Dekel Agri Share News (DKL)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Wednesday.

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

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Sports Direct International, up 6.2%. Shares of the sports retailer lead the FTSE 100 gainers after Bank of America Merrill Lynch increased its price target on the stock by 7%. Sports Direct now derives 20% of its sales internationally, following its acquisition of the Sports Eybl chain in Austria in 2013, and BoAML says that the market is underestimating the potential for the company to expand further into Europe, as well as its potential to expand its online offering. BoAML's price target moved up to 1,070p from 1,000p, with a Buy rating reiterated.

Tesco, up 3.7%. The supermarket chain's shares are amongst the biggest blue-chip risers after its annual trading profit for its last financial year came in ahead of expectations. Although the group's overall trading profit for the year fell by 6% at actual exchange rates, and even further at constant exchange rates to GBP3.31 billion, down from GBP3.53 billion a year earlier, it came in ahead of consensus estimates of GBP3.42 billion, and Jefferies' estimate of GBP3.20 billion, says Jefferies analyst James Grzinic.

Persimmon, up 2.4%. The housebuilder said it has been boosted by the UK government's flagship mortgage financing scheme, after selling around 5,000 new homes through Help to Buy, as visitor levels rise and cancellation rates fall. Overall, the new financial year has started well for the company with visitor levels to its sites up 10% on the prior year during the initial 15 weeks of trading, while cancellation rates are down to 14% compared with 15% a year earlier, which its Chief Executive Jeff Fairburn said showed "good mortgage availability."

Burberry Group, up 1.7%. The luxury fashion retailer said that total revenue in the second half of its year rose 16% on a reported basis, with growth continuing to be driven by strong sales of its outerwear and leather goods, particularly in Asia. It said its online business outperformed in all regions in the six months to March 31, while its stores performed well, boosted by travelling "luxury customers". However, the retailer warned that the strength of sterling hit profits across the business, and is expected to continue to do so in the year ahead. Burberry said that the current strength of the sterling would wipe about GBP30 million off its reported profit for its retail and wholesale division, and around GBP10 million in reported licence revenue.

Reckitt Benckiser, up 1.3%. The consumer goods and healthcare company posted lower first-quarter revenue as it was hit hard by currency fluctuations, but it reiterated its revenue target at constant exchange rates for 2014 as it hit the top end of the target range. It said total net revenue fell 6% to GBP2.37 billion in the first quarter of 2014, as exchange rate moves wiped 9% off the figure. The revenue decline was 5% excluding the pharmaceuticals business it is reviewing options for. At constant exchange rates, its revenue grew 3%, or 5% excluding the pharmaceuticals business. That was slower than the 5% and 7% growth rates, respectively, it reported for the whole of 2013 at constant exchange rates, but was at the top end of its forecast for net revenue growth in 2014 of between 4% and 5% at constant exchange rates and excluding the pharmaceuticals business.

Aviva, up 1.3%. The company said it has moved to further simplify its Italian business, building on the sale of its stake in Eurovita, by agreeing changes that will restructure its life joint ventures in the country in a transaction that that will require a GBP25.0 million balancing payment. Aviva Italy has been simplifying and consolidating its core partnerships, and exiting non-core businesses since 2012. It is now focused on growing non-life and life protection and developing further its retail distribution.

Bunzl, up 1.1%. The distribution and outsourcing company said its pre-items operating profit was up 10% in the first quarter of the year, driven by a 5% rise in revenue at constant exchange rates and higher operating margins in three of its four businesses. It said that, while it had been hit by fluctuating exchange rates, its underlying revenue growth was at a similar level to that of the first quarter of 2013.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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Haregreaves Lansdown, down 2.3%. After an initially positive start to trading, the retail stock broker is one of the biggest losers in the FTSE 100 after releasing third-quarter results. The company increased its assets under administration by GBP1.83 billion over the period, leading analysts to suggest it has seen no negative impact from the retail distribution review. Even so, Numis securities reduced its earnings per share forecasts for the current year by 2.0% due to lower revenue yields and marking to market.

