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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 - Winners
G4S is up 2.1% after HSBC upgraded its recommendation to Neutral from Underweight, increasing its price target to 250.00 pence from 205.00p.
Glencore Xstrata is up 0.8% after Rio Tinto said that it has agreed to sell its majority stake in the Clermont thermal coal mine in Queensland to its joint venture with Sumitomo, for USD1.02 billion. Rio Tinto currently holds a 50.1% stake in the Clermont joint venture, and will sell it to GS Coal Pty Limited, a company jointly owned by Glencore Xstrata and Sumitomo Corporation. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014, Rio Tinto said, and Glencore Xstrata will takeover management the mine.
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FTSE 250 - Winners
Elementis, up 4.9%, is the biggest riser on the FTSE 250. The specialty chemicals company posted 12% sales growth for the three months ended September 30, driven by strong growth in its coatings segment and personal-care division, and said it expects full-year earnings per share to be in line with market expectations. Elementis said that its trading performance has been resilient despite slower growth than generally anticipated.
Serco Group rises 2.8% as its chief executive fell on his sword, resigning due to the company's botched deal to run a prisoner transfer contract and as the company also moved to strengthen its government contract operations. The company is undertaking what it describes as a "renewal programme" after the UK government and Serco in August called in police to examine claims of fraudulent misreporting of data on the company's contract to transport prisoners to court in London and East Anglia. The government has threatened to block the company from winning any more government contracts unless it quickly changes and is more open to government scrutiny on any public contract. "Given the overriding objective of the renewal programme, Christopher Hyman believes that the company will have the greatest chance of success with new leadership at the helm and he has, therefore, decided to step down with immediate effect," the company said in a statement. Ed Casey, the head of the company's Americas unit, has been appointed acting CEO, but Serco said it will look outside the company for a permanent replacement and has already begun a search.
Phoenix Group Holdings is up 2.7% after it said it is on track to achieve the top end of its 2013 cash generation target after generating GBP434 million of cash in the first nine months of the financial year, up from GBP299 million in the corresponding nine months of 2012. Its cash generation target is to generate between GBP650 and GBP750 million in cash over the financial year. There was no announcement Friday of a deal to combine Phoenix Group and Swiss Re's UK Admin Re Business Unit. Phoenix said the talks, which it confirmed back in July, were progressing. If a deal does materialise, Swiss Re would take a minority shareholding in Phoenix Group.
Centamin is up 0.9% after Nyota Minerals reported that Centamin has further reduced its shareholding in the company, a move that comes a day after Nyota detailed the structure of a sales agreement with another exploration company. Centamin sold 9.4 million shares in Nyota over Monday and Tuesday this week, lowering its holding to 141.6 million shares or 16.1% of the company's issued share capital, down from 17.2%. The move comes only five days after Nyota announced that Centamin sold 20 million shares in Nyota last week.
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FTSE 250 - Losers
AZ Electronic Materials, down 5.9%, is the biggest faller on the FTSE 250 after a series of analyst downgrades. Deutsche Bank cut the company's price target to 315.00p from 350.00p after AZ's third quarter sales fell by 10% year-on-year, driven by weakness in the company's IC Materials segment. The company's management says tough conditions will continue and the division is likely to weaken further. Second-half sales are expected to be broadly in-line with the first-half, however, this is below expectations as the second-half is usually seasonally stronger. While Deutsche "continues to like the long term growth potential of AZ," it lowered its price target and earnings per share forecasts by 2%-4%. Credit Suisse downgraded AZ's rating to Underperform from Neutral, lowering its price target to 290.00p from 330.00p, Canaccord cut its price target to 354.00p from 389.00p, while Liberum lowered it to 360.00p from 400.00p
Great Portland Estates falls 2.2% after Deutsche Bank downgraded the company to Sell from Hold, cutting its price target to 460.00p from 470.00p. While Deutsche believes the company's business has great prospects, it believes that the shares are "too pricey and so are vulnerable to a market setback such as might be triggered as and when the US Federal Reserve starts to scale back the rate at which it engages in quantitative easing." Deutsche believes that the company's shares are approximately 60p too high.
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AIM - Winners
Antrim Energy Inc. jumps 24% after it said that routine maintenance of its North Cormorant Platform has been completed and oil production from its Cormorant East and Causeway fields has resumed, with the startup of electrical submersible pumps and water injection set to boost production at Causeway.
Arcontech Group climbs 17% after its Chief Executive Officer Matthew Jeffs bought five million shares on Thursday at a price of 0.14 pence per share. Jeffs now holds a total of 28 million shares in the company, representing a 1.83% stake.
Blavod Wines And Spirits is up 14% after it said it will promote its RedLeg Spiced Rum, which it launched last year, with pop-up Rum Shacks across the UK, offering popular cocktails like Apple Shack, Ginger Mojito, Hot Rum Slap and RedLeg Libre. The promotion, which will be backed with a social media campaign, will visit major cities including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, London, Bristol and Brighton during November and December.
Tangiers Petroleum, up 10%, said its share price has likely been driven higher by oil company interest in offshore Morocco and an impending drilling programme in an area neighbouring its own area in the sea off the country. The company said the Australian Securities Exchange had asked it to explain the recent rise in its share price and it replied that it is not aware of any specific reason for the increase apart from the general increased interest in oil assets offshore Morocco and the recent cessation of trading in its USD0.16 Australia-listed options.
Nostra Terra Oil and Gas climbs 9.1% after it denied that it is planning a share placing, following recent speculation on "certain message boards" relating to its recent share price movement and significant volumes of trades in recent days. The company said "these are false rumours and completely unfounded".
Top Level Domain Holding is up 9.1% after it said it will add GBP2.97 million to its cash reserves after auctioning off the .website and .lawyer internet domain suffixes, boosting total cash reserves to GBP10.1 million. The company said it also has access to a further USD15 million to compete in a single domain name auction, and the total funds will allow it to grow its portfolio of uncontested domain name applications.
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AIM - Losers
Nyota Minerals, down 18%, has seen share price fall after it said key strategic partner, Centamin, reduced its shareholding in the company.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
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