BPC.L Share News (BPC)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices Monday morning.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Fresnillo, up 3.9%. Shares in the miner are being buoyed by a rise in the gold price and as the precious metal miner's Chairman Alberto Baillères reiterated that the company is firmly focused on value creation. "I remain committed to our proven strategy in precious metals. Our priority, for 2015 and beyond, is firmly set on value creation," said Baillères. Gold is at USD1,230.41.

Weir Group, up 3.1% at 1,956.3 pence. Citigroup upgraded the oil and gas support service company to Buy from Neutral, lifting its price target to 2,200p from 1,750p.

Babcock International Group, up 1.8%. The engineering support services company focused on infrastructure and big projects reported strong growth in pretax profit for its last financial year as revenue was buoyed by major new contract wins and acquisitions. Babcock reported a pretax profit of GBP313.1 million for the year to end-March, up from GBP218.8 million a year earlier, as its own revenue rose to GBP4.00 billion from GBP3.32 billion. The company lifted its full-year dividend to 23.6 pence, from 21.4p, to reflect the improved financial performance.

Rio Tinto, up 0.8%. Shares in the mining giant are higher as it is planning to sell unwanted aluminium assets in a potential USD1 billion deal, in what looks like the latest sign of global miners' attempts to restructure in the face of a commodities downturn, the Financial Times reported. The Anglo-Australian company has engaged Credit Suisse to find a buyer for its Pacific Aluminium business, a group of smelters in Australia and New Zealand, the report said quoting people aware of Rio's plans.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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BHP Billiton, down 3.9%. The miner's shares are down after spin-off South32's share price came in below estimates. South32, which also is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, currently trades up 2.9% at 107.00 pence in London. Societe Generale analyst Alain William had valued South32 at an equity value of 120.00 pence per share.

Lloyds Banking Group, down 1.1% at 88.1p. Shares in the bank are down after Investec downgraded the stock to Sell from Hold, with a price target of 84p.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Aveva Group, up 12%. The engineering software company is understood to be an acquisition target for a slew of US and European suitors, The Sunday Times reported. Senior City sources told the newspaper that Aveva is likely to be targeted by French energy group Schneider Electric, US conglomerate General Electric Co, and US-based manufacturer Emerson Electric Co.

Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, up 9.8%. 888 Holdings gatecrashed GVC Holdings' reverse takeover offer for Bwin, saying it has submitted a cash and shares takeover bid for the company. Bwin.Party confirmed it has received the proposal tabled by 888 and said its board and advisers are conducting a detailed review of the proposals it has so far received.

MITIE Group, up 3.7%. The outsourcing and energy services company reported a lower pretax profit for its last financial year, as increased costs for completing an exit from its mechanical and electrical engineering construction business and for writedowns in its asset management business offset growth in revenue. However, excluding the exceptional costs, its pretax profit rose to GBP114.1 million, from GBP113.3 million, as revenue grew to GBP2.27 billion from GBP2.14 billion. Following the restructuring, Investec analyst Andrew Gibb says the business is in a much stronger position, saying he continues to expect growth ahead of the market and margins to advance.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Rotork, down 90%. The manufacturing company is down after a subdivision of the shares came into effect Monday morning. Each of the company's existing ordinary shares of 5 pence each converted into 10 new ordinary shares of 0.5 pence each.

Laird, down 3.1%. UBS downgraded the wireless connectivity and radio frequency engineering company to Neutral from Buy.

Inmarsat, down 2.7%. Shares in the satellite communications service provider are down after it said it is suspending its guidance of 8% to 12% compound annual growth in revenue from wholesale mobile satellite services over 2014 to 2016, as the launch of its third Global Xpress satellite I-5 F3 has been delayed by the failure of a related satellite.

Premier Oil, down 2.3%. Goldman Sachs downgraded the oil and gas explorer and producer to Sell from Neutral.

SIG, down 2.0%. UBS downgraded the building products distributor to Neutral from Buy.

