Ascent Resources Share News (AST)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Wednesday.
-------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS
-------
EasyJet, up 2.6%, and International Consolidated Airlines Group, up 0.8%. The airline companies are among just a handful of risers in the blue-chip index, as they reverse some of the heavy losses posted Tuesday. IAG and easyJet fell 7% and 5.8%, respectively, on Tuesday after Air France-KLM lowered its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation target for the year, as it warned about overcapacity affecting routes to North America and Asia.
-------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS
-------
Admiral Group, down 6.2%. The company said that car insurance revenue in the UK decreased in its first half, despite customer numbers increasing, as the insurer was hit by declining in premiums, prompting it to lower its margin expectations. In a trading statement for the six months to end June Admiral said UK car insurance revenue decreased to GBP0.85 billion, compared with GBP0.92 billion in the first-half 2013. Group revenue also decreased during the period, coming in at GBP1.0 billion, compared to GBP1.1 billion last year. Admiral said its expectations for the UK business in the full-year remain unchanged, though noted that its margin expectations for business earned this year are lower than in recent years, mainly as a consequence of a decline in premiums. The group also said it intends to issue GBP200 million in ten-year debt. It's the first time the group will issue a bond and the market has been somewhat surprised by it. "For a company that has previously prided itself on having no debt, this represents something of a U-turn," said Berenberg analyst Peter Eliot.

Aviva, down 4.2%. The insurer has set out new cashflow targets for the next couple of years, continuing a turnaround aimed at driving up its profitability and simplifying its balance sheet. It said it now wants to double the annual excess cashflow booked by the holding company to GBP800 million by the end of 2016, from GBP400 million in 2013, and reduce the operating expense ratio to below 50% by the same time, from 54% in 2013. Aviva also reiterated its deleveraging targets, saying it still wants to reduce the intercompany loan balance to GBP2.2 billion by the end of 2015 and reduce its gross external leverage ration to below 40% of tangible capital over the medium term.

Next, down 3.1%. The clothing and homeware retailer is a big loser after going ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout.

Shire, down 1.3%. The pharmaceutical is once again a big faller, having closed down 2.6% on Tuesday. Shares in the company have dropped Wednesday after US drugs maker AbbVie Inc retracted any statements that suggested it had the support of Shire shareholders in its bid to acquire the UK-listed company for GBP30.1 billion, after potentially over-stepping the mark when it comes to UK takeover rules. AbbVie said it wished to clarify some press and newswire reports about its latest takeover bid for pharmaceuticals rival Shire. It said it had not received any written commitments of support from Shire's shareholders and "accordingly retracts the statements". AbbVie raised its proposed takeover offer for Shire by 11% on Tuesday to GBP51.15 a Shire share, from GBP46.26 a share previously. The new proposal is for GBP22.44 in cash and 0.8568 ordinary shares in the new company for each Shire share.
-------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS
-------
Unite Group, up 0.5%. The company said the Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund has acquired a 2,904 bed student accommodation portfolio for GBP137 million, which will increase USAF's property portfolio value by 10% to GBP1.51 billion from GBP1.38 billion. USAF is an open-ended non-listed real estate fund that focuses on acquiring and operating student accommodation in the UK. Unite owns 21% of USAF, is its investment manager, and operates its properties. The deal was funded through a combination of cash resources and existing debt facilities following USAF's recent fund raising in March.
-------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS
-------
Booker Group, down 4.5%. Shares in the food wholesaler are down, even though it said it has started its new financial year well, with sales in the first quarter in line with expectations, and its turnaround plans for recent acquisition Makro on track. Total sales in the 12 weeks to June 20 were up 3.8% including sales from Makro. Non-tobacco sales were up 5.4%, while tobacco sales rose 0.7%. Booker's non-tobacco sales on a like-for-like basis excluding Makro, were up 3.6%, with tobacco sales up 1.7%. Total like-for-like sales excluding Makro increased by 2.9%. "After a good start, we anticipate that Booker Group is on course to meet expectations for the year ending 27 March 2015," said Chief Executive Charles Wilson in a statement ahead of the company's annual general meeting Wednesday.

WS Atkins, down 4%. The company is one of the biggest losers in the mid-cap index after going ex-dividend.

JD Wetherspoon, down 2.6%. The pub operator said sales have slowed since the third quarter of its financial year, but said it remains on track with its pub opening programme and is still confident of achieving a "reasonable outcome" for the year as a whole. It said sales were up just over 10% in the 10 weeks to July 6, while like-for-like sales rose 4.9%. But that represented a slowdown in sales growth, as like-for-like sales increased by 6.2% in the third quarter ended April 27, while total sales were up almost 11%. In the year-to-date, like-for-like sales were up 5.4%, while total sales increased 9.8%, JD Wetherspoon said, as sales have been slightly weaker during the World Cup.
-------
AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
-------
Roxi Petroleum has seen its share price more than double. The oil and gas company said it has found oil and gas at the A5 well on the BNG Contract Area, situated on the edge of the Caspian Sea in western Kazakhstan near two major oilfields. The company, which has a 58.41% interest in the BNG Contract Area, said the well, which was the first deep well in the area, has detected oil and gas shows at a depth of 4,332 metres with core samples being taken shortly to determine to full size of the horizon. Two of the largest oilfields in the world are nearby the BNG Contract Area. The Tengiz field and the Kashagan oilfield together have an estimated 38 billion barrels of oil originally in place.