Fresnillo, down 0.7%. The precious metals miner said its gold production fell compared with the previous year as a result of explosion permit problems and stoppages. It said its attributable gold production for the the three months ended March 31 fell 29.7% to 82,653 ounces, from 117,512 ounces, as a result of a stoppage of operations at its Soledad-Dipolos sites following a court order regarding the Ejido agrarian community on site and the temporary suspension of its explosives permit at Herradura, which was newly permitted by the Mexican authorities at the end of February. It wasn't all bad news, however, as its total silver production increased 3.5% to 10.4 million ounces, up from 10.1 million ounces.

RSA Insurance Group, down 0.5%. The insurer said that the Chief Executive of the business which houses its troubled Irish operations has resigned in order to become Executive Chairman, underwriting and distribution, at business partner A J.Gallagher. RSA said UK & Western Europe Chief Executive Adrian Brown has resigned from the board but will carry on in his executive role until a successor is found. No departure date is currently set in stone but RSA said it expects Brown to leave in the second-half after 25 years at the company.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

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Grainger, up 2.7%. The company has acquired a tenanted residential property portfolio in London for GBP160 million from Property Investments Chelsea. It said the purchase price is the investment value of the properties as at the date of acquisition and represents a discount to their vacant possession value. The Chelsea Houses portfolio, which consists of 61 freehold houses, is located across nine streets ion London's affluent Knightsbridge and Chelsea.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

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Lancashire Holdings, down 3%. The speciality insurer and reinsurer said its founder and Chief Executive, Richard Brindle, is to retire at the company's annual general meeting at the end of April, with Chief Underwriting Officer Alex Maloney succeeding him.

Hunting, down 2.7%. The energy services group said trading in its first quarter has been slower than expected due to adverse weather conditions in North America and projects delays in the Asia Pacific region. The company did not elaborate further on which project delays were occurring in the Asia Pacific region.

Evraz, down 1.9%. The Russian steel maker said its crude steel production fell in its first quarter due to scheduled maintenance, and average selling prices fell in Russia for its steel products compared to the previous year. It said its crude steel production fell by 9.2% to 3.7 million tonnes for the three months ended March 31, from 4.1 million tonnes the previous year, due mainly to scheduled maintenance works at its Russian steel mills. As a result, its gross output of steel products fell 5.8% to 3.8 million tonnes from 4.0 million tonnes. Evraz said the average prices for all of its steel products in Russia decreased during the period compared to the previous year but its pig iron prices slightly increased and the company noted that since March, prices have started to increase as a result of the improving demand and the start of the construction season.

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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS

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Belgravium Technologies, up 15%. The company has won a contract worth GBP1.1 million from rail operator First Great Western to provide a retail IT system on-board its fleet of trains. All of First Great Westerns trains will be hard-wired for Wi-Fi and GPRS communication which will allow the new system to communicate in real-time with host stock control, sales and marketing systems.

Dekeloil Public, up 9.8%. The palm oil producer said its recently commissioned Crude Palm Oil extraction Mill in Sierra Leone has achieved operating profitability in its first full month of operation and its gross sales margins were at the high end of company estimates. It said the 60 tonnes an hour mill produced 1,617 tonnes of crude palm oil and 189 tonnes of kernels during March after the plant started production towards the end of February. The company said 594 tonnes of crude palm oil were sold at an average sale price of USD882 per tonne and 146 tonnes of kernel were sold at USD278 per tonne during the period. It said the estimated gross margin of 27-29% was at the high end of estimates and Dekeloil was overall earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation positive in its first month of operations.

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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS

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Snoozebox Holdings, off 17%. The portable hotel accommodation and services provider said its loss widened in the full-year, during a turbulent period which saw changes in its management team. It posted a pretax loss of GBP9.4 million in 2013, compared with a profit of GBP4.2 million in 2012, despite revenue rising to GBP6.7 million, from GBP3.8 million. It said that although it achieved repeat bookings, the operating costs and deployment time for short-term events were too high. Revenue was boosted by strong sales for its events and hotels business.

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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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