BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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InterContinental Hotels Group, up 5.8%. The hotel chain has rejected a GBP6 billion takeover bid from an unnamed US company, according to weekend press reports. Sky News reported on Saturday that InterContinental's board met a few weeks ago to consider an offer but rejected it on the grounds that it was too low.

ARM Holdings, up 3.3%. Numis Securities has increased its price target on the chip maker to 920.00 pence from 880.00p, following the company's investor day. "Our main take-away from the ARM investor day was increased visibility of significant share gains network infrastructure which can be a material growth driver over the next five years," Numis analyst Nick James said.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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AstraZeneca, down 2%. The pharmaceutical company is down after US pharmaceutical drug maker Pfizer confirmed on Monday that it no longer plans to make an offer for its UK rival, with the deadline under UK takeover rules for it to make a final offer having passed. Pfizer will not be able to launch a takeover bid for AstraZeneca for six months.

Smiths Group, down 1.7%. The engineering company's shares have been hit by some negative price target revisions. JPMorgan has cut its target on the company to 1,300.00 pence from 1,350.00p, and Morgan Stanley has lowered its target to 1,481.00p from 1,536.00p. On Monday, Exane BNP Paribas cut its price target to 1,300.00p from 1,330.00p, while Societe Generale lowered its target to 1,200.00p from 1,220.00p.

Rio Tinto, down 0.6%. The mining company has signed an investment framework for blocks three and four of the Simandou project with the government of Guinea, the Aluminium Corp of China, and the International Finance Corp. The Simandou South project is an iron ore mining development located in the south-east of Guinea and will be the largest combined iron ore and infrastructure project ever developed in Africa, Rio Tinto said. The Investment Framework provides the legal foundation for the project to move forward and comprises a set of documents that define the financial and commercial relations between the project's partners. The infrastructure and mining project will cost an estimated USD20 billion to build, of which two-thirds is infrastructure costs.

BP, down 0.3%. The British oil giant and Russian state oil company OAO Rosneft have announced that they have signed a deal to jointly develop the Domanik shale formations in Central Russia's Volga-Urals region. The two companies will form a joint venture that will be incorporated in Russia, with Rosneft owning a 51% stake in the company and BP owning the remaining 49% stake. The deal comes amid US government-lead sanctions that were imposed in March against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

SABMiller, down 0.3%. The company's shares have risen by 25% since early February and now trade at a premium to the beverage sector. Following what Investec calls "an extraordinary run," the asset manager says the valuation is now "overextended" and has downgraded it to Sell from Hold.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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AVEVA Group, up 12%. The engineering software and services provider's shares have moved sharply higher after it said its pretax profit rose in the year to end-March and it increased its dividend by 13%. It reported a pretax profit of GBP69.0 million, up from GBP63.5 million, as revenue rose to GBP237.3 million from GBP220.2 million. It proposed a total dividend of 27.0 pence, up from 24.0 pence in the previous year, and also paid a special dividend of 147 pence per share to shareholders in August 2013.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Ophir Energy, down 5.3%. The oil and gas exploration company said that drilling at its Affanga Deep-1 well in the Gnodo Block of offshore Gabon had not found "significant" oil indications in its target rock formations. Drilling at the well encountered thinner-than-expected sandstone sections with poor reservoir characteristics, Ophir said, although gas and liquid indications were encountered.

Genus, down 0.5%. The animal genetics company said it has agreed with Yunnan Shennong Agricultural Group Co Ltd to cancel the companies' joint venture plans. It said that the establishment of a joint venture will not proceed, following its February deal with Shennong to build and operate a 1,000 sow nucleus farm to support Shennong's expansion. Genus said that the joint venture will no longer go ahead due to the previously announced current adverse market conditions for pig production in China - which have seen pork prices in the country decrease significantly, pushing pig producers in the country into losses. Looking ahead, Shennong and Genus said they will continue to discuss future collaboration opportunities as market conditions in China develop.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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Firestone Diamonds, up 7.6%. The diamond development company said it is set to begin building the main treatment plant at the Liqhobong Diamond Mine in Lesotho in the coming weeks after entering into the previously arranged financing package. It said it has entered into the Absa Bank Ltd debt facility, subscription agreements and the mezzanine facility agreement, under which it has raised USD225.2 million to build and commission the main treatment plant and supporting infrastructure at the Liqhobong Diamond Mine.

Ferrex, up 7.5%. The exploration and development company said high iron values have been returned from rock samples collected as part of a mapping programme in February to increase the mineralised area at its 309 square kilometres Mebaga direct shipping iron ore project in northern Gabon. It said assays from 13 rock samples returned grades of up 63.6% iron. The samples were taken from the west and east ridges of Mebaga and confirm the potential for "significant tonnages" within the newly mapped mineralised areas. Ferrex said drilling to confirm these early results is planned for the second half of the year.

Rare Earth Minerals, up 7.2%. The rare metals and minerals projects investment company has exercised its option with Bacanora Minerals Limited to increase its interest in the Mexican Megalit Lithium joint venture to 30% from 10% over a maximum period of one year. Under the terms of the option agreement with Bacanora, which were announced on March 13, Rare Earth Minerals has paid Bacanora cash consideration of USD500,000 and has committed to spend a further USD1.0 million on exploration and drilling on the Megalit venture over the next year.

Legendary Investments, up 7%. The group said its investee company, Virtualstock Holdings Ltd, has been accepted on the UK government's G-Cloud 5 Framework programme. According to Legendary, which tends to invest in small companies, the acceptance means Virtualstock can now provide its services to public sector organisations, and exploratory discussions with "certain public sector organisations" already underway. G-Cloud 5 provides central government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies with a cheaper and faster way to access and purchase government-approved IT products and services.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
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Sunkar Resources, off 47%. The group said it has raised USD100,000 through a new loan facility provided by majority-shareholder Sun Avenue Partners Corp, moving to secure additional working capital in order to meet payments due under its credit line with Asia Credit Bank in Kazakhstan. The financing was required due to Sunkar's financial position becoming significantly worse since its April 2 update. Sunkar had expected a previous fundraising through a convertible loan note issued on April 7 to provide it with sufficient working capital until additional earth-moving contracts could be agreed and cash from the second earth-moving contract received. However, cash receipts due under the second earth moving contract have been delayed and a third earth moving contract has still not been concluded, Sunkar said. As a result, Sunkar said its working capital position is "materially below" its previous forecast.

Trafalgar New Homes, down 9.5%. The firm said it has raised GBP200,000 through the issue of 10 million shares at a price of 2 pence per share, which it will use for general working capital purposes. Trafalgar said it expects the new shares to start trading on AIM on or around June 10. Trafalgar's shares closed at 2.75 pence on Friday and are currently quoted at 2.00 pence.

Optare, down 8.7%. The bus and coach manufacturer said that negotiations had failed to prevent union led strike action at its Sherburn manufacturing facility. Strikes will take place at the facility Tuesday, and a further day of strikes is planned for June 2. Optare said it is continuing discussions with union representatives, and it hopes to resolved the situation in "due course".
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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