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The below stocks have been identified as having potential to register bigger than normal share price moves (up or down) today based on the news cited
Barclays (BARC.L) and Standard Chartered (STAN.L) - According to unnamed sources, Barclays has been looking into options for shrinking down its investment bank after activist investor pressure, including a potential merger with Standard Chartered (+4% in Hong Kong overnight), Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse or Singapore's DBS Bank. Closing price 211.10 (BARC) and 766.90 (STAN) (FT)
Babcock International Group PLC (BAB.L) - Posted a 2.8% rise in underlying revenue to £5.4bn, which met forecasts. Profit was up 3.6% to £512m. It also expected to deliver low mid-single digit organic revenue growth and stable margins in 2018/19. International sales and a restructuring helped the group to hit its annual targets. Closing price 765.8p (Reuters)
Marks & Spencer’s Group PLC (MKS.L) – Reported a 5.4% fall in full-year profit, this, being a second straight decline, due to weakening in the food profit margin. It made a pretax profit before one off items of £580.9m in the year to March 31 which beat forecasts of £573m but is lower than the £613.8m and £321m charges due to store closures. Closing price 293.49p (Reuters)
Severn Trent PLC (SVT.L) – Posted a 4% rise in full-year profit, underlying profit before interest, tax and exceptional items climbed to £541m for the year ended March 31 up from £520.1m last year. The Dee Valley water business and higher revenue offset impact of changes in business rates and costs. Closing price 2075.10p (Bloomberg)
Bovis Homes Group PLC (BVS.L) - Saw strong pricing and total sales for the year in line with expectations. Private sales per week was up 6%, its dividend is up 5.5% y-o-y and final dividend is up 8% y-o-y. Now on track to deliver £180m additional cash by year end and sees continued good levels of demand for new homes across all operating regions, underlying pricing remaining firm. Closing price 1294.7p (Bloomberg)
(Sources: Company newswires, Bloomberg, CNBC, FT, Reuters, Wall Street Journal)
For more information on any of these individual news items, call into the trading floor
| Stock | Code | Close | High | Low |
| PETS AT HOME | PETS | -13.0% | 4.9% | -13.0% |
| CLOSE BROTHERS | CBG | 0.9% | 2.3% | -0.1% |
| HALFORDS | HFD | -11.8% | -9.5% | -15.1% |
| GALLIFORD TRY | GFRD | 0.3% | 1.5% | -2.9% |
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