IRG.L Share News (IRG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Imperial Tobacco Group, up 1.2%. Goldman Sachs hiked its target price on the tobacco giant to 3,800 pence from 3,760p and kept the company on its Conviction Buy List.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Babcock International, down 2.4%, Intertek Group, down 2.3%. The support services group and the testing and certification company were both downgraded by Exane BNP Paribas. Exane downgraded Babcock to Underperform from Neutral and cut its target price to 900 pence from 1,050p, while Intertek was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform, with a lowered target price of 2,800p, down from 2,900p.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Ocado Group, up 9.1%. Deutsche Bank upgraded the online grocery delivery service to Hold from Sell, saying the company's medium-term outlook looks more balanced now, but it is still concerned about the impact of a potential UK launch of Amazon Fresh.

Northgate, up 3.7%. The vehicle hire company said that it is trading in line with expectations so far in its current financial year to March 2016. Northgate Chairman Bob Mackenzie, in a brief statement due to be made at the company's annual general meeting, said trading was in line with the company's expectations and said it is making progress on its strategic plans.

Phoenix Group Holdings, up 2.7%. The closed life funds consolidator confirmed a press report that it has entered into talks to acquire rival Guardian Financial Services. It said it has been evaluating a bid for Guardian as part of its strategy to run the rule over the potential acquisition opportunities in its markets, as flagged in its interim results in August. It said it is holding non-exclusive talks about a bid for Guardian, confirming a report in Sky News which said was talking to Guardian's private equity owner, Cinven, about a bid. The Sky report said the deal would be worth around GBP1 billion.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Rotork, down 16%. The actuator and flow control products manufacturer said project delays and cancellations are set to push its revenue lower for the full year 2015 and will leave its adjusted operating profit falling short of its 2014 numbers. A number of orders the group had expected to book in the third quarter have been delayed and are now anticipated to be made in 2016, hitting its results for the full year. Rotork now expects its revenue for 2015 to be between GBP530.0 million and GBP555.0 million, down from GBP594.7 million in 2014, while its adjusted operating profit will be GBP120.0 million to GBP130.0 million, down from GBP157.2 million.

Premier Farnell, down 14%. The technology products company said it has opted to "rebase" its dividend, slashing its interim payout by 41%, as it reported a fall in pretax profit for its first half, and said it will sell its Akron Brass business as part of an ongoing operational review. It said it has concluded it is "appropriate to rebase" its dividend, and reduced its interim dividend to 2.6 pence from 4.4p a year before. For the half year to August 2, Premier Farnell reported a pretax profit of GBP30.6 million, down from GBP36.4 million a year before, despite revenue rising to GBP498.6 million from GBP479.3 million, as gross margin was hit by continued downward pressure from pricing, product mix, and the weakness of the euro. The stock is set to be demoted from the FTSE 250 on Monday next week.

Kier Group, down 2.5%. The construction, property and services company said its pretax profit more than doubled for the year to the end of June as it booked fewer one-off costs, while revenue was pushed higher by organic growth and its order book surged after the acquisition of Mouchel. The company said its pretax profit for the year to the end of June was GBP39.5 million, up from GBP15.4 million a year earlier, as one-off charges booked fell to GBP31.6 million from GBP42.2 million and it posted higher revenue. "I am pleased to announce we have delivered solid growth and increased profitability. Economic confidence is returning to our core markets and, furthermore, the acquisition of Mouchel represents a major step in accelerating the group's five-year strategy," said Chief Executive Haydn Mursell.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Independent Resources, up 27%. The oil and gas company said it has identified two new substantial potential leads at the Acacus play in the Ksar Hadada prospect in Tunisia. The company said the new leads have a recoverable estimated resource of 49 million and 13 million barrels of oil equivalent, respectively. It has undertaken further work to identify specific drilling locations based on the new survey results. Independent Resources said the finds increase the likelihood of it conducting successful drilling at Ksar Hadada and said the size of the identified prospects and leads are commercially attractive even amid the current low oil price environment.

DCD Media, up 20%. The independent TV producer and distributor said its production subsidiary, Rize Television Ltd, has been commissioned for a new children's singing contest 'Got What it Takes?' for CBBC. The series is an adaptation of a Romanian show format 'Mom Made Me A Star'.

Crawshaw Group, up 9.1%. The fresh meat and food-to-go retailer said that like-for-like sales grew strongly in its most recent financial quarter and that it now expects to exceed market expectations for the full year. It said that like-for-like sales growth was achieved across the entire estate following various initiatives undertaken by new management, and that it also strengthened its gross margin.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Motive Television, down 34%. The television software company on Wednesday raised GBP350,000 through the placing of 280 million shares at a price of 0.125 pence each. The company said it will use the funds to develop and market its products. It also announced that Non-Executive Director Drew Kaza has resigned from its board, effective immediately, due to relocating to the Pacific coast of US. It does not presently plan to replace Kaza.

Stratex International, down 9.8%. The miner said cold commissioning work has been completed at the Altinepe gold mine in northern Turkey, though weather conditions have caused some delays. The company said completion of the heap leach pad means the gold pour at the site has been delayed and will now start in October. "Our partners Bahar have continued to make excellent progress, with cold commissioning completed as scheduled. The short delay to first gold pour is frustrating but reflects the complexities of a mine-construction programme and should only be minimal," said Stratex Chief Executive Bob Foster.

Atlas Development & Support Services, down 14%. The African-focused support services and logistics company reported a much wider pretax loss in its recently-ended financial year, despite making revenue after not generating any the year before, as it booked costs associated with restructuring and its contract base was reduced. Atlas said profit was hit due to a reduced contract base, restructuring costs incurred during the downscaling of operations, and foreign exchange losses.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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