AVS.L Share News (AVS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Thursday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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J Sainsbury, up 2.7%, Tesco, up 2.2%, and Wm Morrison, up 1.6%. The food retailers are once again among the biggest risers in the blue-chip index, having risen sharply Wednesday, even though Sainsbury's Wednesday reported a drop in retail sales and a sixth consecutive quarter of declining like-for-like sales in the first quarter of its financial year, as it continues to be hit by food-price deflation amid a highly competitive UK grocery market. The supermarket chain admitted that it is difficult to establish when sales will return to growth, but its chief executive said he is encouraged by the "early trends" it is seeing. Meanwhile, a report from Moody's Investors Service Thursday noted that the big four UK grocers, which includes Asda, owned by US retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc, are unlikely to see margin recovery before the 2016/2017 fiscal year.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group, up 1.8%. Shares in RBS have risen sharply after UK Chancellor George Osborne used his Mansion House speech Wednesday evening to announce that he will begin selling the UK's 80% stake in the bank after both the Bank of England and banking group Rothschild recommended that the time has come to initiate the lender's return to full private ownership. Osborne said that kicking off the sale of the government's stake six years since completing the injection of GBP45.5 billion into the bank is the "right thing" to do.

Shire, up 1.1%. The pharmaceutical company has appointed Smith & Nephew's Chief Executive Officer Olivier Bohuon as a non-executive director, and as a member of its its science and technology committee, effective from the beginning of July. "Olivier Bohuon further enriches the Shire board of directors, bringing direct experience and deep knowledge of pharmaceuticals and healthcare in today's fast-changing global environment as well as executive and board leadership in dynamic industries such as medical technology," said Chairman Susan Kilsby in a statement. Shares in FTSE 100-listed Smith & Nephew are currently quoted up 0.1%.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Royal Mail, down 4.1%. The UK government said it raised GBP750 million by selling a further 15% stake in Royal Mail for 550 pence a share, significantly more than it got per share when it first floated the mail operator in a criticized initial public offering nearly two years ago. The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills had announced Wednesday that it would be selling half its remaining 30% stake in Royal Mail in an accelerated bookbuild. The sale means the UK government is left with 149.9 million Royal Mail shares, a 15% stake. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said a 1% stake of the remaining 15% would be gifted to the company's staff. Staff took a 10% stake in the initial IPO.

Vodafone Group, down 3.2%, and Johnson Matthey, down 1.4%. The companies are among the heaviest losers in the blue-chip index after going ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout.

Standard Chartered, down 1.7%. The lender's shares have given back some of the Wednesday's gains after UK Chancellor Osborne did not include explicit reference about his plans for the bank levy imposed on banks in 2011 in his annual Mansion House speech on Wednesday evening. Standard Chartered shares closed up 5.8% Wednesday amid hopes that Osborne would set out plans to phase out the current GBP3.5 billion bank levy.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Vedanta Resources, up 3.6%. Shares in the natural resources company are up for the third day in a row, having closed up 5.2% on Tuesday and 4.1% on Wednesday, after it noted press speculation about potentially merging its subsidiary Cairn India Ltd into itself. Vedanta did not comment on the speculation on Tuesday, but said it "will make appropriate disclosures as and when required" about the potential merger of its wholly-owned subsidiary Vedanta Ltd and Cairn India, which is partly owned by Cairn Energy. Cairn Energy shares are currently quoted up 2.9%, placing them among the biggest risers in the UK's mid-cap index.

Petrofac, up 2%. The company said it has been awarded an engineering and procurement contract, expected to be worth about USD900 million, by Petroleum Development Oman to provide services for its Yibal Khuff project, a field located approximately 350 kilmetres south west of Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman. Under the terms of the four-and-a-half year contract Petrofac will be providing reimbursable detailed engineering, and construction and commissioning management support services and procurement on an incentivised pass-through basis.

Spirit Pub Company, up 2.3%. FTSE 250-listed Greene King and Spirit Pub said Greene King's takeover offer for Spirit Pub is no longer conditional on approval by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, after Greene King waived the CMA approval condition to which the offer was subject. Greene King is buying Spirit Pub in a GBP773.4 million takeover. Greene King's shares are currently quoted up 1.5%.

Playtech, up 1.9%. Shares in the company, which provides software and services for the gaming industry, have edged higher after Credit Suisse raised its recommendation on the stock to Neutral from Underperform, lifting its price target to 770 pence from 600p. Shares in the company are currently quoted at 848.00 pence.

Ophir Energy, up 1.8%. The company's shares have risen after it said a new independent reserves report had confirmed its has over 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in its reserves, which it claimed is one of the largest in the European mid-cap sector. The independent reserves and resources reports support its previous management estimates, the company said, with combined net 2P and 2C resources as at the end of 2014 at over 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. This is split between certified net proven and probable reserves, its 2P reserves, of 59.6 million barrels of oil equivalent, and certified best estimate of contingent resources, its 2C reserves, of 950.0 million barrels of oil equivalent. Ophir said its daily production averaged about 15,500 barrels of oil equivalent a day in the first quarter of 2015.

