SLA.L Share News (SLA)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Diageo, up 4.0% at 2,881.50 pence. Shares in the distiller hit a record high of 2,903p earlier in the session after it posted an increased profit for the first half of its financial year with all regions contributing to growth. For the six months to December 31, the spirits maker posted an increase in pretax profit to GBP2.63 billion from GBP2.20 billion the year before. Diageo reported an increase of 5.8% in net sales to GBP6.91 billion from GBP6.53 billion the year before. Asia Pacific net sales grew the most, up 13% on an organic basis with particularly strong growth in the Greater China region, where net sales increased 20%. On a reported basis, Asia Pacific net sales were up 8%. The company also achieved volume growth to 130.5 million in the six months from 126.4 million a year before. Diageo declared a 26.1p per share interim dividend, up 4.8% from 24.9p per share the year before.----------Royal Dutch Shell 'B', up 3.8%, Shell 'A', up 3.5%. The oil major delivered a strong set of financial results for both the fourth quarter and 2018 as a whole. Shell's production was 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, broadly flat year-on-year. Fourth quarter production rose 1%, however, to 3.8 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, and was marginally higher on the fourth quarter. Shell's current cost of supply earnings excluding identified items attributable to shareholders rose 36% to USD21.40 billion from USD15.76 billion in 2017. Analyst consensus had predicted CCS earnings of USD20.98 billion. Revenue for 2018 came in at USD388.38 billion, up 27% from USD305.18 billion last year. Shell's dividend for 2018 was USD1.88 per share, flat year-on-year, as expected by analyst consensus. Shares in rival BP, which reports its own annual results next Tuesday, were up 1.5%.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Standard Life Aberdeen, down 4.4%. Morgan Stanley downgraded the asset manager to Equal Weight from Overweight. ----------BT Group, down 4.2%. The telecommunications firm held its full-year forecasts after nine-month profit rose despite revenue continuing to fall in a "tough market." For the nine months ended December, pretax profit grew 20% to GBP2.09 billion from GBP1.74 billion a year prior. Revenue fell 1.1% to GBP17.56 billion from GBP17.76 billion a year before. During the period, only its Consumer division - which includes mobile network EE - saw revenue growth with adjusted revenue up 3.2% to GBP8.06 billion. In contrast, its Enterprise unit saw revenue fall 4.9% to GBP4.73 billion, Global Services down 6.4% to GBP3.53 billion and Openreach 4.1% lower to GBP3.80 billion. Overall, BT expects underlying revenue for the year ending March 2019 to dip 2% for the full year. Cash flow is anticipated between GBP2.3 billion and GBP2.5 billion with capital expenditure around the GBP3.7 billion mark. ----------Unilever, down 3.0%. The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods maker reported a performance in line with market expectations in 2018 but said it faces a difficult 2019. The company's annual revenue declined as expected, falling 5.1% to EUR50.98 billion in 2018 from EUR53.72 billion the year before. This was in line with the analyst consensus, which forecast a 5% revenue decline to EUR51 billion. The revenue decline was the result of a 6.7% hit from currency and the EUR6.83 billion sale of the company's spreads business, including Flora and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, to KKR & Co in July. The consumer goods company, which owns brands such as Dove soap and Lynx deodorant, reported a pretax profit of EUR12.38 billion, up 53% from EUR8.15 billion in 2017. Looking ahead to 2019, Unilever Chief Executive Alan Jope is expecting that market conditions will "remain challenging".----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Ferrexpo, up 7.5%. Deutsche Bank raised the iron ore pellet maker to Buy from Hold believing the firm will benefit from higher iron ore prices following the collapse of a Vale mining dam in Brazil. ----------Renishaw, up 4.5%. The engineer said its profit dipped despite an increase in revenue in the first half of its current financial year, boosted by strong growth across most of its operating regions. The company, focused on measurement, motion control, healthcare, spectroscopy and manufacturing, said pretax profit in the six months to the end of December declined 6.9% to GBP61.6 million from GBP66.2 million reported a year before, despite revenue rising by 6.2% to GBP296.7 million from GBP279.5 million. On a constant currency basis, revenue grew by 4%. Looking ahead, Renishaw said it expects to report full-year revenue in the range of GBP635 million and GBP665 million. Pretax profit is anticipated at between GBP146 million and GBP166 million. In its financial 2018, the company recorded pretax profit of GBP155.2 on revenue of GBP611.5 million.----------QinetiQ, up 4.0%. The defence technology firm said it has continued to do well, and it is on track to meet expectations for its current financial year. The company said the Europe, Middle East, & Africa Services division delivered "encouraging" organic order and revenue growth in the third quarter ended December. Revenue under contract and operating profit, QinetiQ said, met expectations. The company is making good progress on talks over its long-term partnership with the UK Ministry of Defence. QinetiQ hopes to secure pricing up to 2028 and a similar level of investment to the 2016 agreement.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Victrex, down 5.0%. The stock went ex-dividend meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Keywords Studios, up 10%. The video games services firm guided for strong growth in profit and both organic and reported revenue. For 2018, the group guided for revenue of at least EUR250 million, well above the EUR151.4 million achieved a year prior. Organic growth in revenue was 10%. Keywords' adjusted pretax profit is guided to be EUR37.8 million, from EUR23.0 million in 2017. Keywords said "almost" all of its seven service lines had a strong year, with Player Support and Engineering in particular doing well. Localisation Testing, however, had a more disappointing year on the back of some titles moving from the last quarter of 2018 into 2019. ----------