HICL Infrastructure Share News (HICL)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Anglo American, up 4.2%, Glencore, 3.3%, BHP Billiton, up 3.0%, Fresnillo, up 2.7%, Rio Tinto, up 2.6%. The FTSE 350 mining index was up 3.5%, having closed down 0.5% on Friday.

Polymetal International, up 2.3%. The newly promoted FTSE 100 constituent said it has secured a maiden resource estimate for the Viksha project in Russia. The Russian miner acquired the property back in 2012, and the asset has had 166 diamond drill holes completed since then, with a mining licence application being submitted in the third quarter of last year and awarded this past July. Vishka is a palladium, platinum, gold and copper deposit located in the Republic of Karelia. The JORC-compliant resource stands at 213.0 million tonnes of indicated and inferred ore averaging 0.98 grammes of precious metals per tonne and 0.1% copper. The total amount of precious metal thought to be lying within the asset is 6.6 million ounces - "making Viksha one of the largest open-pittable platinum group metal resources in the world", the company said.

Sky, up 2.7%. The pay-TV company was upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight by Morgan Stanley.

WM Morrison Supermarkets, up 2.1%. Deutsche Bank lifted its recommendation to Hold from Sell, also increasing its price target, as the supermarket chain reported interim results last week that satisfied the bank's estimates. Morrisons said pretax profit in the 26 weeks ended July 31 grew to GBP143 million from GBP126 million in the same period the year before, although revenue slipped very slightly to GBP8.03 billion from GBP8.06 billion. Profit was helped by a decrease in administrative expenses, while the small slip in revenue was due to the closure of some underperforming stores as part of its store disposal programme. Deutsche said the results were overall "better than expected". Analyst Niamh McSherry highlighted the company's cash performance as the main reason for the upgrade. Free-cash-flow amounted to GBP558 million compared to GBP479 million a year ago.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Weir Group, up 4.9%. The energy services company was double-upgraded to Overweight from Underweight by JPMorgan.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Mitie Group, down 25%. The facilities management firm said it anticipates operating profit for its current financial year will be materially below its previous expectations due to ongoing challenges across the business. Mitie said it has taken a hit from lower economic growth rates in the UK, changes to labour legislation, notably the introduction of the National Living Wage, and further constraints on public sector spending. Mitie has attempted to counter this with cost-cutting moves, but it expects these issues will weigh heavily in trading in the year to the end of March 2017, most sharply in the first half of the year. Mitie said it expects revenue in the first half to the end of September will be "modestly lower" year-on-year, but said operating profit will be "very significantly lower".

HICL Infrastructure Co, down 2.0%. The infrastructure investment company said it plans to raise GBP76 million through a tap issuance of shares to help address its funding requirements. The company said its current net funding requirement stands at around GBP76 million, and this is due to increase to GBP148 million once its investment in the A63 motorway project is completed in the first quarter of 2017. HICL may soon have additional funding requirements, given its pipeline of investment opportunities, and it said it may consider increasing the size of the issue. At the moment it has the ability to raise up to GBP145 million through the issue of 87.9 million shares. The number of shares to be issued and the price per share will be detailed following the close of the bookbuild on Thursday.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Stride Gaming, up 12%. The online gaming operator said its full-year results will be ahead of market expectations, thanks to "very strong" trading in the second half of its financial year. Stride said net gaming revenue in the financial year ended August 31 will be no less than GBP47 million, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation will be no less than GBP12.3 million. In the prior financial year, revenue was GBP27.8 million and Ebitda was GBP7.3 million. Stride Gaming said organic growth in its existing business was particularly strong, and that it is now focused on integrating the Tarco Assets, Netboost Media and 8Ball Games businesses which it bought at the end of last month.

WH Ireland Group, up 11%. The stockbroker confirmed Kuwaiti European Holdings Group is attempting to acquire a stake in the company. WH Ireland said it was responding to press speculation. Sky News reported on Monday that Kuwaiti European Holdings, a Kuwait-based investment vehicle, was seeking a buy a 30% stake in the UK-listed broker. WH Ireland did not provide any further details other than confirming it was aware Kuwaiti European Holdings was trying to buy a stake and would make further announcements as required.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Adgorithms, down 19%. The advertising software company reported a narrowed pretax loss the first half of 2016 and worked to realign its business after disruption in the online advertising market in the second half of 2015. Adgorithms said that, since it listed on AIM last June there has been a "dramatic shift" in online advertising. Notably, in the second half of 2015, a number of advertising exchanges looked to reduce the number of fraudulent inventory on their platforms, which resulted in transaction volumes being driven down "significantly". Whilst transaction volumes have since stabilised, they have not recovered to previous levels. Adgorithms said it expects suppressed volumes to continue for "some time".

Watchstone Group, down 16%. The insurance technology group confirmed that a claim will be made against the company by law firm Slater & Gordon. The Australian firm said it will bring claims against Watchstone over its GBP637.0 million deal in March 2015 to acquire the professional services arm of Quindell, the controversial firm which morphed into Watchstone in late 2015. Quindell, was then placed under investigation by the UK's Serious Fraud Office over its past accounting practices. Slater & Gordon said GBP50.0 million of the price for the acquisition of the professional services arm is being held in escrow and is due to be released on November 29. Part or all of this money may be retained subject to the claim, it said. Watchstone confirmed it had received the notice of the claim on Monday morning and said it "does not believe that there are grounds for a claim to be brought and will defend it robustly".
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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