Gulfsands Petroleum Share News (GPX)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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CRH, up 4.7%. The Irish building materials company is up again after the on-again, off-again merger between Switzerland's Holcim and France's Lafarge appeared to be back on. CRH will acquire a large set of assets from the merged companies.

Tullow Oil, up 2.8%. The oil and gas company said it has secured an additional USD450 million of capital under its existing credit facilities. Tullow has completed a reserve-based lend redetermination process, which it completes every six months, which led to a USD200 million increase in lenders commitments after a review of the company's assets. This increased the available debt capacity to USD3.7 billion from USD3.5 billion despite lower oil prices, said the company.

Tesco, up 0.6%. Fellow FTSE 100 constituent British Land Co said it has completed a GBP733 million property exchange deal with Tesco. Under the terms of the deal, British Land has sold its 50% stake in a joint venture portfolio of 21 standalone food stores to supermarket chain Tesco and has acquired Tesco's 50% interest in two joint venture portfolios, which primarily comprise Tesco-anchored shopping centres and retail parks.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Berkeley Group Holdings, up 2.2%. The housebuilder said it is continuing to see good demand for new homes in London and the South East, is making progress on its land holdings, and reiterated its earnings guidance for the current financial year, along with the following two.

TSB Banking Group, up 2.1%. TSB and majority owner Lloyds Banking Group have agreed a deal that will see Spain's Banco de Sabadell SA buy the UK lender for about GBP1.7 billion. In a statement Friday morning, the two banks said they have agreed a deal that values TSB at 340 pence per share. The stock closed Thursday at 327.00p, and currently trades at 333.70p.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Vedanta Resources, down 3.7%. The miner said it has cut its 2015 capital expenditure budget by USD400 million and halved its budget for 2016 in order to reach its desired gearing of 25% and to ensure it can maintain a "progressive dividend policy".

Debenhams, down 2.6%. N+1 Singer has cut the department store operator to Hold from Buy after the stock exceeded the broker's previous price stance following a strong performance.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Karelian Diamond Resources, up 53%. The company said it has discovered a potential new diamond source in the Kuhmo region in Finland. Karelian said the potential new source occurs in kimberlite body discovered by the company during follow-up pitting at the site. A subsequent analysis suggests the kimberlitic indicator minerals found were derived from the diamond stability of the Earth's mantle.

Independent Oil & Gas, up 24%. The company said its 48/22c licence area in the North Sea, awarded in the 28th offshore licensing round in the UK, has been increased in size and now contains the Hambleton discovery. The Hambleton prospect was found in 2005 and has base case of recoverable resources of 6 billion cubic feet of gas, the company said.

Amphion Innovations, up 16%. The company said its partner company Motif BioSciences has announced its intention to list on London's AIM market. Motif, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on developing antibiotics to treat infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria, said its shares are set to be admitted to AIM on March 31.

Bond International Software, up 14%. The HR and payroll software company said it has initiated a strategic review and has put itself up for sale as it reported higher pretax profit and revenue and a hiked dividend payout for 2014. The company said it has now entered into an offer period under the UK Takeover Code, saying any discussions related to a merger with a third party or sale of the company will take place as a formal sale process.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Digital Globe Services, off 51%. The company said it swung to a first-half net loss, citing delays in completion of client mergers and its investment programme. In a statement, it said it made a USD858,844 net loss in the six months ended December 31, 2014, compared with a USD781,552 net profit in the corresponding period of the prior year.

Gulfsands Petroleum, down 11%. The oil and gas exploration and production company said it will need to source USD15 million of new capital to fund its planned operational activities over the forthcoming twelve months or risk losing some of its licenses if it does not complete minimum work commitments on time. It said its Syrian asset Block 26 "remains the company's most important asset" and said it is the "highest priority to do all possible to ensure the security of this asset".
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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