ASH.L Share News (ASH)

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Fresnillo, up 1.0%. The Mexican gold miner was tracking spot gold prices higher, quoted at USD1,428.70 an ounce Tuesday morning, up from USD1,415.84 late Monday. The precious metal hit a high of USD1,438.43 overnight, its highest level since mid-2013. Midcap gold miners Centamin and Hochschild Mining were up 3.5% and 2.5%, respectively. ----------Anglo American, up 0.6%. The miner said its De Beers rough diamonds sales in its fifth sales cycle of 2019 dropped on a year-on-year basis due to higher inventories and a tough sales environment in China. De Beers's fifth sales cycle in 2019 - as of Tuesday - was at a provisional USD390 million. This was down 6.3% from USD416 million in the fourth sales cycle of this year, and a 32% drop from the USD581 million sales reported for the fifth cycle of 2018. In 2018, De Beers generated USD6.08 billion in revenue for the London- and Johannesburg-listed miner. That represents around 22% of the total USD27.61 billion revenue reported by Anglo American in 2018.----------ITV, up 0.6%. Macquarie raised the broadcaster to Neutral from Underperform.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Wm Morrison Supermarkets, down 2.7%, Tesco, down 2.1%. The UK grocery market recorded three years of consecutive sales growth, posting a modest 1.4% growth in the 12 weeks to June 16, data from Kantar showed. Kantar said the modest growth in the period was down to last year's bumper summer, which included soaring temperatures and the build up to the men's Football World Cup. Sales for Morrisons decreased by 0.5%, lowering its market share of grocery sales to 10.4% from 10.6%. Tesco saw flat sales in the period and its market share slipped to 27.3% from 27.7%. Kantar attributed the flat sales performance at Tesco to growth in its value own-label lines like Eastman's and Redmere Farms and due to lower prices offered by its "100 Years of Great Value" campaign.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------Petrofac, down 5.4%. The oilfield services firm said it is trading in line with its guidance, although order intake has been hindered by "challenges" in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The company said its year-to-date new order intake is USD1.7 billion, declining from USD1.8 billion the year before. New order intake is made up of new contracts and contract extensions, as well as the increment from contracts of more than five years and net variation orders. Petrofac is currently subject to an ongoing investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office. In February, the SFO said that Petrofac's former head of global sales, David Lufkin, had plead guilty to 11 counts of bribery relating to oil deals in the two countries.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------MOD Resources, up 17% at 20.50 pence. The Botswana-focused copper miner said it has agreed to a AUD167 million, or GBP91.1 million, takeover offer from Australian copper-gold producer Sandfire Resources. MOD Resources said the acquisition represents an attractive premium for shareholders, while providing a funding solution for the development of T3 Project and retaining exposure to company's significant exploration potential. Sandfire Resources will acquire 100% of MOD Resources by way of a scheme of arrangement, valued at AUD0.45 per MOD share. The consideration represents a premium of 45% to the closing price of AUD0.310 per share on Monday. MOD shareholders will either be able to elect a scrip consideration of 0.0664 Sandfire shares for every 1 MOD share held or cash consideration of AUD0.45 per share. The total cash consideration payable to MOD shareholders who elect the cash option is capped at AUD41.6 million. Metal Tiger, which currently owns a 10.5% stake in MOD, has agreed to vote in favour of the acquisition scheme. Metal Tiger was up 19%. ----------Vela Technologies, up 16%. The technology investor noted an undisclosed investment in Vibe Group Holdings Ltd by private investment firm Candy Ventures. Candy Ventures, owned by luxury real-estate developer Nick Candy, made the investment for a 23% Vibe Group equity stake. Following this, Vela itself holds 5,674 shares or around a 3.1% stake in Vibe Group. Vela posted extracts from an article on BusinessCloud noting the Vibe Group deal, which stated that Candy Ventures had "invested a significant seven-figure sum" in Vibe Group.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Ashley House, down 13%. The health and social care services provider said there is a chance the company could report a loss for its recently ended financial period and fall short of market expectations. Ashley House said in May that its joint venture Morgan Ashley is working on three extra care scheme on which it is yet to achieve financial close. Although Ashley House expects the scheme to reach financial close, the timing is uncertain and could be in July. Although the timing will not affect overall medium-term profitability, it will affect the profit figure recorded in the current and next financial periods. Should the schemes not close before the end of June, Ashley House will post a loss for the 14 months to the end of June, leading to the company to not meet market expectations.----------