LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Randgold Resources, up 3.9%, Fresnillo, up 3.7%. The miners benefited from a spike in the gold price following the decision by the US Federal Reserve to keep interest rates on hold.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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UDG Healthcare, up 6.5%. The healthcare services company said it has entered into a conditional agreement to sell its United Drug Supply Chain Services and its MASTA unit for EUR407.5 million to McKesson Corp, the US drug distribution company. UDG said it will sell the businesses to McKesson in cash and said the sale is in line with its plan to focus on higher growth, higher margin international healthcare services businesses. The net proceeds from the sale will be used to develop and strengthen its Ashfield Commercial and Medical Services division, its Aquilant laboratory distribution arm and its Sharp Packaging Services unit.
Poundland Group, up 2.9%. The UK Competition and Markets Authority said it has cleared Poundland's acquisition of 99p Stores. The antitrust regulator said it has concluded that the merger will not result in a substantial lessening of competition and consequently customers would not face a reduction in choice, value or quality of a service as a result.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Kaz Minerals, down 3.9%. Exane BNP Paribas has cut its rating on the Kazakhstan-focused miner to Underperform from Neutral and cut its target price on the shares to 120 pence from 210 pence.
Rotork, down 2.0%. The actuators and flow control products manufacturer had its price target cut by Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citigroup and Liberum and was cut to Reduce from Neutral by Nomura, which also cut its target price. On Thursday, shares in Rotork plummeted after it said tough trading conditions in the third quarter had resulted in project delays and cancellations which meant its profit for the full year will miss expectations.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Private & Commercial Finance Group, up 15%. The financing provider said it is trading ahead of expectations in its current financial year. Scott Maybury, its chief executive, said in a statement to be given at its annual general meeting that the company has continued to outperform its targets on portfolio growth, quality and profitability. The group said it is trading ahead of its expectations for the six months to the end of September. Maybury also said the group is still intending to start paying a dividend and shareholders at the AGM will vote on proposals which will allow this to happen.
Applied Graphene Materials, up 14%. The graphene materials producer said that its overall trading performance in its full financial year was slightly ahead of company expectations. The graphene materials producer said that during the year ended July 31, it significantly broadened the pipeline of identified collaboration opportunities, and provided over 120 evaluation samples to customers in more than 20 countries, with more evaluation quantities provided in the final quarter than in the previous nine months combined.
Adams, up 16%. The investing company said it has placed 18.2 million shares at 4.4 pence each to raise GBP800,000 for the company. The company said that the proceeds of the placing will be used to make investments and for general working capital purposes.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Ferrexpo, down 31%. The iron ore pellets producer said its transactional bank in Ukraine has been declared insolvent. Ferrexpo said Bank F&C had been declared insolvent by its largest shareholder, Kostyantin Zhevago. The company said it will update the market where necessary on the situation at the bank but said its operations have not been affected so far. It currently has around USD174.0 million of its total USD280.0 million cash balance held at Bank F&C.
Metals Exploration, down 15%. The company outlined a series of funding plans, including a placing, an open offer and a debt securities issue. The company said it has secured commitments to raise USD5.0 million via the placing of 108.0 million shares at 3.0 pence per share. Metal Exploration also said it plans to offer up a further 100.0 million shares, to be issued at 3.0 pence per share each, via an open offer through which it intends to raise EUR5.0 million. In addition, the company said it is in final discussions with shareholders to raise another USD5.0 million by issuing debt securities, which will be used for working capital and contingency purposes.
HC Slingsby, down 11%. The industrial and commercial equipment distributor posted a slightly wider pretax loss for the first half of 2015 on Friday due to it booking higher one-off costs related to the acquisition of ESE Direct in Norwich and said it would scrap its dividend amid tough trading conditions. Slingsby's pretax loss was GBP408,000 for the six months to the end of June, compared to GBP381,000 a year earlier, while revenue was up to GBP7.7 million from GBP6.4 million.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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