BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Travis Perkins, up 2.4%. JP Morgan has raised the building merchant and home improvement retailer to Overweight from Neutral.

Tesco, up 2.1%. Morgan Stanley has raised the supermarket chain to Overweight from Equal Weight, with a price target increase to 260.00 pence from 155.00p. The stock currently trades at 223.60p.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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BP, down 1.1%, and Royal Dutch Shell 'B', down, 0.7%. The oil producers have both been downgraded by JP Morgan. BP was cut to Underweight from Neutral, and Shell was cut to Neutral from Overweight.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Afren, down 4.7%. JP Morgan has cut its price target on the oil and gas company to 33.00p from 69.00p, reiterating its Underweight rating. Goldman Sachs has also trimmed its price target to 49.00p from 59.00 p, maintaining its Buy recommendation. The stock currently trades at 28.295p.

Fidelity China Special Situations, down 4.3%. The company, which invests in securities issued by companies listed in China or Hong Kong and Chinese companies listed elsewhere, is trading lower after China's securities regulator imposed margin trading curbs on three major brokerages, a sign that authorities are making efforts to keep investor enthusiasm in check after big gains last year. The Shanghai Composite closed down 7.7% as a result.

Evraz, down 1.8%. The Russian steel maker said production of steel and iron ore fell during 2014, whilst vanadium and coal production saw slight increases, as average prices for the year fell across the board. The company said consolidated crude steel production fell by 4% from 2013 whilst output of steel products dropped 5% during the year. Both decreases were mainly caused by the disposal of Evraz Vitkovice Steel in the Czech Republic and the shut-down of Evraz Claymont operations in the US at the end of 2013 as part of the group wide optimisation plan.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Kimberly Enterprises, up 77%. The company said it has struck a deal to sell a plot of land in the Czech Republic for CZK195 million, or around EUR7 million. The net proceeds from the sale of the land, which has been designated for residential purposes, are expected to be around EUR7 million, with Kimberly to get EUR3 million.

Tangiers Petroleum, up 54%. The company said preliminary results showed a large potential resource at the Project Icewine project in Alaska. It said an independent report on the prospect found an estimated recoverable oil potential of 492 million barrels. Tangiers has an 87.5% working interest in the project, meaning the company has a net share of the recoverable oil at 431 million barrels.

XLMedia, up 14%. The digital marketing services company said it expects to beat market expectations for 2014 on the back of strong organic growth and a boost from recent acquisitions. XLMedia said it expects its revenue will be at least USD49.5 million, while its earnings before income, taxation, depreciation and amortisation will be at least USD16.6 million. That would mean a rise in revenue of around 43% for the year and a rise in earnings of 24%, ahead of market expectations.

Mosman Oil and Gas, up 11%. The company said it has significantly improved its takeover offer for Australian Securities Exchange-listed MEO Australia Ltd. Mosman will now offer MEO shareholders one Mosman share for every 10 MEO shares. The offer will be formally sent out to MEO in January, and to MEO shareholders in February.

Kibo Mining, up 11%. The company, along with Metal Tiger, saw its shares rise after the companies announced they have entered into a 50:50 joint venture for the Morogoro South gold-prospective exploration portfolio in Tanzania, building on another joint venture for uranium exploration signed last week. The exploration portfolio, owned by Kibo, covers 18 licenses covering a surface area of 1,400 square kilometres. Both companies have signed a memorandum of understanding concerning the joint venture.

Pressure Technologies, up 8.9%. The company said it has bought the freehold land and buildings at Meadowhall Road, Sheffield where its Chesterfield Special Cylinders and Chesterfield Biogas subsidiaries operate for GBP3.36 million.

Densitron Technologies, up 8.5%. The electronic displays company said that whilst its results for 2014 will be marginally behind market expectations, it returned to profitability and saw a "substantially higher" operating profit than in 2013.

Finsbury Food Group, up 7.8%. The maker of cake, bread and breakfasts said revenue had risen by nearly a quarter in the first half of its financial year, buoyed by the acquisition of Fletchers in its bakery division, and its operating margins also improved. The company said total sales in the six months to December 27 were up 24% on the year at GBP107.6 million, helped by organic growth of 5.6% or GBP4.9 million. The Fletchers acquisition, which was completed at the end of October, added GBP16 million of the revenue increase.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Tavistock Investments, off 52%. The company is the biggest faller in the AIM All-Share index after it did a discounted share placing to raise new funds to bolster the capital position of Standard Financial Group Ltd, which it is acquiring in a move that will boost its wealth advisory business. The company said it had raised a minimum of GBP2.7 million by placing 53.2 million shares, a subscription of 81.8 million shares and an open offer of up to nearly 30.5 million shares, all at 2 pence a share.

Sorbic International, down 20%. The company said its pretax loss significantly narrowed in its last financial year, despite revenue falling slightly as it continues to try and recover funds owed to the company by the chief executive of its Chinese subsidiary. For the year ended September 30, 2014, the company reported a pretax loss of GBP219,148, significantly narrower than the GBP6.1 million loss made a year earlier. The loss last year was caused by a USD6.1 million, one-off impairment charge.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com

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