ACA.L Share News (ACA)

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Hiscox, up 2.3%. Morgan Stanley upgraded the Bermuda-based insurer to Overweight from Equal-weight.----------Standard Life Aberdeen, up 2.4%. The wealth manager has asked US bank Citigroup to conduct the remaining GBP200 million in the company's GBP750 million buyback programme. Citi will begin purchasing shares Friday and will have until January 16, 2020 to complete the programme. At SLA's 2018 annual general meeting, shareholders approved a GBP1.75 billion total buyback programme. This consisted of GBP1.00 billion returned through a B share consolidation scheme agreement - which was completed last October - and the return of up to GBP750 million through an ordinary share purchase agreement. SLA has already purchased GBP550 million of shares through the agreement, with the final GBP200 million now expected to be bought by January. The company said the purpose of the programme is to reduce its share capital. SLA currently has 2.41 billion shares in issue.----------Royal Bank of Scotland, up 2.4%. The lender rebounded from Thursday's 10% loss, after a string of broker downgrades hit the stock. HSBC analysts cut RBS to Hold from Buy as the potential of the UK leaving the EU without a trade agreement becomes a "material" likelihood. Macquarie also cut the stock to Neutral from Outperform. HSBC and Macquarie echoed one another: the recent second-quarter earnings season highlighted the challenging conditions faced by domestic UK lenders, with RBS the most exposed. Swiss bank UBS cuts its price target on RBS but retained a Buy rating. Thursday's downward move by RBS was exacerbated by the stock going ex-dividend for its 2.0p per share interim payout. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Fresnillo, down 1.5%. The gold miner was following the price of the precious metal downward. Gold was quoted at 1,506.90, down from USD1,517.10 an ounce at the London equities close Thursday. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Kaz Minerals, up 5.1%. The copper miner rebounded Friday after losing 15% on Thursday. KAZ slashed its interim dividend after profit and revenue both weakened amid softer copper prices. For the six months ended June, pretax profit narrowed 19% to USD355.0 million after revenue fell 4.2% to USD1.05 billion. During the period, the average copper price per tonne fell 12% to USD6,165 on a year prior. This contributed to copper revenue shedding 5.9% to USD849.0 million despite sales volumes rising 2.6% to 144,400 tonnes. In response, Kaz slashed its interim dividend by a third to 4.0 US cents per share from 6.0 cents the year before. ----------Ultra Electronics, up 1.8%. The UK aerospace and defence engineering company said it has secured a contract worth up to USD1 billion in partnership with US manufacturing firm Sparton DeLeon Springs to manufacture sonobuoys for the US Navy. A sonobuoy is a small floating sonar system that is dropped from aircraft or ships conducting anti-submarine warfare or underwater acoustic research. Ultra Electronics said the contract is for a five-year term and its value will not exceed USD1.04 billion. Under the contract, ERAPSCO - a joint venture between Ultra Electronics and Sparton DeLeon - will provide production subcontracts to Ultra Electronics and Sparton DeLeon. In the first year, the companies will be awarded contracts worth about USD75 million each. ----------Acacia Mining, up 1.8%. The miner said gold production at the North Mara mine cannot resume until the Tanzanian environment council reverses a prohibition notice. Acacia has, however, begun to receive permits from Tanzanian regulators which would permit it to export gold. Sales of this gold should allow the miner to meet "its financial obligations for an extended period of time". The Tanzanian government in July prohibited Acacia from using the tailings storage facility at North Mara because of "failure to contain and prevent seepage", halting gold production altogether. The company added that mined ore is currently being added to stockpiles until it is allowed to produce gold again. Acacia has been under pressure since Tanzania in 2017 banned all exports of the metal concentrate in an effort to keep processing activities in the country. The firm operates three gold mines in Tanzania: North Mara, Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Sports Direct International, down 2.2%. The retail group said it will shut eight stores of newly acquired Jack Wills and may yet close more if landlords do not lower rents. Sports Direct purchased the clothing retailer, which currently has 98 stores, earlier in August for GBP12.8 million. A spokesperson for Sports Direct said: "Since rescuing Jack Wills from administration last week, we have been working hard with landlords to try and keep as many stores in the existing portfolio open. Unfortunately, the landlords involved with these eight stores have not cooperated. Where possible, Sports Direct is committed to finding new roles within the group for all affected Jack Wills staff." ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Pendragon, up 4.0%. The car dealer has agreed to sell its assets in a Chevrolet dealership in Puente Hills, California for an initial GBP17.2 million, in order to reduce net debt. Pendragon said that the total sale amount is yet to be determined but that at December 31 the gross assets that are subject to the sale totalled GBP42.0 million. The deal is in line with the company's strategy to dispose of its US motor group assets and follows the sale of two Jaguar Land Rover dealerships, also in California, for a total of GBP60.0 million in May. The deal is not yet confirmed, and General Motors, the maker of Chevrolet cars, has the right to refuse the deal and nominate a new purchaser. ----------Andalas Energy, up 7.4%. One of the company's wells in the Betun Selo KSO in Sumatra, Indonesia is now performing ahead of expectations, amid continued workover operations at the project. The Betun-Selo KSO comprises the producing Betun field and the non-producing Selo field. The upstream oil & gas company said well BTN14 is now producing at 30 barrels of oil per day, up from 4.5 barrels immediately after the workover on Wednesday last week. Workover operations for the BTN01 well encountered an 11-metre column of scale, which necessitated a mechanical clean out of the well. Scale is composed of inorganic salt deposits that can form within a well, and can lead to reduced permeability in the hydrocarbon-producing formation. The workover rig is in the process of reinstating the well with a larger pump, with production expected to restart in the coming days.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Corero Network Security, down 47%. The firm issued a profit warning due to slower sales conversion rate in relation to the Juniper Networks Inc partnership. The security firm said the Juniper global resale partnership will "contribute materially" in the second half of the year despite interim struggles. The partnership deal with New York-listed Juniper allows Corero to resell its own SmartWall software products and services. Although net cash during at June 30 was USD6.9 million, down from USD9.0 in June 2018, Corero said its chair will offer additional working capital, if required. For the six months to June 30, the company forecasts revenue of USD4.2 million, which would represent a 16% decline from USD5.0 million last year. Interim Ebitda loss is expected to widen to USD2.0 million from USD1.4 million. ----------Solo Oil, down 11%. The natural resources-focused investment firm noted the announcement made by partner Aminex, whereby it said it is still waiting for approval from the Tanzanian government for a long-stop-date extension for the Ruvuma project farm-out to ARA Petroleum Tanzania. Aminex shares were 3.5% lower. At the end of July, Aminex had reported that all parties in the Tanzanian gas project agreed to extended the deadline for the farm-out to the end of October, but now are awaiting approval from government authorities. Aminex said that there is a review being carried out of all production-sharing agreements throughout the East African country, which is causing the delay. The farm-out deal would see 50% of the interest in the Ruvuma gas project held by Aminex transferred to ARA Petroleum through Zubair Corp. Solo holds a 25% beneficial interest in Ruvuma and a 8.4% interest in the Kiliwani North-1 well. ----------Real Good Food, down 10%. The cake decoration and food ingredients business said impairment charges related to a business turnaround programme led to a sharply widened annual loss. The company recorded a pretax loss of GBP26.1 million for the year to March 31, deepened from GBP9.1 million in the comparative year-ago period. Impairment charges totalled GBP18.7 million versus none a year ago. In financial 2019, the company sold Garrett Ingredients, Haydens Bakery, R&W Scott and Chantilly Patisserie as part of a turnaround plan for GBP18 million in total, used in debt reduction and working capital. Revenue from continuing businesses fell slightly to GBP61.6 million from GBP63.8 million. The company's Food Ingredients unit saw a reduction of GBP900,000 in revenue due to operational issues arising from capacity expansion. Cake Decoration's sales were down by GBP1.2 million due to loss of a significant customer. ----------