IAE.L Share News (IAE)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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St James's Place, up 4.6%. The wealth management and financial advice group made good on a promise to up its dividend by at least 40% due to a strong rise in its underlying cash results. In a statement, the group said its operating profit on a European embedded value basis rose by 29% to GBP596.4 million in 2014, ahead of the GBP533.4 million forecast by financial analysts. EEV new business profit rose by 14% to GBP373.1 million. Its underlying cash result rose by 24% to GBP173.8 million, prompting a 46% rise in its dividend for the year as a whole to 23.30 pence per share.

Sky, up 3.0%. Citigroup has added the broadcaster to its European Focus List.

Whitbread, up 2.4%. The hotel and coffee-shop chain operator reported like-for-like growth of 5.8% in the fourth quarter of its financial year, as its Premier Inn hotels and Costa coffee chain continued to grow sales and win UK market share, leaving the group confident of delivering full-year results towards the top end of expectations.

Wm Morrison Supermarkets, up 1.5%. The supermarket chain appointed former Tesco executive David Potts as its new Chief Executive, a role that will involve a push to turnaround the ailing grocer in the face of tough competition from German discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Meggitt, up 1.0%. The engineer of components for the aerospace, defence and energy markets said its Heatric subsidiary has won a multi-million pound deal to supply recuperative heat exchangers for a natural gas-fired pilot plant in the US from NET Power. The company's shares fell significantly Tuesday after it reported lower profits for 2014.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Weir Group, down 9.9%. The oil and gas service company increased its full-year dividend, despite reporting a small drop in earnings, but warned it is preparing for a "significant reduction" in revenue and operating margins in 2015.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Petrofac, up 5.6%. The oilfield service company reported a drop in net profit for 2014 after a significant impairment charge, but kept its dividend flat and said it expects to hit its net profit target in 2015 after it said it had "excellent revenue visibility". In addition, the company said it has signed an agreement to form a strategic marketing alliance with US engineering and construction company McDermott International Inc to pursue opportunities together across a wide range of geographies.

NMC Health, up 2.1%. Jefferies has raised the its price target on the company to 800.00 pence from 600.00p, maintaining its Buy rating. The stock currently trades at 531.00p.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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AO World, down 30%. The domestic appliances retailer said it expects its results for the year to be below market expectations following a weaker-than-anticipated fourth quarter for its UK business. The company said its revenue growth year-on-year remains strong, but said it now expects its results for the financial year to the end of March to be slightly below market expectations due to weaker-than-expected revenue and earnings growth in its UK business.

Hays, down 7.1%. The recruitment company is trading down despite reporting a rise in pretax profit in the first half of its financial year on the back of a rise in net fee income. It said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of December was GBP77.3 million, up from GBP62.5 million a year earlier. The company also proposed a 5% rise in its interim dividend, up to 0.87 pence per share from 0.83 pence per share last year.

International Personal Finance, down 4.1%. The home credit business provider reported a drop in pretax profit in its last financial year, with the lender citing the costs of a Eurobond buyback, investing in its business, and foreign exchange translation losses. The company said that pretax profit fell to GBP100.2 million in 2014 from GBP130.5 million in 2013.

SuperGroup, down 3.5%. The retailer said Chief Financial Officer Shaun Willis has stepped down from with immediate effect after being declared personally bankrupt.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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San Leon, up 42%. The company said it has hit gas and sustained a good flow rate from the Racwicz-12 well in Poland and said it plans to drill an additional three to five wells on the Rawicz field.

RTC Group, up 37%. The company won a deal potentially worth between GBP80 million and GBP100 million to provide staff to Network Rail, the company that oversees the UK's rail network infrastructure. RTC said its Ganymede Solutions Ltd subsidiary will provide contingent labour services including the supply of safety critical, track and electrification and plant workers in the West, South West and North East England, the Midlands and Wales.

Dolphin Capital Investors, up 8.6%. The company, which invests in residential resorts in emerging markets, said it has appointed several new non-executive directors, including a chairman, and revealed plans to review its strategy with the aim of narrowing the discount of its share price to net asset value and accelerating returns to shareholders.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Coms, off 52%. The cloud-based telephony services provider said it will report a "substantial loss" for the financial year that just ended of at least several million pounds, citing lower gross margins in the second half of the year than in the first half, and after it failed to achieved the level of cost savings from its recent restructuring process than it had hoped for. It is also looking to strengthen its executive management team as soon as possible.

Driver Group, down 25%. The company's Chairman Alan McClue warned that contract delays and cancellations meant that its performance in the current financial year will fall short of the board's expectations. McClue also said he would resign at the AGM, handing over the reigns to non-executive director and former Conservative Member of Parliament Steve Norris.

Ithaca Energy, down 25%. The company said it would book USD10 million in costs from a delay to the deployment of the floating production facility modification programme at the Greater Stella Area production hub in the North Sea. It said the work being undertaken to modify the floating production facility by Petrofac would not be completed in time to achieve sail-away for the vessel in the second quarter of this year.

Ferrex, down 13%. The company said it has raised GBP835,000 via a discounted share placing. It said it has raised the sum via the issue of 167 million shares at 0.5 pence per share. Ferrex shares currently trade at 0.55p

Molins, down 12%. The company reported a drop in profit and revenue for 2014 as its tobacco machinery unit was hit by a widespread slowdown in the tobacco market, particularly in the Middle East due to the political and social tensions there.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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