eServGlobal Share News (ESG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Persimmon, up 1.2%. The housebuilder was upgraded to Buy from Neutral by UBS after reporting strong top line results on Tuesday. "We are raising Persimmon to Buy from Neutral following earnings revisions and what we believe is an underappreciated potential to return even more cash to shareholders," UBS said. Numis raised the stock to Hold from Reduce, while Goldman Sachs increased its price target while keeping a Neutral rating.

Barratt Developments, up 0.2%. The housebuilder said pretax profit surged by 40% in the first half of its financial year to December 31, after it sold more houses at higher prices, which appears to be continuing into its second half. The housebuilder posted pretax profit of GBP295.0 million, up from GBP210.2 million for the first half of its previous financial year, whilst revenue was boosted in the half to GBP1.88 billion from GBP1.58 billion, up 19%. Barratt announced an interim dividend of 6.0 pence per share, up from 4.8 pence per share the previous year. Barratt peer Berkeley Group Holdings rose 1.2%.

ITV, up 1.4% at 252.50 pence. Credit Suisse resumed coverage on the broadcaster with an Outperform rating at 310p target price.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Standard Chartered, down 5.5%. Merrill Lynch downgraded the emerging markets focused bank to Neutral from Buy.

Burberry Group, down 4.0% at 1,185.00p. The fashion house's peer Hugo Boss issued a profit warning on Tuesday, which according to Liberum highlighted a challenging market environment in the US and China supporting its pessimistic view for London-listed Burberry. Liberum analyst Tom Gadsby said the read across for Burberry from Hugo Boss is negative as the German luxury fashion company said it is cutting prices in Asia to bring them more in line with Europe and the US to attract more domestic customers. Gadsby said the implied commentary on the company's pricing power, and by extension industry pricing power suggests an unfavourable trend. Liberum reiterated its Sell rating and 925.00 pence price target.

BP, down 2.0% and Royal Dutch Shell 'B', down 2.8%. The heavyweight oil stocks were down after Iran and Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday, both said production cuts are unlikely, sending oil prices lower. Brent was at USD32.69 a barrel compared to USD33.22 at the London equities close on Tuesday.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Petrofac, up 7.8%. The oilfield services company's earnings were reduced by losses booked against the Laggan-Tormore project in the UK North Sea. The group confirmed expectations that the loss booked against the Laggan-Tormore project in the UK North Sea hampered results, but stuck to its commitment to maintain its dividend. Petrofac managed to squeeze out a net profit in 2015. However this dropped 98% to only USD9.0 million from USD581.0 million in 2014. Excluding the loss booked against Laggan-Tormore, net profit met expectations at USD440.0 million. Importantly, Petrofac kept its dividend flat in 2015 at 65.80 cents, after it committed to that payout in late 2015.

Interserve, up 1.5%. The support service and construction company increased its full-year dividend after reporting a significant rise in profit in 2015, but said it does not expect to experience any further growth until 2017. Interserve reported a 28% lift in pretax profit in 2015 to GBP79.5 million from GBP61.9 million in 2014, as revenue increased 10% to GBP3.62 billion from GBP3.30 billion. Interserve upped its dividend by 6% to 24.3 pence in 2015 compared to the 23.0 pence paid last year.

William Hill, up 1.4%. The bookmaker was upgraded to Add from Sell by Numis.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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International Personal Finance, down 16%. The home credit lender said its pretax profit was flat in 2015 as the group managed to increase its revenue despite a fall in customer and credit issued volumes and as it faces regulatory issues in some of its markets. IPF said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December was flat at GBP100.2 million, as revenue fell to GBP735.4 million from GBP783.2 million. The profit was kept flat despite investments made in its digital business and adverse foreign exchange movements. IPF is now is pinning greater hopes on growing its business in Mexico, as it warned that new legislation in some of its Eastern European markets will continue to hit profit in 2016 and beyond.

Man Group, down 6.8%. The hedge fund manager said its pretax profit sunk in 2015 as revenue remained broadly flat and net inflows into its funds slowed. Man said pretax profit fell to USD184.0 million in the year to the end of December from USD384.0 million in 2014, as revenue came in broadly flat at USD1.08 billion. Man said it will pay a final dividend of 4.8 cents per share, taking its total dividend to 10.2 cents, slightly up on the 10.1 cents it paid a year earlier. Total funds under management in the year rose to USD78.7 billion from USD72.9 billion.

Auto Trader Group, down 6.1% at 363.60p. Bank of America Merrill Lynch said entities owned by private equity fund Apax Europe VII have sold down their stake in the online automotive seller. Crystal A Holdco Sàrl and Crystal B Holdco Sàrl have together sold a total of 233.6 million shares in the company at a price of 365 pence per share, raising a total of GBP852.8 million.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Independent Resources, up 145%. The oil and gas company issued shares at a significant premium to its current share price to pay for outstanding fees owed by the company. The company operating in Egypt and Tunisia said it has issued 6.0 million new shares at a price of 0.6 pence each to pay outstanding fees for services provided to the company. That price is 5.7 times higher than the company's closing share price on Tuesday and still significantly higher than its current share price, with shares trading at 0.258p.

LGO Energy, up 38%. The oil producing company struck a deal to potentially secure USD20.0 million worth of investment as the company continues to search for a potential buyer. LGO launched a strategic review and put itself up for sale by entering an offer period late last year after problems at one of its wells in Trinidad caused financial difficulty for the company. On Wednesday, LGO said it has progressed discussions with its advisors since then and has now signed a non-binding term-sheet with an unnamed institution to secure a USD20.0 million investment into the company.

eServGlobal, up 23%. The telecommunications software provider said its HomeSend joint venture has expanded its global framework agreement with Vodafone Group for its M-Pesa service, including the launch of remittance services into five new markets during 2016. HomeSend, a joint venture with MasterCard Inc and BICS, is a financial service that allows customers to send money to and from mobile money accounts, payment cards, bank accounts or cash outlets. M-Pesa is a mobile banking service designed for users who have access to a mobile phone, but not a bank account. Vodafone said that the expanded agreement with allow remittances for M-Pesa users in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Albania.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Grafenia, down 14%. The printed materials and services company said its full-year results are set to miss market expectations due to competition in its markets. The company said it has seen aggressive pricing in the European trade print sector in the second half of its financial year to the end of March, forcing the group to increase promotional activity, incentives and selective discounting to keep hold of market share, but at the expense of its margins.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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