FRI.L Share News (FRI)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices mid-morning Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Anglo American, up 2.1%, and Glencore up 1.9%. Mining stocks are doing well after copper prices hit a two-week high overnight amid talk of strike action at significant copper mines. "Industrial action at the Anatmina copper mine in Peru and the Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia may be seen as initial support to copper prices given that these two mines account for some 84,000 tonnes of supply," said Metals & Mining analyst at VSA Capital Sheldon Modeland. "Depending how long these strikes drag on and assuming China’s demand for copper remains strong we could see a rally in copper prices over the near term," the analyst says.

International Consolidated Airlines Group, up 1.6%. Goldman Sachs has raised the company's price target to 465.00 pence from 410.00p. The stock currently trades at 396.00p.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Standard Chartered, down 9.4%. The Asia-focused bank reported a 16% drop in third-quarter pretax profit, citing higher losses on loans gone bad and increased expenses. The company also expects underlying profit in the second half to be lower than the same period last year, partly due to a higher UK bank levy, regulatory and restructuring costs. It said it made a USD1.53 billion pretax profit in the three months ended September 30, compared with a USD1.83 billion pretax profit in the corresponding quarter last year. Although third-quarter operating income grew to USD4.51 billion from USD4.47 billion, operating expenses increased to USD2.52 billion from USD2.42 billion and impairment losses on loans and advances and other credit risk provisions swelled to USD536 million from USD288 million.

Lloyds Banking Group, down 2.7%. The bank said it swung to a third-quarter pretax profit, as strong underlying growth more than offset a new GBP900 million charge to cover the payment protection insurance mis-selling scandal. The company also detailed new strategy plans, under which it will cut 9,000 jobs and close 150 branches net over the next three years. Lloyds said it made a GBP751 million pretax profit in the three months ended September 30, compared with a GBP440 million pretax loss in the corresponding quarter last year. Although its numbers are improving as it continues its recovery plan following the financial crisis, the bank's PPI bill has also been on the up, now standing at GBP11.33 billion in total. In a conference call with journalists, Chief Financial Officer George Culmer declined to rule out further increases to that provision, though he did say the volume of complaints has fallen since the end of the third quarter.

BG Group, down 2.2%. The oil giant reported a drop in its underlying earnings in the third quarter, and said its exploration and production guidance remains at the low end of its forecast range. The company's third-quarter E&P production was 569 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day, reflecting continuing issues in Egypt and the acceleration into 2014 of production sharing contract effects in Kazakhstan, and it expects its full-year production at the lower end of the 590-630 thousand barrels of oil equivalent a day range. Business Performance operating profit, the company's preferred non-GAAP measure of profit that excludes disposals, certain re-measurements and impairments and other exceptional items, fell 26% to USD1.31 billion as profit from upstream operations fell 36% to USD746 million.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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NMC Health, up 1.7%. The United Arab Emirates-focused healthcare company said its revenue rose in the third quarter on the back of strong performances from its healthcare and distribution arms and said it would reshuffle its executive team, with its chief operating officer departing, its chief financial officer moving to be deputy chief executive, and its deputy chief financial officer making the step up. Revenue reached USD161.2 million in the third quarter to the end of September, up from USD136.5 million a year earlier. Its healthcare business posted an 18% rise in revenue to USD81.1 million, against USD68.7 million a year earlier, while its distribution division saw revenue increase 13% to USD86 million, from USD76.1 million a year earlier.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Synthomer, down 6.7%. The speciality chemical company warned it expects lower profit in the full year and said earnings could be lower still if economic developments in Europe continue to deteriorate. "At current run rates and given the current demand environment in Europe, the board now expects full-year profit before tax to be slightly below current consensus" of pretax profit of GBP87.8 million, the company said. "We are cautious about performance in Europe given recent economic developments, and should this impact demand further than currently anticipated in the fourth quarter, then profit before tax is likely to be around the lower end of the current consensus range," currently GBP81.3 million to GBP90.3 million.

Petra Diamonds, down 3.6%. Panmure Gordon has cut the company's price target to 155.00p from 171.00p. The stock currently trades at 163.95p, having fallen 2.9% on Monday in the wake of a trading update.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Minco, up 52%. The company said it has found multiple intersections of sulphide mineralisation at the Buchans site in Newfoundland in Canada, adding that the results confirm the extension of the sulphide horizons at the site. Minco said the results of a four-hole drilling programme showed grades as high at 26% combined zinc, copper and lead over 1.45 metres.

Frontier Resources International, up 21%. The company said it is in active discussions with potential joint venture partners on its projects and is seeing encouraging interest in the industry. Frontier said it was actively engaged in seeking industry partners for its Oman, Namibia and Zambia operations and has created online data rooms for the two African prospects, while providing data on Oman from its Houston, Texas office.

Ilika, up 9.0%. The electronic materials company said it has started succession planning for a new chairman after Jack Boyer said he intends to stand down after ten years in the role. In addition, the company said Keith Jackson has joined its board as a non-executive director. He is currently the chief technology officer at FTSE 100 engineering group Meggitt.

Transense Technologies, up 8.4%. The company said its Translogik subsidiary's US partner has launched the Opti-Tread Premium portable car tyre audit system. Under the deal, Snap-On Equipment, a subsidiary of Snap-On Corp, has become the first major distributor for Translogik's US partner, Squarerigger. Snap-On will market the Opti-Tread product through its John Bean brand.

Hummingbird Resources, up 6.3%. The company said it has produced some of the highest grade drill results it has ever produced after infill and extension drill results from four pits within the Yanfolila project in Mali.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Ferrum Crescent, off 27%. The South African iron ore developer said, in its quarterly activities report, that it had continued planning its bankable feasibility study for its Moonlight iron ore project but didn't give any detail on how its rights issue is progressing. The company announced a AUD2.0 million two-for-three discounted rights issue on October 9, seeking to raise funds to completion of the bankable feasibility study at Moonlight as well as for corporate overheads. It has been seeking funding for Moonlight and to pay its debts.

Castleton Technology, down 9%. The company said it is currently pursuing talks with a number of potential acquisition targets and would finance any cash element of an acquisition with an equity placing. It also said it knows no reason for the rise in its share price over the last week.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com

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