Daniel Stewart Securities, up 35%. The stockbroker and wealth manager said it narrowed its losses in its last financial year, and said the first quarter of the current financial year has seen a further pick-up in activity with a strong pipeline. It said it expects to report a substantial improvement in its losses before goodwill impairment charges for the financial year to end-March, supported by improving economic and market sentiment in the second half of the year.

Frontera Resources, up 11%. The oil and gas exploration company said it has started a new drilling campaign on the Mtsare Khevi gas complex in the country of Georgia. It said construction of its #32a well will start shortly and roughly fifteen days of drilling are expecting during August in order to reach the well's total depth. The well is planned to be drilled to a depth of roughly 400 metres in order to further explore and expand on the site's previously identified gas potential. Based on Frontera's internal estimates, the site has up to an estimated 1.2 trillion cubic feet of gas in place and up to roughly 700 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas.

Mwana Africa, up 9.2%. The multi-commodity mining and development company swung to a pretax profit in its last financial year as revenues jumped, expenses fell and it booked a major impairment reversal after the nickel price rose and it restarted a nickel mine. It posted a pretax profit of USD43.9 million for the twelve months to end-March, from a pretax loss of USD32.1 million the previous year. It said its revenue increased 30% to USD142.5 million, from USD109.2 million, as lower production from its Freda Rebecca gold mine was offset by the resumption of sales of nickel concentrates from a subsidiary's Trojan nickel mine and by strong nickel prices which boosted cash flow. Mwana said that its care and maintenance expenses fell to USD1.9 million, from USD13.0 million the previous year as the Trojan mine was restarted after being under care and maintenance for four years. It also booked USD28.0 million in an asset impairment reversal after the improved nickel price and cashflow allowed it to reverse impairments booked on its nickel assets the previous year.

Ortac Resources, up 7.1%. The exploration and development company said the latest batch of assay results from the Yacob Dewar Project in Eritrea have confirmed high grades of copper and gold mineralisation, while a new gold and silver deposit has been discovered at its Ber Gebey prospect. It said said that copper drilling by Andiamo Exploration Ltd found regions including a 2.8% copper region over an 18.0 metre space from 25.5 metres in depth at the YDD-057 hole and a gold and a 19.57 grams per tonne of gold equivalent region over a 1.9 metre space from 54.65 metres depth in the YDD-055 hole. It added that results from drilling and trenching at its Ber Gebey deposit on site have indicated the discovery of a new gold and silver bearing deposit with results including a 4.19 grams per tonne of gold equivalent region over 14.0 metres from the surface in its trench BGTR-02.
-------
AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
-------
Ascent Resources, off 17%. The independent oil and gas exploration and production company said its planned subscription of GBP15 million in equity funding has not been completed after the investor failed to receive key funds required to make the cash transfer. It said Global Power Sources SrL, a company which agreed terms to the major investment in May via a subscription for new shares at a price of 0.8 pence each, has not received key payments from its joint venture partner, Salomon Partners WRS Werner Rothschild & CIE Ltd, in order to complete the initial subscription payment. Global Power Sources told Ascent that the transfer could not be completed as Salomon Partners failed to receive regulatory clearances and, as a result, the subscription has not been completed.

Victoria Oil & Gas, down 12%. The emerging African energy utility company said its subsidiary Gaz du Cameroun SA has increased its supply of gas being transported to gas-to-power customers in Douala, Cameroon, but it has decided to outsource development of its gas pipeline, which has hit further delays. It said it has made a strategic change to its pipeline and network strategy in the West African country, deciding to outsource all trenching, horizontal drilling and pipe-laying work on a fixed price per metre laid. The company has signed a new contract for the process with Britanica HDD International, and said work on its pipeline crossing at the Wouri river won't start until July following delays in receiving some required parts. The company also said Wednesday that its subsidiary Gaz du Cameroun supplied an average of 4.2 million cubic feet per day of average in the last five day commercial week with a daily peak of 4.5 million cubic feet per day, representing a 30% increase on its April figures.

Providence Resources, down 9%. The Irish oil and gas exploration company said that the operator of its part-owned Spanish Point appraisal and exploration well off the coast of Ireland has postponed the well until 2015 due to rig refurbishment delays. It said operator Capricorn Ireland Ltd, a subsidiary of FTSE 250-listed Cairn Energy, said the Porcupine Basin site will not be drilled in 2014 as planned. Providence said the decision was made following extensive delays in the refurbishment of the Blackford Dolphin drilling rig, which had been scheduled to drill the well. The refurbishment meant that drilling operations would not be able to start until at least October, which is in the difficult to drill winter period. Capricorn holds 38% of the site while Providence holds 32%.
-------
By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.