AMFW.L Share News (AMFW)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Unilever, up 2.5% at 2,902.00 pence. Shares in the Anglo-Dutch company are up after Barclays upgraded it to Overweight from Equal Weight, lifting its price target to 3,050 pence from 2,850p, saying that it favours the company over most other home and personal care names in what is overall a very expensive space.

Imperial Tobacco Group, up 1.9%. Panmure Gordon has said that the acquisition of Lorillard by US tobacco company Reynolds American is positive for Imperial Tobacco, as it had previously agreed to acquire from the pair a portfolio of US cigarette brands, e-cigarette brand blu, and Lorillard's cigarette factory and national sales force. Panmure has retained its Buy recommendation for Imperial Tobacco, with a price target of 3,800 pence. Imperial Tobacco's shares are currently quoted at 3,258.00p.

Merlin Entertainments, up 1.1%. The attractions operator's shares have rebounded somewhat after a late sell-off Tuesday. Shares in the company closed firmly lower Tuesday after it was reported that a roller-coaster accident at the Alton Towers theme park, which is run by Merlin, had left four people with serious injuries and another 12 people requiring medical treatment. The BBC has reported Wednesday that the theme park has been closed down while an investigation takes place into the incident.

Royal Mail, up 0.9%, and TUI AG, up 0.9%. TUI Group joint Chief Executive Peter Long is set to become chairman of the travel and cruise operator and the chairman of Royal Mail after the postal operator said he will succeed Donald Brydon as its chair on September 1. Royal Mail said Long will join its board as a non-executive director and chairman designate on June 18, and will stand for election at its annual general meeting on July 23. He will then succeed current chairman Brydon at the start of September. TUI Group separately said Long will remain as its co-chief executive until its own AGM in February 2016, at which point he will become chairman of TUI Ag's supervisory board. Fritz Joussen will be appointed TUI's sole chief executive.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Dixons Carphone, down 1.5%. The electricals and telecoms retailer is among the heaviest fallers in the blue-chip index even though it reported growth in like-for-like sales in both the fourth quarter of its financial year and in its full year, and said it expects pro-forma headline pretax profit for the year to exceed the top end of its guidance. Cantor analyst Mike Dennis remains positive on the stock, but is not surprised by the fall in share price given the recent strong performance by the company's shares. Since the end of April, the company's share price had risen by approximately 13% ahead of the release of its trading update Wednesday.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Workspace Group, up 6%. The property company said its pretax profit surged in the financial year to the end of March, as its rental income increased, occupancy improved, and the underlying valuation of its portfolio jumped. It said its pretax profit for 2015 was GBP360 million, up 43% from the GBP252.5 million it posted a year earlier. Total net rental income in the year was up by 15% to GBP57.7 million from GBP50.3 million, and its total rent roll rose by 19% to GBP69.4 million, driven by an 18% like-for-like increase. Total revenue for the company was GBP83.6 million, up from GBP73.6 million. Analysts have hailed the annual results, with Liberum Capital and Panmure Gordon both lifting their target prices and maintaining their Buy recommendations as Workspace beat their expectations. Liberum has increased its price target to 1,100 pence from 836p, while Panmure has raised its target to 1,010p from 957p. Shares in Workspace are quoted at 975.00p.

WH Smith Group, up 4.6% at 1,608.00p. The books and stationery retailer's shares are up after it reported a rise in total sales in the 13 weeks to May 30. It reported that total group sales in the 13 weeks were up 1% compared with the same period of the year before, while like-for-like revenue remained flat year-on-year. Investec Securities and Cantor Fitzgerald have revised their respective price targets following the trading update. Investec has increased its price target on the books and stationery retailer to 1,700 pence from 1,500p, maintaining its Buy recommendation, while Cantor has placed its price target of 1,250p Under Review, retaining its Hold rating on the stock.

Domino's Pizza Group, up 3.4%. The company has appointed Paul Doughty as chief financial officer, effective from June 8. Doughty has more than 20 years' commercial finance experience including 10 years as chief financial officer at Moneysupermarket.com Group.

Melrose Industries, up 3.3% at 276.70p. UBS has upgraded the company to Buy from Neutral, pushing its target price up to 300 pence from 265 pence, saying that while the group's next deal may not be imminent, margins are improving within a slow growth environment and that it sees a reduced trading risk for the business.

