ABC.L Share News (ABC)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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ARM Holdings, up 5.7%. The chipmaker raised its interim dividend as it saw pretax profit rise in the half year to end-June, driven by a strong performance from its licensing operations which offset weaker royalty revenues. It proposed an interim dividend of 2.25 pence, up 7.1% from 2.1 pence in the previous year. Excluding costs for acquisitions, restructuring, share-based payment costs and other exceptional items, ARM posted a pretax profit of GBP191.3 million, up from GBP176.0 million in the previous year, as revenue rose to GBP373.7 million from GBP341.5 million. Including these costs pretax profit was GBP146.0 million, up from GBP82.1 million.

Anglo American, up 2.7%. The mining company has continued to rise Tuesday, having closed up 0.6% on Monday after it unveiled major plans to sell-off platinum mines in South Africa, as part of its ongoing platinum review. The gains come despite a statement released on Tuesday that said Anglo American subsidiary Kumba Iron Ore will provide the parent company with a lower contribution to underlying earnings in its second quarter, due to lower iron ore prices and higher costs. The announcement comes ahead of Anglo American's half-year results release on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Tesco, down 3.3%, has more than reversed strong gains posted on Monday. The supermarket chain saw its shares rise sharply Monday after it revealed that Chief Executive Officer Philip Clarke will step down on October 1, to be replaced by Dave Lewis, who is currently president of Unilever's Personal Care unit, as well as a non-executive director of British Sky Broadcasting. Tesco closed up 1.3%, even though it said that current trading conditions are "more challenging" than it had anticipated in early June, and warned that first-half sales and trading profit are "somewhat below expectations". However, these gains have been reversed Tuesday, and the company is currently the heaviest faller in the blue-chip index. The change in sentiment comes after a raft of negative price target revisions. Exane BNP Paribas has lowered its price target on the company to 295 pence from 305p, Macquarie has cut its target to 330p from 350p, Deutsche Bank has lowered its target to 313p from 342p, while Barclays has lowered it to 300p from 340p.

WM Morrison Supermarkets, down 1.5%, and J Sainsbury, down 1.1%. The retailers are once again two of the biggest losers in the FTSE 100, having closed down 2.4% and 2%, respectively, on Monday. The companies are continuing to be weighed upon by Monday's profit warning from Tesco.

Royal Mail, down 0.7%. Shares in the company have fallen after it said its UK parcel business is finding competition tougher than expected. Much of the hype surrounding Royal Mail's flotation in October last year focused on Royal Mail's growth as a parcel business, but the division has underperformed expectations in the first quarter of 2014. UK Parcel volumes were up by 1.0% in the first quarter, while revenue was down by 1.0%. Still, as a group, Royal Mail is performing broadly in line with expectations as cost cutting in the letter business offset the parcel weakness.

GlaxoSmithKline, down 0.4%. The pharmaceutical giant has revealed that its joint venture specialist HIV company ViiV Healthcare Ltd's study of a combined maraviroc treatment showed inferior efficacy compared to an alternative combination. ViiV Healthcare, was created in a joint venture between Glaxo and US based Pfizer Inc in 2009, presented an analysis of the results of the study Tuesday at the 20th International AIDS Congress in Melbourne. The Phase III study compared maraviroc, marketed as Celsentri, combined with darunavir/ritonavir, when compared to emtricitabine/tenofovir. The study did not meet its non-inferiority endpoint, it said.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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IG Group Holdings, up 7.7%. The online trading company has reported a 1.3% increase in pretax profit in its last financial year, boosted by stronger revenue figures in the UK and Ireland, as well as in the rest of Europe. It said that it made a GBP194.7 million pretax profit in the year ended May 31, compared with GBP192.2 million a year earlier. Revenue increased to GBP413.7 million, from GBP406.4 million, due to increases in the UK and Europe more than offsetting falls in Australia and the rest of the world. The company also increased its full-year dividend by 21% to 28.15 pence, from 23.25 a year earlier, representing approximately 70% of the group's full-year earnings.

