Booker Group Share News (BOK)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Fresnillo, up 4.2%, Randgold Resources, up 4.2%. The miners were benefiting from a higher gold price, up to USD1,369.02 mid-morning Wednesday from USD1,349.32 at the London equities close on Tuesday. In the FTSE 250, Centamin was up 9.3%, Acacia Mining up 6.6%, Hochschild Mining up 6.8% and Vedanta Resources up 5.9%.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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International Consolidated Airlines Group, down 5.6%, easyJet, down 4.0%. The owner of British Airways was hit by a price target cut by Barclays, which trimmed its target on the company to 420 pence from 700p. IAG shares are currently trading at 357.3p. Late Tuesday, IG said group traffic, measured by revenue passenger kilometres, rose by 14% in June on a year before, while load factor improved to 84.0% from 83.7%. Barclays also cut its price target on low-cost carrier easyJet to 1,150p from 1,630p. easyJet was trading at 1,014p. On Wednesday, easyJet said passenger numbers increased by 5.8% in June to 6.9 million from 6.6 million in the same month the year before, while load factor grew by 1.4 percentage points to 94.1% from 92.7%.

Tesco, down 5.6%, Wm Morrison Supermarkets, down 4.8%. HSBC cut Tesco to Hold from Buy and removed the UK's largest supermarket chain from its 'Europe Super Ten List'. The bank also downgraded rival Morrisons to Reduce from Hold. HSBC trimmed its price target on J Sainsbury to 165p from 175p. Shares in Sainsbury's were down 2.0%.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Carillion, up 3.2%. The construction and support services company said it expects growth in revenue in its first half of the year to offset a slight reduction in its underlying operating margin, as it announced it has been awarded a number of support services contracts worth up to GBP600.0 million. The company said it expects its performance in the first half to be led by revenue and margin growth within its support services division, which it said is expected to offset the effect on its profit of a slight reduction in underlying operating margin.

Booker Group, up 2.7%. The convenience store operator and wholesale retailer reported growth in sales in the first quarter of its financial year and said it is on track for the full year. Booker, which owns wholesaler Makro as well as convenience chains Budgens and Londis, said group sales in the 12 weeks ended June 17 rose by 10% year-on-year, with tobacco sales up 6.4% and non-tobacco up 12%. On a like-for-like basis, however, which excludes Budgens and Londis as they only joined the company last year, group sales fell by 2.9% as tobacco sales were down 7.7% and non-tobacco slipped 0.7%.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Tullow Oil, down 14%. The oil and gas explorer said it has launched a USD300.0 million convertible bond offering in order to diversify its sources of funding. Tullow said the convertible bonds will mature in 2021, with the initial conversion price to be set at a premium of 30% to 35% to the volume-weighted average price of Tullow shares on Wednesday. Tullow said the funds raised through the issue will diversify its funding sources and will be used for general corporate purposes, in addition to funding development work at its assets in West and East Africa.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Melrose Industries, up 29%. The industrial group said it has agreed a USD1.44 billion deal to acquire US manufacturing company Nortek and will launch a rights issue of shares to finance the deal. Melrose said it will acquire Providence, Rhode Island-based Nortek for USD86.00 per share, a 38% premium to Nortek's closing price on NASDAQ in New York on Tuesday. Melrose said its offer already has support of shareholders representing 68.7% of Nortek, as well as the unanimous support of the Nortek board. Melrose will finance the deal with a fully-underwritten rights issue of 12 new shares at 95.00 pence per share for each 1 existing share, raising a total of GBP1.61 billion.

Kolar Gold, up 42%. The India-focused miner said Geomysore Mining Services (India), in which Kolar holds a stake, has secured funding to back a drilling programme. Kolar said in March GMSI was in the process of raising USD2.2 million for additional drilling and to complete the economic feasibility study for the East Block open pit mine in India. Kolar said at the time it would not be able to participate in the fundraising without raising funds itself and, through not participating, its holding in GSMI would be diluted by the fundraising. Since then, Kolar said GSMI has secured a USD2.4 million equity investment from Thriveni Earth Movers Pvt Ltd, a leading Indian mining firm and GSMI's drilling contractor.

Taptica International, up 15%. The mobile advertising platform firm said it had a strong end to its first half, and now expects to post first half revenue more than 47% higher than the same period a year earlier, an increase which is expected to continue into its full year. Taptica said its first half to June 30 ended strongly, noting it now expects to post revenue of more than USD50.0 million, compared to the USD33.9 million reported for the same period a year earlier. As a result, Taptica said it expects its full-year revenue to be 45% higher than the prior year, in line with market expectations.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Vislink, down 49%. The company, which provides technology services to the broadcasting, surveillance and public safety markets, said full-year results will be materially below previous estimates as a lower-than-expected trading performance in the first half of 2016 is anticipated to continue into the second half. It said it experienced a slower order intake in the software division Pebble Beach Systems in the second quarter, while sales in Vislink Communication Systems also were below management expectations. Vislink added that its bank has agreed to defer covenant tests until the end of July from the end of June due to Vislink's worse-than-expected trading. t will also review its dividend policy in light of the restructuring plans and will provide further information on this when it releases its first-half results.

Newmark Security, down 35%. The security systems provider issued a profit warning as it said trading has become increasingly difficult in recent months. The company recently had said trading for the year to the end of April 2016 was in line with market expectations, but said conditions have deteriorated since then. Operating profit for the current financial year to April 2017 is likely to fall significantly year-on-year, it said.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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