Debenhams Share News (DEB)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS
----------
Smiths Group, up 2.9%. RBC Capital upgraded the engineering group to Outperform from Sector Perform, according to traders.
----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS
----------
Berkeley Group Holdings, down 2.9%. The upmarket housebuilder said it is continuing to see good underlying demand for its properties, with the London market remaining stable, and expects full-year results at the top end of its expectations. However, whilst Berkeley said it expects to deliver results for the year to end April at the top end of expectations, it said transaction levels at the upper end of the housing market have been affected by the "significant increase" in transaction taxes over the last 18 months, which it said "will have consequential effects on both social mobility and the supply of new homes".

Antofagasta, down 0.6%. RBC cut the miner to Underperform from Sector Perform.
----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS
----------
Balfour Beatty, up 1.6%. Berenberg resumed coverage on the construction and infrastructure group with a Buy rating.
----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS
----------
Debenhams, down 1.9%. Investec cut its recommendation on the department store operator to Sell from Hold amid concerns on its outlook. "With cost pressures, a less flexible business model and online shift, it is difficult to see how sustainable growth can be injected into an undifferentiated business," analyst Kate Calvert said, adding that sales, margin and cost focused strategies have been tried at the company, but noting they have all failed to deliver growth.

Halma, down 1.7%. Exane BNP downgraded the health, safety and environmental technology group to Neutral from Outperform.

HICL Infrastructure, down 0.8%. The infastructire investor said it plans to raise GBP25.0 million through a tap issuance. The net proceeds from the issue will be used to back HICL's funding requirements, it said, with the rest to be used to support further acquisitions. The company intends to issue 16.0 million shares under the issue, with the price set through a bookbuilding process run by broker Canaccord Genuity, which will start on Tuesday.
----------
MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
----------
Lighthouse Group, up 10%. The financial advisor AFH Financial Group on Thursday said it made an approach to acquire fellow UK-listed financial adviser Lighthouse but was rebuffed. AFH said it made an initial approach to acquire Lighthouse in March 9, before then submitting an indicative proposal to the Lighthouse board at 13.00 pence per share, valuing Lighthouse at around GBP17.4 million. AFH said the offer represented a 27% premium to Lighthouse's closing share price on March 8, when the stock closed at 10.82 pence. Lighthouse, in a statement published just after the London market close Thursday, said the offer tabled by AFH "fundamentally undervalues" the group and its prospects and advised its shareholders to take no action in relation to the AFH bid. AFH Financial shares were untraded.

Lombard Risk Management, up 8.6%. The financial services software supplier said it has signed a technology license agreement with database software developer Oracle America Inc. Under the agreement, Oracle America, part of New York-listed Oracle Corp, is licensed to sell Lombard's AgileREPORTER technology. AgileREPORTER helps financial institutions to remodel how they meet complex regulatory reporting requirements by eliminating manual processes and generating added-value out of reporting data. Lombard did not disclose financial details of the agreement.

Concurrent Technologies, up 7.1%. The computer components manufacturer said its pretax profit surged in 2015, helped by a significant revenue rise as sales increased across its product lines. Concurrent makes high-end embedded computer products for the defence, aerospace, telecommunications, transportation, scientific and industrial markets. For 2015, pretax profit grew 59% to GBP2.7 million from GBP1.7 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 34% to GBP17.1 million from GBP12.8 million. Concurrent will pay a 1.2 pence final dividend, up from 1.15p, taking its total dividend up to 1.9p from 1.8p.
----------
MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
----------
Fastjet, down 17%. The Eastern and Southern Africa focused carrier said it is taking legal advice for a letter which shareholder easyGroup Holdings immediately made public when sending it to fastjet on Thursday. The letter related to the contractual relationship between the pair, and fastjet said while it "welcomes constructive engagement" with all shareholders, it "cannot understand" why easyGroup published the letter without first raising its concerns with fastjet. easyGroup, owned by billionaire investor Stelios Haji-Ioannou, holds a 13% stake in fastjet.

Gulfsands Petroleum, down 17%. The oil and gas company posted a significantly wider pretax loss for 2015 after it booked big writedowns on its projects amid the low oil price environment. Gulfsands, which owns assets in Syria, Morocco, Tunisia and Colombia, said its pretax loss was USD69.2 million for the year, compared to USD12.1 million a year earlier, mainly due to USD53.8 million in impairment charges the firm booked on its assets. Gulfsands said its involvement in operations in Syria remain suspended due to EU sanctions imposed on the country's government amid its ongoing civil war, but it has initiated the farm-out process for its assets in Morocco, Tunisia and Colombia.

Robinson, down 10%. The packaging company posted lower pretax profit due to exceptional costs and weaker underlying volumes, but revenue edged up and it hiked its dividend. Robinson said its pretax profit for 2015 fell to GBP774,000 from GBP2.4 million a year earlier, mostly as a result of the GBP1.7 million exceptional cost it booked on the earn-out consideration for Madrox, the Polish plastic packaging manufacturer it acquired in 2014.
----------
By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.