LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
Rolls-Royce Holdings, up 2.9%. The group is the biggest riser on the blue-chip index after it said after the UK equity market close on Friday that it will acquire German carmaker Daimler's 50% stake in joint venture Rolls-Royce Power Holdings. Rolls-Royce said it has ample liquidity to fund this purchase from existing cash and borrowing facilities.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
Antofagasta, down 2%, Glencore Xstrata, down 1.8%, BHP Billiton, down 0.9%, Anglo American, down 0.8%, and Rio Tinto, down 0.9%. Weaker-than-expected Chinese trade data has put pressure on the mining sector. China's imports grew by 10% in February, while exports declined unexpectedly by 18%, meaning that the world's second largest economy's trade balance showed a deficit of USD22.98 billion compared with the surplus of USD31.86 billion seen in January.
WM Morrison Supermarkets, down 0.5%. The food retailer is this week expected to announce price cuts and GBP500 million of property sales to combat discount rivals such as Aldi and ease shareholder worries, according to the The Sunday Times. It is poised to go a step beyond recent reductions announced by Asda and Tesco by spending hundreds of millions cutting prices and selling properties.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
Pennon Group, up 3.2%. UK water regulator Ofwat said South West Water, owned by Pennon, has qualified for a fast-track passage through its 2014 price review for the next regulatory period. Earlier this year Ofwat said it will "pre-qualify" water companies that have outstanding business plans for the period 2015 to 2020, meaning plans that pass its tests for outcomes, cost and affordability, and board assurance.
Senior, up 1.6%. The firm has agreed to acquire UPECA Technologies, a Malaysian-based manufacturer of high-precision engineered components serving the aerospace and energy sectors, in a GBP75.5 million deal that it expects to boost earnings with immediate effect. The total includes a cash payment of GBP58.2 million, plus GBP17.3 million of net debt it will take on. The deal will be funded using cash and existing borrowing facilities.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
Essar Energy, down 3.6%. The energy company has denied that it had any plans to close the Stanlow refinery in the UK, refuting recent media speculation, saying it will cut costs at the plant in an attempt to offset the recent drop in industry-wide refining margins.
Polymetal International, down 1.4%, and Kazakhmys, down 1%, are two more mining companies being hit by disappointing Chinese trade data.
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AIM - WINNERS
Fyffes, up 33%. Chiquita Brands International and Fyffes have reached a deal whereby Chiquita will acquire Fyffes to create the world's largest banana company. The two companies said they have an agreed all-stock deal which will result in Chiquita shareholders owning 50.7% and Fyffes holders owning 49.3% of ChiquitaFyffes. They said they expect the deal to result in annual overheads and operational cost synergies of at least USD40 million by the end of 2016. The synergies will mainly come from combining logistics and procurement operations.
Eurasia Mining, up 22%. The company said it has received state approval for expanded multi-site reserves at its West Kytlim site at the Ural mountains in Russia. It said the State Reserves Commission has approved increased reserves at the site, which are sufficient to expand production to multiple sites rather than a single site operation which was originally planned.
Phorm Corporation, up 18%. The firm said it had inked a memorandum of understanding with China Telecom Corporation Ltd to become its strategic partner for 'Big Data' and advertising. Phorm, which operates an opt-in online advertising platform that claims to protect user privacy whilst making content and advertising more relevant to them, said the three-year agreement covers a wide-range of proposed initiatives.
Armour Group, up 16%. The consumer electronics business has agreed to sell its automotive division, including its Nordic subsidiaries, to AAMP of America Inc in a deal worth GBP10.9 million.
Goldplat, up 15%. The gold production and recovery company said that its pretax loss widened slightly in its first half as revenues fell due to weaker gold prices and lower grade recoveries hit company finances as expected. However, Shore Capital analyst Yuen Low believes that the poor results were to be expected. "Goldplat points out that recovery operations in South Africa and Ghana are currently trading profitably and 'at a rate which should more than eliminate the first half trading loss'," he says.
Crimson Tide, up 12%. The software company has signed a three-year contract with a "renowned Irish manufacturer" for its mpro5 mobile software, worth about EUR100,000 in revenue, giving it a substantial boost in the Republic of Ireland. The contract is the first deal under a new partnership with, what Crimson Tide calls, "one of the world's leading mobile network operators" to distribute the mpro5 software in the Republic of Ireland.
Frontier Mining, up 12%. The group said it will sell its FML Kazakhstan LLP unit for USD30 million in cash, using some of the money to ramp up production at its second site, Benkala, where it hit its copper cathode production guidance in 2013. It will sell FML, which is the owner of the Naimanjal licence area, to Union Transnationale Miniere SA, and will use the proceeds to pay down debt and ramp up copper production at Benkala.
Global Energy Development, up 10%. The petroleum exploration and production company has announced that it has signed a farm-out agreement for its Bolivar association contract area in Colombia, with Everest Hill Energy Group Ltd. It said the 50-50 joint venture deal will see Everest pay it USD5 million upon the signing of the agreement, as well as fund part of the work programme.
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AIM - WINNERS
PipeHawk, off 14%. The group reported that it swung into a loss in the half year to the end of 2013, despite seeing revenues rise, due to higher staff and administrative expenses arising from the expansion of its QM Systems Ltd business. It posted a pretax loss of GBP244,000, versus a profit of GBP83,000, despite seeing revenue grow to GBP2.6 million from GBP2.0 million in the previous year. Staff costs rose to GBP1.2 million from GBP950,000, and administrative expenses rose to GBP1.6 million from GBP865,000.
Armadale Capial, down 10%. The investment company's shares have fallen after it announced that it has acquired an interest in ASX-listed Redcliffe Resources Ltd by investing AUD60,000 in the company.
Hangar 8, down 7.4%. The company's shares have fallen as they resumed trading on AIM, after its merger talks with Air Charter Service Group PLC were terminated. The company's shares were suspended February 13 when the company revealed the talks with the privately-owned company.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
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