risers & fallers – 25/02/14

Risers:

CRH PLC +3.50%

Leading the FTSE 100 risers this morning is building materials provider CRH PLC. The company has today reported a net loss of €296m however this hasn’t spooked investors with its share price climbing over 50p. The start of 2014 has seen trading levels above last year, reiterated by Chief Executive Albert Manifold who has said: “We are encouraged by second-half activity levels in 2013 and by the fact that, while it is still early in the season, trading so far in 2014 has been ahead of last year”. 

St James’s Place +4.59%

St James’s Place has today reported that full year pretax profit has leaped to £461.2m, up from £251.8m a year earlier. The wealth management group has raised its dividend payment by 50% after the positive figures were released, up to 15.96p per share. 

NMC Health +2.49%

UAE-based healthcare specialists NMC Health has today reported full year 2013 profit has jumped by 16% to $69.1m, up from $59.8m a year earlier. Further positive figures were released with revenue increasing by 12.4% to $550.9m. 

Stellar Resources +21.05%

Shares have increased over 21% in Stellar Resources during early morning Tuesday trading after the company revealed they have purchased gold processing plant. The plant is said to process 2 tons of ore per hour at its gold mine based in North Wales. The plant is set to be delivered in around 8 weeks after it has been manufactured.

Fallers: 

GKN PLC -3.27%

GKN PLC is leading the FTSE 100 fallers this morning after the engineering company reported a fall in pretax profit to £484m, down from £568m a year earlier. GKN have blamed the drop in profit on problems with currency hedging contracts. In a statement, GKN highlighted this problem by saying: “Whilst adverse currency could provide a significant translational headwind, this should be outweighed by the benefits of the group’s diverse exposure to global markets, strong customer positions and healthy order books”. 

Ashmore Group -8.51%

Net profit for the sixth months to 31 Dec 2013 fell to £62.8m, down from £94.3m a year earlier. Revenue was also down, falling to £134.6m from £163.7m. The emerging markets investment manager share price has fallen over 8% after the results were revealed this morning which were blamed on increased market volatility. 

Genus PLC -5.47%

Genus PLC has today posted a drop in pretax profits for the 6 months to Dec 31 to £22m, down from £22.3m. Revenue was up, reported at £181.7m in comparison to £167.2m a year earlier. 

BATM Advanced Communications Ltd -3.79%

BATM Advanced Communications has today swung to a loss of $4.5m compared to a profit of $0.7m a year earlier. Revenue for the group increased to $114.2m from $113.6m a year ago.