest amid a boom in hotel sector deals. IHG previously had been linked to the US's Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Serco Group, up 8.6%. The outsourcer reached a deal with the Australian government to amend the terms of its existing contract providing in-service support for Armidale Class Patrol Boats, which will result in the group booking significantly smaller provisions against losses from the contract in the future. Serco said the amendments made to the contract mean the deal will now end in 2017 rather than in 2022. Serco will provide maintenance and remediation work on an agreed cost recovery basis, which will be subject to strict cost caps and audit processes, it said.
Aggreko, up 7.8%. The temporary power provider maintained its pretax profit guidance for the year despite the tough conditions which have hit the company in 2015 continuing in the third quarter. The company said it continues to expect its pretax profit for the full year to be GBP250.0 million to GBP270.0 million, down from GBP289.0 million in 2014. The group said its revenue for the third quarter to the end of September was down 6.0% on a year before and was down 7.0% on an underlying basis.
Jupiter Fund Management, up 3.4%, Henderson Group, up 3.5%. Wells Fargo, one of the biggest banks in the US, is understood to be weighing up takeover in the fund management sector, the Sunday Times reported. The newspaper said that Henderson and Jupiter are both thought to be on the shopping list. Wells Fargo declined to comment to the Sunday Times.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Capital & Counties Properties, down 2.1%. The property developer confirmed it is conducting a strategic review which may result in the sale of its Venues business, following press speculation about the unit. "Following the successful transition of shows from the former Earls Court Exhibition Centres and a major refurbishment programme, Capco confirms that it is conducting a strategic review which may or may not lead to a sale of its Venues business," the company said.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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PowerHouse Energy Group, up 22%. The company said demonstration and review for its G3-UHt gasification system has started in Central Europe before a group of representatives of an unnamed municipal and regional government. Though some minor issues were found with the electrical generation unit in the system, those present expressed an interest in starting commercial talks with the company for the potential acquisition of a commercially-operating G3-UHt system, PowerHouse said. The talks have started and will continuing in coming months, the company added.
Patagonia Gold, up 15%. The gold miner said it has signed a letter of intent with Trilogy Mining which will lead the company to acquire stakes in gold projects in Uruguay in return for staged investments. Patagonia can acquire up to 100% of Trilogy's Carreta Quemada and Chamizo gold projects in Uruguay, and is expecting the deal to be finalised before the end of 2015. Under the terms, Patagonia will earn its first 15% stake in the projects by funding USD500,000 of work over an 18 month period, and this will rise to 51% if it funds USD1.5 million of work in the same period.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Red24, down 18%. The crisis assistance company said pretax profit and revenue both fell in the first half, primarily due to the loss of work from a key customer and lower activity in its response business. The company said its pretax profit for the half to the end of September was GBP346,000, down from GBP487,000 a year earlier primarily due to the lack of revenue from its identity theft service contract with bank HSBC. Revenue declined to GBP3.0 million from GBP3.3 million, mainly due to the loss of the HSBC contract and lower activity in its crisis response business, which had been boosted a year earlier by an evacuation event in Libya. About 75% of the HSBC revenue lost was replaced by new travel assistance customers, the group said.
Goals Soccer Centres, down 17%. The five-a-side football centres operator trimmed its profit guidance for 2015 again as a recovery in sales performance proved more elusive than had been hoped previously. Goals said that while its week-on-week sales performance has improved in the second half, the recovery has been slower than expected. Due to this, Goals now expects its pretax profit for the full year to be GBP8.2 million to GBP8.6 million, down from the GBP9.3 million to GBP9.8 million guidance it gave in its first half results in September, which had itself been cut given a more cautious view on the outlook for the year.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
27 Apr 2015 11:00
