LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Anglo American, up 6.0%. The miner said rough diamond sales for its De Beers unit rose in the third sales cycle against the second. Anglo said the value of rough diamond sales by De Beers in the third sales cycle hit USD660.0 million, up from USD617.0 million in the second sales cycle for 2016. Anglo American said continued stability for polished diamond prices has supported a "reasonably positive environment" for rough diamond sales thus far in 2016.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Ashtead Group, down 3.6%. The equipment rental firm was downgraded by HSBC to Hold from Buy.
Whitbread, down 2.1%. The hotel, coffee shop and restaurant operator said Christopher Rogers, the managing director of the Costa coffee shop business, has stepped down from his post to be replaced by Dominic Paul. Rogers will step down from the board on April 20 but remain with the company until July 1 to ensure a smooth handover. Paul will take up his new role on June 6. Paul joins Whitbread from cruise company Royal Caribbean International, where he has been senior vice president of international since 2013.
AstraZeneca, down 1.0%. The drug company was cut to Sell from Neutral by Goldman Sachs.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Galliford Try, up 3.1%. The construction and housebuilding group said it is completing remedial work to remedy defects in four schools in Edinburgh, after one of the schools lost part of an external wall during a storm earlier this year. This comes after seventeen schools in Edinburgh were unable to open after the Easter break due to fears for pupil safety.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Vesuvius, down 5.7%. The molten metal flow engineering company was cut to Underperform from Hold by Jefferies.
Ted Baker, down 2.0% at 2,583.10 pence. Panmure Gordon initiated coverage on the fashion retailer with a Sell rating and 1,902 pence price target. "Several highly-rated consumer stocks have capitulated over the last quarter, reporting weak like-for-like sales growth over the comparative period. We think Ted Baker will be the next," the broker said.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Ferrum Crescent, up 102%. The miner said due diligence has been completed on GoldQuest Iberica and on its lead-zinc projects in Spain and said it will now be focused on securing the necessary funding to exercise its option to buy GoldQuest. Ferrum holds an exclusive option to acquire 100% of GoldQuest and has until the end of July to exercise that option. Ferrum said due diligence has been completed on the Toral and Lago lead-zinc projects that GoldQuest owns in Spain. A geological assessment indicated major potential for re-interpretation of historical data on the prospects, Ferrum said.
Altona Energy, up 15%. The coal-to-chemicals developer said shareholders in Sino-Aus Energy Group Ltd have paid the majority of the first financial contribution to the Arckaringa joint venture. Sino-Aus has made a AUD4.0 million payment, with the other AUD1.4 million expected by the end of April once approval for the transfer is secured from the Chinese government. Altona and Sino-Aus are working together on the Arckaringa coal project in Australia.
Cap-XX, up 13%. The supercapacitors company said its licence deal with Japanese electronic components maker Murata Manufacturing Co has been widened to include battery markets. CAP-XX said, at the request of Murata, it has agreed to extend the scope of the licence to allow Murata to manufacture and sell lithium ion batteries using CAP-XX patents. CAP-XX said it expects the expansion of the deal to drive a material rise in licensing revenue in coming years.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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LiDCO Group, down 13%. The hemodynamic monitoring equipment supplier reported a swing to a pretax loss for its most recent financial year as a number of sales slipped into its current year, and it said it has renewed its distribution contract with Argon Medical Devices Inc for a further five years. For the year to end-January LiDCO reported a pretax loss of GBP578,000, swung from a pretax profit of GBP238,000 a year before, as revenue fell to GBP7.6 million from GBP8.3 million. LiDCO attributed the fall in revenue to a lower number of monitors sold and placed with hospitals.
Falkland Islands Holdings, down 10%. The UK and Falklands logistics and storage services company said its profit for the financial year to the end of March will fall due to the reduced contribution from its Momart UK art storage business. The company said its underlying profit for the year to March 31 is set to fall around by 10% to 15% year-on-year to around GBP3.0 million to GBP3.2 million. The main driver of this will be Momart, where profitability improved in the second half but will be depressed for the full year by significant investments made in marketing and sales infrastructure, along with a competitive and slowing global art market.
Deltex Medical Group, down 9.5%. The oesophageal Doppler developer said its pretax loss widened in 2015 as it continues to increase its operations, while revenue dipped slightly due to a tough UK market. Deltex said its pretax loss for the year to the end of December was GBP3.6 million, compared to a GBP3.1 million loss a year earlier as it made further investments in the business, causing gross margin to decline to 63% from 70%. This was exacerbated by revenue falling slightly to GBP6.4 million from GBP6.5 million, primarily down to a fall in probe sales in the UK caused by squeezed budgets across the National Health Service.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
IN BRIEF: Altona raises funds, sees admission to Main Market on June 9
Altona Rare Earths PLC - London-based mining exploration company - Announces the publication of its prospectus in respect of the proposed admission to the Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market. Expects admission June 9. Further, raises GBP2.0 million via oversubscribed GBP1.7 million placing and subscription of GBP322,700 through the issue of 40 million shares at 5 pence each. Funds will be used to complete Altona's maiden compliant mineral resource estimate and a scoping study for its flagship asset, Monte Muambe Rare Earths mining project in Mozambique, which is expected to be published in August. In addition, says in line with the company transitioning into a highly technical phase of exploration and development at admission, Christian Taylor-Wilkinson will step down as both chief executive and director. Cedric Simonet, the chief operating officer, will be appointed chief executive officer at admission.
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