BTG, up 1.8%. The specialist healthcare company BTG said that the first patient in Singapore has been treated with TheraSphere, a treatment for primary liver cancer and metastatic colorectal cancer. "Today's announcement is an important milestone for this therapy and for BTG's geographic expansion in Asia," said General Manager of BTG Asia James Glasgow in a statement. "Singapore is the second Asian market where we have launched TheraSphere and we're proud to be providing a new treatment option for patients with liver cancer," he added. Additionally, N+1 Singer has upgraded BTG to Buy from Hold, with a 769 pence price target, saying that the current share price does not represent the long-term potential for the business. BTG's shares are currently quoted at 693.00 pence.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Cineworld Group, down 2.3%, LondonMetric Property, down 2%, Intermediate Capital, down 1.6%, Booker Group, down 1.3%, Edinburgh Investment Trust, down 0.8%, Big Yellow Group, down 0.7%, and Worldwide Healthcare Trust, down 0.6%. The companies are among the biggest losers in the mid-cap index after going ex-dividend.

FirstGroup, down 1.4%. The transport operator's shares have given back some of the gains posted on Wednesday. FirstGroup's shares closed up 6.4% Wednesday after it reported higher profits for its last financial year as its improvement plan delivered higher margins in its US First Student and UK bus operations. Thursday's decline comes even though JP Morgan and Barclays have both revised their price targets for the company higher. JP Morgan has increased its price target on FirstGroup to 169 pence from 159p, while Barclays has raised its target on the company to 130p from 110p. FirstGroup's shares are currently quoted at 125.10p.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Avesco Group, up 27%. The media services company said it swung to a profit in the first half of its financial year, driven by its Creative Technology business, and said the outlook for the second half is just as encouraging, meaning its full year results are again likely to exceed its previous expectations. It reported a pretax profit of GBP4.6 million for the six months to end-March, compared with a loss of GBP1.1 million a year earlier, as revenue ticked up to GBP66.0 million from GBP65.4 million, and the restructuring of its CT Germany business helped drive down costs and stem the losses from that unit. It raised its interim dividend by a third to 2.0 pence, from 1.5p.

Sefton Resources, up 16%. The company said it has "removed the recent legal action" brought against the company by former Executive Chairman Jim Ellerton, who had filed claims for unspecified damages against the company and some directors in relation to his resignation in 2013. "The company yesterday removed the recent legal action brought by Jim Ellerton and C&J Resources to Federal Court in Colorado, thus the State Court no longer has jurisdiction to preside over the case. As a result, the State Court hearing formerly set for today at 2030 BST has been cancelled," it said. C&J resources is Ellerton's former consultancy company that had been providing Sefton with services during his reign as chief executive. In addition, Sefton said the three-year equity finance facility provided by Darwin Strategic, which was agreed in principal back in 2012, has been finalised.

Versarien, up 14%. The engineering materials company said its graphene development subsidiary 2-DTech has made a "major advance" in graphene platelet production, which it believes will accelerate the potential commercial applications for graphene and graphene products. The company said that 2-DTech has developed its own technique for graphene production founded on a licenced process from the University of Ulster, which Versarien believes "offers numerous advantages over the conventional graphene manufacturing solutions currently on the market." Graphene is a pure carbon material that is very thin, at one atom thick, but also very strong and able to conduct heat and electricity efficiently.

Red24, up 11%. The company said it has won a deal to provide Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, the corporate insurer of Allianz Group, with crisis management services. It didn't provide any financial details about the deal. "This new relationship gives red24 the opportunity to continue to expand its global operations while supporting AGCS clients facing product contamination, hostile environment and terrorism risks," the company said.

First Property Group, up 8.9%. The property fund manager, which has assets under management and property holdings in the UK, Poland and Romania, reported strong increases in assets, earnings and returns due to a strong performance from its fund management business and the purchase of properties in Poland and Romania for its group properties portfolio. It reported a pretax profit of GBP8.1 million for the year to end-March, up from GBP6.6 million a year earlier, driven by strong growth in its property fund management business and growth in its group properties. It raised its dividend for the year to 1.35 pence, from 1.13 pence a year earlier. Net assets stood at GBP31.0 million at the end of March, or 26.3p a share, up from GBP23.5 million or 20.0p a share a year earlier. It had cash balances of GBP12.2 million, from from GBP11.3 million.

Nektan, up 8.9%. The company said that is has received approval for both a software and gaming licence for the UK market from the UK Gambling Commission. Since new regulation was introduced in the UK in 2014, the B2B gaming platform and content provider has been operating under a Gibraltar continuation licence for UK facing gaming services, it said.

Sirius Minerals, up 8%. WH Ireland has retained its positive stance on the diversified potash development company after reports commissioned by the North York Moors National Park Authority to review Sirius' proposal for its York potash project were published on its website. "We have reviewed the (lengthy) documents and have come to the conclusion that the basis on which Sirius has submitted its permitting proposal is sound and that the application meets the policy requirements and which has addressed environmental concerns and does offer long-term benefits at a local, regional and national level," says Paul Smith, an analyst at WH Ireland. WH Ireland has a Buy recommendation and 37 pence price target on the stock. Sirius Mineral's shares are quoted at 22.00p.

Boxhill Technologies, up 7.8%. The payment software and lottery group said that profitability in the third quarter of its financial year exceeded the profit made in the whole of the first half, and that it is confident that revenue in the full year will be at least double the revenue made the prior year.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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