GRA.L Share News (GRA)

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

CRH, up 0.7%. The building materials group is receiving a boost from some merger and acquisition news in the sector. Holcim in Switzerland and Lafarge in France have agreed a merger to become the world's biggest cement maker. The deal is likely to come under heavy scrutiny from competition regulators, and the two companies are said to be looking to sell businesses worth 10%-15% of pretax earnings to satisfy regulator concerns. The rise in CRH shares Monday reflects the opportunity for the company to pick up some of this business, say analysts.

BG Group, up 0.5%. The oil and gas company is one of the few blue-chip risers after it said it has moved the centre of its global liquefied natural gas and oil marketing business to Singapore from its head office in the UK. It said it is moving in order to take advantage of the development of Asian energy markets in the long term. BG Group said the global natural gas market is set to grow at an average of 2.4% a year until 2025, largely driven by strong growth in demand from Asia, while global LNG is expected to grow twice as fast.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

ARM Holdings, down 2.2%. The technology stock is amongst the biggest blue-chip losers after the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite index closed down 2.6% on Friday. "The Nasdaq is often considered the barometer of the tech sector because it is the most famous of the technology indices, and it also has a large concentration of the biggest tech firms including Microsoft and Facebook," says Kathleen Brooks, research director at Forex.com.

Burberry Group, down 1.9%. Berenberg has cut the luxury fashion house to Hold from Buy, lowering its price target to 1,500.00 pence from 1,660.00p.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

Kentz Corp, up 2.4%. The major oil and gas engineering company has been awarded a USD570 million services contract for the Ichthys Project Onshore LNG Facilities in Darwin, Australia. It said its Australian subsidiary for the electrical and instrumentation construction packages at the Darwin site was awarded the contract by JKC Australia LNG Pty Ltd, a joint venture between JGC Corp, KBR and Chiyoda Corp.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

Imagination Technologies Group, down 3.8%, CSR, down 2.3%, and Pace, down 1.9%. The companies are three further examples of technology stocks falling heavily following sharp declines posted on the NASDAQ Composite on Friday.

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AIM - WINNERS

Sunkar Resources, up 21%. The company said it has raised USD1.3 million by issuing 1.2 million convertible loan notes to its biggest shareholder, Sun Avenue Partners Corp, a move that will help it solve its immediate financial difficulties. It said the funds provided through the deal will be used to make overdue payments on its ACB bank loan and for general working capital requirements. The company said its loan notes are repayable in a single instalment and is convertible to a maximum of 34.1 million shares in the company at a price of roughly 2.2 pence per share, which would increase Sun Avenue's share capital in the company to 55.59% from 51.15%. Sunkar's shares are currently quoted at 2.27 pence.

Sierra Rutile, up 15%. The titanium feedstock minerals company said its first quarter production was up strongly, and its cash costs were down during the period. It said it increased rutile production 12% to 28,218 tonnes from 25,087 tonnes and increased its ilmenite production 23% to 6,868 tonnes from 5,567 tonnes compared to the first quarter 2012. The company also said production of its zircon concentrate, a semi-finished zircon product, increased 36% to 877 tonnes from 643 tonnes. It also said it saw a 33% reduction in its operating cash costs to USD539 per tonne as compared to its first-half 2013 rate.

Pires Investments, up 12%. The company said its convertible loan note has been converted into about 3.0 million new shares in Rame Energy PLC, which it said would realise GBP547,000 at Rame's initial public offering price of 18 pence. In addition, Pires said it subscribed for another 308,233 new shares as part of Rame's IPO. Pires said it has a 3.5% interest in Rame's issued share capital, as well as a warrant that allows it to subscribe for up to 125,000 new shares in the company at the IPO price until February 2017.

Graphene NanoChem, up 9.2%. The group has signed a profit-boosting joint venture deal and neared an agreement on another. It said its Platinum NanoChem Sdn Bhd subsidiary has entered a joint venture with Scomi Oiltools Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Scomi Energy Services Bhd, to produce and supply a range of speciality chemicals, including PlatDrill and other graphene-enhanced green chemicals, exclusively for the oilfield chemicals market. Separately, the company said that the same subsidiary has signed a heads of agreement for a joint venture collaboration with Emery Advanced Materials, a subsidiary of Emery Oleochemicals Sdn Bhd, focused on developing a new generation of speciality chemicals for plastic additives, biolubricants and rubber.

Antrim Energy, up 9.1%. The oil and gas exploration company said its special resolution to approve the sale of its Causeway, Kerloch, and Cormorant East assets in the North Sea was passed at its recent shareholders meeting, helping to offset some of its financial difficulties. It said the sale is to be structured as a sale of Antrim's subsidiary Antrim Resources NI Ltd to First Oil Expro Ltd, expected to be completed by April 15. In February, the company announced the proposed deal, for First Oil Expro to buy its subsidiary for USD53 million in cash, plus the assumption of certain liabilities and adjusted working capital, from which Antrim will settle on closing all outstanding obligations under its Payment and Oil Swap agreements with Credit Suisse AG and Credit Suisse International.

Grafenia, up 8.5%. The firm said it expects its results for the financial year that just ended to be in line with its own expectations, after trading continued in a similar vein to the positive update it gave back in mid-January. It said sales of its W3P web to print software as a service technology have continued to gain momentum and it signed up a further 30 customers in the final quarter of the year. It also completed a master license in a country where it has previously had no presence.

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AIM - LOSERS

Red Leopard Holdings, off 12%. The investment company's shares are big fallers, having risen sharply in early trading, after it said it hopes to finalise plans to reopen the Idora Tunnel for the purposes of exploration on its mining claims in the vicinity of Shoshone County, Idaho, during the spring.

API Group down 12%. The foils and packaging materials producer has warned that it expects its results for its last financial year to be at the lower end of expectations, after a recovery in the second half of the year proved not enough to offset the weak performance in the first half of the year.

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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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