ALS.L Share News (ALS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------TUI, up 4.5%. The Anglo-German travel operator clawed back some of the heavy losses incurred last week after it warned on stagnating earnings. The stock ended the week 21% lower.----------Schroders, up 1.5%, Lloyds Banking Group, up 1.1%. Lloyds plans to hire more than 700 financial advisers to support its new wealth management partnership with fellow FTSE 100 constituent Schroders, the Financial Times reported Sunday. The newspaper said the hiring push could also signal a potential acquisition spree and sets up a "war for talent" against peers St James's Place and Rathbone Brothers. In October, Lloyds and Schroders announced the creation of a wealth management firm, that would see Schroders manage Lloyds' remaining Scottish Widows assets. According to the FT, Lloyds set itself a target of increasing its assets under management to about GBP25 billion from GBP13 billion. Separately, Lloyds was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight by Morgan Stanley. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Smith & Nephew, down 3.5%. The Financial Times reported Friday that the medical devices maker is in discussions to acquire US surgical instruments maker NuVasive, in a deal the newspaper said could be worth more than USD3 billion. San Diego, California-based NuVasive makes equipment for spinal surgery, as well as bone implants. The FT cited "people with direct knowledge of the talks". It said the exact terms of the discussions could not be learned and talks may still fall apart.----------Royal Bank of Scotland, down 1.3%. Morgan Stanley cut the state-backed lender to Equal Weight from Overweight. RBS will report annual results on Friday. ----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------TalkTalk Telecom Group, down 1.0%. HSBC cut the home phone and broadband provider to Reduce from Hold.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Plaza Centers, up 29%. The emerging markets property developer said it signed a non-binding letter of intent with AFI Europe for the sale of its 75% holding in the Casa Radio project in Romania for EUR60 million. AFI Europe is a subsidiary of Africa Israel Properties, a real estate company. Plaza Centers currently hold a 75% in the shopping mall and hotel project, with the remainder held by Romanian authorities and an unnamed private investor.Once the letter of intent is published, AFI Europe will be given three months to conduct due diligence investigations, after which a pre-sale agreement will be signed. Within the pre-sale agreement, AFI will make a non-refundable down payment of EUR200,000, and after 15 months, a sale agreement will be signed, where the rest of the payment will be made.----------Altus Strategies, up 20%. The company sold its stake in mining licenses in Cameroon to joint venture partner Canyon Resources. Altus will transfer all of its share capital in subsidiary Aucam Resources Ltd to Canyon. Aucam is the holder of Altus' Birsok and Mandoum licences in central Cameroon. The licences cover the Minim Martap bauxite deposit. Altus will receive 30 million Canyon shares, valued at about GBP3.4 million, for the termination of the joint venture and the transfer of ownership in Aucam. Altus also will receive a USD1.50 per tonne royalty on bauxite ore mined and sold from Minim Martap. Australian-listed Canyon had already announced a JORC compliant resource estimate for the Minim Martap project of 550 million tonnes at an average grade of 45.5% total aluminium oxide.----------Pathfinder Minerals, up 18%. The natural resources company said it has entered into a consultancy agreement with Africa Focus Group for a potential acquisition in Mozambique. Under the consultancy agreement to the end of September, Africa Focus Group will provide Pathfinder with assistance in completing a transaction with the owners of Pathfinder Mocambique , after which Pathfinder will gain control of Mining Concession 4623C. Pathfinder Mocambique has no affiliation with Pathfinder Minerals or any of its affiliates. Africa Focus will be paid a fee of GBP1.0 million in cash, conditional on if Pathfinder Minerals raises enough funds to pay the fee in full. The consultancy group can use the fee to subscribe for new shares in Pathfinder, up to 9% of the company's entire issued share capital.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Range Resources, down 30%. The oil and gas services company said Chief Financial Officer Nick Beattie will resign from the company with effect on April 1 to "pursue other career opportunities". Beattie has been in his role for five years since 2014, and prior to that was part of French banking group BNP Paribas for seven years from 2007 to 2014, leaving as managing director of the Upstream Oil & Gas division. Range Resources said it is considering a successor for the role, and in the meantime has appointed Financial Controller Theo Eleftheriades as acting chief financial officer.----------