BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Tullow Oil, up 5.9%, BG Group, up 2.3%, Royal Dutch Shell 'B', up 1.9%, and BP, up 1.6%. Oil-related companies are amongst the best performers in the blue-chip index even though oil prices remain under pressure. Brent currently trades at USD52.91 a barrel, which is an improvement from Monday's low of USD52.64 but is still down 2.1% on the day. West Texas Intermediate trades at USD42.98, which is also higher than Monday's six year low of USD42.83 a barrel, but still down 1.9% on the day.

BHP Billiton, up 1.2%. The mining giant Tuesday recommended shareholders approve the proposed demerger of South32 to allow the group to streamline its activities and make cost reductions, and said both companies remain committed to its dividend policies. "The demerger will simplify BHP Billiton and has the potential to unlock shareholder value, while creating a new global diversified metals and mining company with a significant industry presence in each of its major commodities," said Chairman Jac Nasser.

J Sainsbury, up 1.1%. The UK's third-largest supermarket chain by market share reported a drop in sales in the fourth quarter of its financial year, despite price reductions and a volume increase across the business. J Sainsbury said total retail sales were down 0.3% excluding fuel in the 10 weeks to March 14, and down 2.7% including fuel. Like-for-like sales were down 1.9% excluding fuel, and down 3.9% including fuel for the fourth quarter. Still, the drop in like-for-like sales wasn't as severe as analysts had expected. The like-for-like decline was also better than that reported by rival Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC, and in line with latest figures from larger rivals Tesco and Asda.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Antofagasta, down 4%. The miner reported lower 2014 earnings, as expected, as revenue was hit by a drop in copper prices and higher cash costs. Antofagasta cautioned that copper prices are set to remain volatile this year and it's keeping its dividend policy under review while it tries to resolve issues at the Los Pelambres mine in Chile. The miner said pretax profit of USD1.57 billion for 2014 was down from USD2.08 billion in 2013, as revenue declined by 11% to USD5.29 billion, largely on the back of an 8.5% decline in realised copper prices, a 7.1% decline in gold prices, as well as a small decline in sales volumes. It said it will pay a final dividend for 2014 of 9.8 cents a share, bringing the total dividend to 21.5 cents, down sharply from 95.0 cents in 2013. That represents a dividend payout ration to earnings of 35%, the same level as in 2013, but below analysts' hopes for an increase to 37.09%.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Lonmin, up 8.7%. The platinum producer said it has appointed Ben Moolman as its permanent Chief Operating Officer with immediate effect. Moolman rejoined Lonmin in August 2014, having previously worked at the company in a number of operational management roles, including as vice-president of mining. He rejoined the company from Glencore, where he headed the FTSE 100 commodities and mining group's platinum division. Lonmin was also raised to Buy from Neutral by Citigroup.

Just Eat, up 1.6%. The online takeaway ordering platform reported strong growth in profit and revenue in 2014, as order volumes grew by half on the back of increased numbers of active users, particularly those using mobile devices to do their ordering. Just Eat said the strong trading momentum has continued into 2015. The company, which listed last April, reported a pretax profit of GBP57.4 million in 2014, up from GBP10.2 million in 2013, as it also booked GBP37.8 million in gains for changes in control at its French and Brazilian operations.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Kimberly Enterprises, up 46%. The Central and Eastern European property developer said it has finalised the sale of the Troja Project in the Czech Republic, a sale that's expected to generate it EUR3 million in net proceeds. The project of luxury apartments in Prague is being sold for a total cash consideration of CZK195 million, or about EUR7 million, and the net proceeds are expected to be about EUR6 million. Kimberly has a 50% stake in the project, so will get half the net proceeds.

Diamondcorp, up 8.2%. The South African diamond miner's shares are rising after the company said its Lace Diamond Mines subsidiary has signed a royalty financing agreement with Acrux Resources. Under the terms of the deal, South Africa-based investment company Acrux will advance USD7 million to Lace Diamond Mines, in which DiamondCorp owns a 74% stake, in exchange for a 3% net revenue royalty on the Lace mine.

Bowleven, up 7.7%. The Africa-focused oil and gas company said it has finalised the farm-out of the Etinde permit in Cameroon and has received USD165 million in cash from the deal. The farm-out included the sale of a 30% stake in the permit to LUKOIL and a 10% stake to NewAge for a total consideration of USD250 million.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Scotgold Resources, off 12%. The Scotland-focused gold miner said its pretax loss widened in the first half of its financial year on the back of exploration costs at the Grampian gold project and further costs involved in advancing the Cononish project to production. Scotgold said its pretax loss for the six months to the end of December was AUD1.2 million, compared to an AUD1 million loss a year earlier. The loss was pushed higher by the company spending AUD200,000 on exploration activities.

WANdisco, down 11%. The big data company said its pretax loss for 2044 doubled on the back of a big rise in operating costs, even as revenue increased. WANdisco said its pretax loss for the year was USD39.4 million, compared with a USD20 million loss a year earlier. The loss was driven by a rise in operating costs, which increased to USD49 million from USD25.7 million in 2013 on the back of investments made by the company in its high-growth markets.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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