Cranswick, down 2.0%. The food producer reported a drop in profit in its recently-ended financial year despite a rise in sales, as it booked costs associated with the valuation of assets, amortisation of assets, and a contingent consideration following its purchase of Kingston Foods in 2012. The pork and poultry specialist reported a drop in profit in the year ended March 31 to GBP52.8 million from GBP54.8 million the year before, even though revenue grew to GBP1.00 billion for the first time, from GBP994.9 million. It will pay a final dividend of 23.4 pence, up 6.4% on 22p the prior year.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Macromac, up 47%. Shares in the mobile messaging company are higher after it said its Macromac Venture investment arm has entered a deal to acquire a 25% stake in Malaysia-based mobile applications developer Skyztree Sdn Bhd. Under the deal, Macromac Venture has agreed to invest a total of MYR675,000, or around GBP120,000, in cash in Skyztree, which runs the First Smile mobile application.

Coal of Africa, up 41%. The miner said the South African Department of Mineral Resources has granted a New Order Mining Right for the Makhado hard coking and thermal coal project in Limpopo Province. Coal of Africa said that following the granting of the new mining right, it has opened talks with potential customers in securing off take agreements for the coal products produced at the site.

Avacta Group, up 25%. The company said its Avacta Life Sciences unit has entered into a collaboration, licensing and option agreement with Moderna Therapeutics. Under the terms of the deal, Moderna will make a USD500,000 upfront payment to Avacta to provide it with access to Avacta's Affimers range. Moderna will also make pre-clinical development milestone payments to Avacta under the deal.

Transense Technologies, up 19%. The transportation sensor system provider said it is working with US industrial giant General Electric to develop new instrumentation applications using Transense's wireless, passive Surface Acoustic Wave measurement technology.

Bahamas Petroleum, up 14%. The company said it has agreed the terms of a licence renewal addendum in relation to its four southern licenses in the Bahamas, a move that should help with its attempts to find farm-in partners, and would also be focusing its broader efforts on areas where it has drill-ready prospects. Bahamas Petroleum said the current terms of the southern licenses have been extended to the second quarter of 2018, and the drilling start date is extended to April 2017.

Proxama, up 14%. The mobile commerce company said the group's proximity marketing division, which provides proximity marketing services using Bluetooth beacons and near-field communication technology, has signed a commercial deal with Eye Airports to deliver location-based offers and promotions to consumers. Under the first stage of the deal, Proxama will install an initial network of 200 Bluetooth beacons into advertising signage in eight airports in the UK, including London Gatwick.

Kromek Group, up 13%. The radiation detection technology company said it has signed a slew of new contracts worth a total of USD982,000. It said it won two deals in the nuclear detection and security market, worth a combined USD452,000, to provide radiation detection technologies for security purposes, and two contracts in the medical market, worth USD530,000, one for the supply of its Cadmium Zinc Telluride detectors and one for the delivery of its ASIC technology for medical imaging.

ServicePower Technologies, up 11%. The field service management technology company said it has signed a deal with Internet of Things services company Concirrus. The partnership will involve the creation of a cloud-based Internet of Things service for the insurance sector. Concirrus' IoT platform will collect data, which will be reported to ServicePower's field service management software. The ServicePower platform will then schedule an appointment for an insurance adjustor based on the Concirrus data.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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TomCo Energy, off 32%. The company said the technology needed to progress its flagship Holliday project has been pushed back once again, this time until 2017, as the developer of the technology tries to reduce costs in response to lower commodity prices.

Blinkx, down 10%. The Internet media company said it swung to a pretax loss in its last financial year, as it invested heavily in an attempt to address "rapid industry changes" and a decline in revenue was further compounded by pressure on margins. Blinkx also said that during its current financial year it expects to see further gross margin pressure as a result in the shift in its product mix and higher audience acquisition costs, but expects these costs to be partly offset by the measures it has taken to restructure its operations.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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