Interserve, up 1.8%. The company has announced that its CI-ONE Construction joint venture with China State Construction Engineering Corp has been named as the preferred bidder by Chinese property developer Dalian Wanda for the GBP550 million One Nine Elms scheme in Battersea in south London. The pair will handle the construction of the project, which will comprise high-end residential, hotel and retail space.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Morgan Advanced Materials , down 3.1% at 343.112p, and Spectris, down 1.9% at 2,279.00p. UBS has downgraded its ratings on the two companies to Sell from Neutral, cutting Spectris' target price to 2,000 pence from 2,100 pence, but keeping its target price on Morgan Advanced unchanged at 315 pence. UBS notes that Spectris has lagged the rest of the engineering sector on growth across the cycle and its cash generation has been pushed into inorganic investments rather than being returned to shareholders. Meanwhile, Morgan Advanced could offer one of the few remaining self-help stories in the engineering sector, but that story is not new and the bank's analysis shows little relative progress has been made, UBS says.

AMEC Foster Wheeler, down 1.2%. Shares in the company are down after JP Morgan lowered its price target to 991 pence from 1,039p. Shares in the company are currently quoted at 904.50p.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Kuala, up 80%. The investment company has appointed Galloway as its business development consultant to help find it investments in the resources sector, with Galloway subscribing for 1.4 million new shares at 5.88 pence each raising the company GBP84,657. Kuala shares now trade at 10.1p.

Thor Mining, up 42%. The mining company said it expects to complete the acquisition of the Spring Hill Gold Project in Australia in coming weeks, despite expected delays in receiving regulatory approvals. Thor said in April it had agreed to buy the 49% stake in the project held by WDR Gold Pty, a subsidiary entity of Western Desert Resources, after it went into liquidation for AUD210,000. Following the deal, Thor will own 100% of the project if approved by authorities. Thor is now awaiting ministerial approval and passage from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Ariana Resources, up 24%. The gold miner said its has received confirmation that the forestry permit has been granted for the Red Rabbit gold project in west Turkey. Ariana said the Department of Forestry and Water Affairs in Turkey has confirmed the approval of the forestry permit for the project and said it will outline a construction plan for Red Rabbit in due course. The company is targeting 21,000 ounces of gold equivalent production per year in the first five years of operation at the prospect.

Connemara Mining Company, up 15%. The zinc, lead and gold exploration firm with licences in Ireland posted a slightly narrower pretax loss for 2014 while shares in the company are higher after it said initial drilling results from the Inishowen area in Donegal had been positive.

Greatland Gold, up 14%. The gold miner said drilling is set to begin at its Ernest Giles project in central Western Australia after receiving government approval.

Edenville Energy, up 14%. The company, which is focused on developing the Rukwa coal-to-power project in Tanzania, reshuffled its board as part of a move to cut its fixed costs while it continues to hold talks with prospective financial and technical partners that could help it develop its projects. It said Non-Executive Director Mark Pryor will become the company's chief operating officer, while Executive Chairman Sally Schofield will become non-executive chair and take a commensurate reduction in fees. Finance Director Rakesh Patel will step down from the board but will continue to provide financial and accountancy services to the company on a consultancy basis.

Seeing Machines, up 11%. The company's shares are up after it said it has received its first order for 750 units of its new Seeing Machines Fleet product, which provides drivers and supervisors with real-time notification when drivers are fatigued or distracted. The order has been received from its distributor Insurance Underwriting Managers in South Africa. The order will be delivered during June, Seeing Machines said. The value of the order was not disclosed.

Westminster Group, up 11%. The security services company said the launch ceremony for its Sierra Queen ferry will take place on June 11 and said Kenya Airlines is to restart flights to Ebola-hit Sierra Leone. The ferry is expected to start operations soon after the launch and customers will be able to book online via the newly-launched Sovereign Ferries website. Peter Fowler, Westminster's chief executive, also said that Kenya Airlines has restarted flights to Sierra Leone, following a shutdown of services caused by the outbreak of the Ebola virus in the West African country.

Sigma Capital Group, up 10%. Sigma said it has expanded its private rented sector agreement with Gatehouse Bank to target 10,000 new homes over the next five years, which would increase the value of the portfolio under this deal to more than GBP1 billion. The first phase of the Gatehouse deal is underway in Greater Manchester and Merseyside and discussions for the second phase of the programme are well-advanced, it said.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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RapidCloud International, off 19%. Shares in the company have fallen sharply after it posted a flat pretax profit for 2014. It posted a pretax profit of MYR3.2 million for 2014, flat on 2013, as a rise in revenue to MYR17.8 million from MYR11.3 million was offset by a rise in administrative costs and a reduction in gross margin to 54% from 74% the year before.

Ferrum Crescent, down 14%. The company's shares have fallen after it said it had granted Principle Monarchy Investments (Proprietary) Ltd a six-week extension to make the first payment under a recently-agreed financing agreement between the pair to allow Principle time to complete an internal restructuring.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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