Hikma Pharmaceuticals Share News (HIK)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Thursday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Unilever, up 4.0%. The consumer goods giant reported an increase in sales for the first quarter of 2015, helped by movements in currency and underlying sales growth that was driven by emerging markets. The company said revenue increased 12% to EUR12.8 billion, with underlying sales in emerging markets up 5.4%. Still, it cautioned that its emerging markets are diverging, with India improving, China stable, but Russia and Brazil deteriorating.

Fresnillo, up 2.9%, and Randgold Resources, up 2.6%. The precious metals miners are up after the price of gold made up two days of losses late Wednesday to move above the USD1,200 an ounce mark, as the dollar fell against other major currencies following some soft economic data from the US. On Thursday, the yellow metal trades at USD1,206.43 an ounce.

SABMiller, up 2.1%. The brewing giant said revenue rose 4% in its recently-ended financial year, after growth accelerated in the fourth quarter thanks partly to double-digit growth in Africa and a return to lager volume growth in China. The company said group net producer revenue for the year to end-March rose 4% and beverage volume growth was 1%, helped by an improvement in the fiscal fourth quarter when revenue grew 6% and lager volume grew 2%.

Associated British Foods, up 0.7%. Liberum has added the company to its Conviction Buy list.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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BAE Systems, down 3.8%. The engineer has been downgraded to Neutral from Buy by UBS and has also gone ex-dividend.

Intu Properties, down 3.7%, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, down 2.8%, and Capita, down 2.2%. The stocks have gone ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payouts.

Pearson, down 3.6%. The Los Angeles school district is to end its use of content provided by Pearson under the Common Core Technology Project, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The scheme, which had been projected to cost around USD1.3 billion, was aimed at providing every student in the school district with an iPad or laptop computer using voter-approved bonds. Apple Inc was providing the iPads to the district, with the curriculum provided by Pearson.

J Sainsbury, down 2.6%. The supermarket is planning to convert the equivalent of around 40 supermarkets of shop space into non-food, The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday. Chief Financial Officer John Rogers said at an event at a south London store that the company has identified 1.5 million square feet of space across the UK, representing around 6% of its portfolio, that it no longer needs for food.

Meggitt, down 2.6%. UBS has downgraded the engineer to Sell from Neutral.

Diageo, down 2.2%. The drinks giant said net sales grew in the nine months to March 31, but organic sales and volume declined following difficulties in the Asia Pacific region. It said net sales grew 4.6% in the nine month period but declined 0.3% on an organic basis and were down 0.7% in its third quarter. Volume was down 1.7% in the nine month period and dropped 0.8% in the third quarter.

Reckitt Benckiser Group, down 1.6%. Liberum has removed the consumer goods company from its Conviction Buy list.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Debenhams, up 5.0%. The department store operator reported a rise in profit for the first half of its financial year as sales grew following a revamp of its promotional strategy and service improvements. The company said pretax profit grew to GBP88.9 million in the 26 weeks to February 28, up 4.3% from GBP85.2 million a year earlier, as revenue grew to GBP1.33 billion from GBP1.30 billion. Like-for-like sales were up 1.3%, it said.

Acacia Mining, up 2.7%, and Centamin, up 1.9%. The miners are up on the rise in gold price.

Zoopla Property Group, up 1.6%. Berenberg has initiated the property portal at Buy.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Telecom Plus, down 19%. The utility provider said its profit in the recently-ended financial year will come in below its expectations due to energy price cuts it made in the fourth quarter and as warm weather cut energy usage by its customers. The company now expects it pretax profit excluding share incentive scheme charges and amortisation on its energy supply arrangements with nPower to be between GBP52 million and GBP53 million for the year to end-March. It said the figure also takes into account about GBP6 million of higher-than-expected leakage and theft in the gas system.

Petra Diamonds, down 12%. The diamond miner said its results for the current financial year are expected to be below the range of current market estimates due to poorer diamond grades it is finding at one of its mines, although it reiterated it is trying to tackle the issue and expects grades at that mine to improve in coming quarters.

Amlin, down 8.4%, Petrofac, down 3.8%, Melrose Industries, down 2.6%, Savills, down 2.1% and Rentokil Initial, down 2.1%. The companies have gone ex-dividend.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Madagascar Oil, up 97%. The company said its development plan for the Tsimiroro oil and gas project in Madagascar has been approved. It said it has been awarded the Development Mining Title for Block 3104 at the Tsimiroro site. It is the first production sharing contract to enter the development phase in the country and awards a 25-year development mining title, with potential extensions to enable a development period of up to 50 years.

Altona Energy, up 28%. The company said its chief executive has resigned and said it has made progress on making amendments to its joint venture with Sino-Aus Energy Group Ltd and Wintask Group Ltd. Altona said Michael Zheng has resigned from his position as its chief executive, with effect from Friday. Zhang Qinfu, the company's executive chairman, will take on the CEO responsibilities.

Minco, up 16%. The company said it is to start an 11-hole exploration drilling programme at the Buchans mine in central Newfoundland, Canada. The drilling programme is expected to take eight weeks to complete and will include a minimum of eight new holes, plus the deepening of three existing holes.

Byotrol, up 15%. The cleaning products company said it expects a narrower loss for its recently-ended financial year as sales rose on the back of strong petcare and professional product sales, and it is set for further growth as it nears a deal getting its products into the UK's National Health Service and its entrance to the US market.

Energy Technique, up 12%. The fan coils and commercial heating products company said its sales grew strongly in its recently-ended financial year, boosted by a strong performance in the fan coils business which offset some weakness in commercial heating.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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AorTech International, off 23%. The polymer technology company said it is too early to provide any guidance for its recently-ended financial year amid weaker-than-expected revenue from its manufacturing licence and as it seeks to secure money it is owed and as the litigation action taken against its former chief executive goes on.

PeerTV, down 14%. The company said it has issued 7,692,308 ordinary shares at 0.65 pence each in part repayment of loans due by the company and its subsidiary PeerTV Ltd. The company currently trades at 0.62p.

Inditherm, down 14%. The specialised heating company said its pretax loss widened sharply in 2014 as it was hit by slow decision-making in the UK's National Health Service and it said it was actively pursuing a small number of "potentially suitable ways forward" after a strategic review.

GameAccount Network, down 12%. The maker of online gaming systems and content swung to a pretax loss in 2014 as revenue was hit by a delay in securing a system sale and as it invested in rolling out its simulated gaming product in the US and other international markets.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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