Eco Animal Share News (EAH)

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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Aviva, up 1.7% at 564.12 pence. Barclays, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley resumed coverage of the insurer with Overweight ratings, ahead of Aviva's first trading session after the completion of its takeover of Friends Life Group. Barclays set a price target of 621 pence, with Morgan Stanley eyeing 633p.

HSBC Holdings, up 1.4% at 620.72p. Morgan Stanley has raised the bank to Equal Weight from Underweight, placing its price target at 600p.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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BHP Billiton, down 2.6% at 1,425.4p, Anglo American, down 2.6% at 995.8p, Rio Tinto, down 1.8% at 2,785.5p. The miners are have been hit by Citigroup downgrades in the sector. The bank has removed BHP BIlliton from its Europe Focus List, downgrading the miner to Neutral from Buy and cutting its price target to 1,550p from 1,800p. Citigroup has downgraded Anglo American to Sell from Neutral, cutting its price target to 900p from 1,350p, while downgrading Rio Tinto to Neutral from Buy, cutting its price target to 2,850p from 3,600p.

Pearson, down 1.7% at 1,446p. Jefferies has downgraded the education and publishing group to Underweight from Buy, but has lifted its price target on the stock to 1,230 from 1,184p.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Vedanta Resources, down 2.7% at 504.00p, Lonmin, down 2.4% at 127.1p. Citigroup has downgraded Vedanta to Sell from Neutral, cutting its price target to 430p from 410p. The bank has also downgraded Lonmin to Neutral from Buy, cutting its price target to 127p from 145p.

IMI, down 1.9% at 1,275p. Investec has downgraded the engineering company to Hold from Buy, cutting its price target to 1,340p from 1,355p.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Richland Resources, up 25%. The gemstone miner said pre-production mining has now started at the Capricorn Sapphire project in Queensland in Australia. A drilling programme is now underway at the site to define the pit design and layout and to enable mine scheduling, Richland said. First production from Capricorn Sapphire is being targeted for May 2015, with the first sales under the Capricorn Sapphire brand to be made in June.

Epistem Holdings, up 23%. The biotechnology company said it expects to imminently receive approval from Indian regulators for the launch of its Genedrive Tuberculosis and antibiotic resistance molecular diagnostic kit. Epistem said it has been made aware that the Director General Of Health Services and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare departments in India are to publish an approval letter in respect of the import licence for the kit.

Eco Animal Health Group, up 17%. The animal health pharmaceuticals producer said it is likely to exceed market profit expectations for the year to end-March on sales growth of more than 20% in sterling. The company said it has continued to make "strong sales progress from its more recently licensed drug registrations and by developing newly accessed markets with existing licences."

Galasys, up 16%. The provider of ticketing software to amusement parks in Asia reported strong growth in profits in 2014, saying new contracts and strong demand from existing clients drove revenue up 45%, and it brought forward its maiden dividend payment. The IT services provider said pretax profit rose to MYR11.3 million in 2014, from MYR8.4 million in 2013, as revenue rose to MYR38.6 million from MYR26.7 million. It said it will pay a maiden dividend of 1.084 sen, or about 0.2 pence a share, bringing forward its dividend plans due to the growth of the business.

GETECH Group, up 15%. The geoscience services company said it has signed a "significant" contract with an unnamed national oil company. The contract, for which Getech did not provide any financial details, is for a three-year initial period with an option for it to be extended for a further two years. Under the deal, Getech will be one of three companies contracted by the client to provide basin evaluation services.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Image Scan Holdings, off 25%. The company said it expects to post a pretax loss of around GBP380,000 for the first half of its financial year, widened from a pretax loss of GBP59,000 in the previous year, due to lower sales and the delayed availability of an x-ray generator to replace the waning supply of its existing generator.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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