Beazley, up 5.7%. The specialist insurer said its interim pretax profit increased by almost two-thirds, helped by a small improvement in underwriting profitability and a significant increase in its investment return, aided by a dearth of major catastrophe events. It said that it made a USD132.9 million pretax profit in the six months to end-June, compared with USD82.3 million in the corresponding period a year earlier. Beazley increased its interim dividend per share to 3.1 pence from 2.9p.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Croda International, down 1.7%. The speciality chemicals company said its pretax profit fell in its first half and again warned of lower pretax profit for the full year as reduced demand in Europe and currency translation losses hit the company. It said its pretax profit fell 6.0% to GBP125.1 million for the six months ended June 30 from GBP133.1 million in the previous year, as sales fell 4.5% to GBP537.4 million from GBP562.7 million. The company said its results were also hit significantly by currency translation, which reduced sales by GBP38.3 million and operating profit by GBP11.4 million as the sterling and euro showed relative strength versus other currencies.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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Kea Petroleum, up 22%. the oil and gas company said that drilling has started at its Puka-3 well on the PEP51153 licence, located onshore in Taranaki in New Zealand. It said that the well is targeting Mt Messenger formation sands at roughly 1,580 metres in depth, which were seen in its recent 50 square kilometre seismic survey of the western part of PEP51153. Drilling will be completed using the Drill Force New Zealand Ltd's Rig 6, after Drill Force was assigned the rig contract for the site during June. The drilling of Puka-3, from the same well pad as the producing Puka-1 and Puka-2 wells, is an important component of its farm-out agreement with MEO New Zealand Pty Ltd, which is intended to boost existing production and assist future field appraisal for Kea Petroleum.

Black Mountain Resources, up 22%. The resources exploration and development company said that high-grade silver results have been returned from its channel sampling at the New Departure silver mine in Montana. It said results from tests over 111 samples taken from multiple regions across the site showed strong mineralisation at its Blue Dot site and Upper Historic Workings site, including a 1.9 metre space at 422 ounces per tonne of silver. The company said of the 48 samples taken in the Blue Dot region, 25% showed mineralisation of 3 ounces per tonne of silver or above. Black Mountain said the Blue Dot level has the greatest potential for hosting a mineral resource for the company to develop in the downward and northwest areas of the ore body.

Frontier Resources, up 13%. The oil and gas exploration company said that interpretation of data on its Namibian blocks has shown several deep seated basement structures which will serve as a guide for the company's continuing exploration programme. It said it recently retained the services of Earthfield Technology to undertake a study to evaluate the depth to magnetic basement of aeromagnetic data over the Owambo Basin purchased from the Geological Survey of Namibia. The company said that mapping of the depth of its basement on site shows a deep basin with sediment thickness up to 10 kilometres in the central and northern part of the licence area, and shallow basements in the southern regions. It said that interpretation of the data has shown several deep seated basement structures and the mapped positions of these structures will serve as a guide to optimally locate the focus areas of its continuing exploration programme.

Max Property Group, up 7.9%. The company has proposed the sale of its entire property business to Marina Topco (Jersey) Ltd, a company controlled by Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe IV and its affiliates, in a deal valuing the group at GBP447.7 million. The valuation, which excludes exit costs but includes the recently approved GBP33.0 million return to shareholders, is equivalent to an enterprise value of more than GBP650.0 million. Max Property said that the proposed deal includes the sale of its subsidiary MPG Opco for GBP414.2 million in cash. That subsidiary owns the group's property business.

Advanced Oncotherapy, up 5.9%. The company has signed a collaboration with ScandiNova Systems AB for the development of high energy systems to power part of its LIGHT technology. ScandiNova is a Sweden-based technology company which specialises in creating solid state controlled power systems. The LIGHT radiotherapy system is based around technology Advanced Oncotherapy acquired in 2013 from ADAM SA, a spin-off company from the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, in Geneva. The technology produces a proton beam that can be used to treat cancer. No financial details were disclosed.

Abcam, up 5.7%. The biotechnology company said that it expects its adjusted pretax profit to be slightly higher than consensus expectations for the year to the end of June. The company said it had seen revenues rise at 8.6% at constant currency, although 4.7% on a reported basis. Abcam said it had seen catalogue revenues rise 10.6% in the second half compared to 9.3% in the first-half, at constant currency, as it made progress with its organic growth strategy. Outside of catalogues, the company's other components performed in line with guidance, it said. Abcam worked on repositioning its custom service line to be more closely aligned to its overall strategic direction, but noted that its key focus remains on its catalogue sales.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
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Bagir Group, off 22%. The formal clothing tailoring company has announced that it expects full-year earnings to be at the lower end of guidance given in May. "While in line with the previous estimates, the company expects the full results to be at the lower end of these ranges," Bagir said Tuesday. Bagir had said that it expected earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation to be in an approximate range of USD4.0 million to USD6.0 million, while it had expected a USD100.0 million to USD104.0 million range for revenue. Bagir's financial year follows the calendar year.

IQE, down 14%. The semiconductor company has warned that it expects its revenue for the half year to end-June to be 17% behind the previous year. It said it expects six-month revenue of around GBP52 million, down 17% from GBP63 million, as it continued to be hit by de-stocking from major customers due to softness in the smart-phone market, and the continued strengthening of sterling. Still, it has reiterated that it is on track to meet full-year expectations.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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