LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Sky, up 3.2%. The broadcaster said it has reappointed James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, as chairman, succeeding Nicholas Ferguson, as the group reported 5% revenue growth for its first half and strong customer growth in its second quarter. Murdoch was previously chief executive of Sky between 2003 and 2007 and chairman between 2007 and 2012. Martin Gilbert has been appointed deputy chairman, with Andrew Sukawaty to replace Gilbert as Sky's senior independent director. For the half year to end-December, Sky posted a pretax profit of GBP414 million, down from GBP1.21 billion a year before, mostly as a result of exceptional profits from the sale of the company's stake in ITV in the year comparative period not repeating.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Antofagasta, down 3.1%, BHP Billiton, down 1.6%, Fresnillo, down 1.5%, Rio Tinto, down 1.5%, Glencore, down 1.5%, Anglo American, down 1.4%. The miners were trading lower as the gold price dipped, and aluminium, copper and zinc prices sank.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Tullett Prebon, up 7.9%. The interdealer broker said revenue rose 14% in the final two months of 2015 compared to the previous year, helping to take its revenue growth for the year to 13%. The company said its revenue in 2015 was GBP796 million, up 13% from the GBP704 million it reported in 2014. Excluding PVM Oil Associated and its subsidiaries, which Tullett acquired in November 2014, revenue was down 1%. The company expects its 2015 full year underlying profit margin to be higher than it had previously indicated at around 13.5%.
Vedanta Resources, up 2.8%. India-focused oil and gas explorer and miner said its revenue for the third quarter dropped significantly year-on-year as the group contended with a tough commodities market. Vedanta said its group revenue for the quarter to the end of December was USD2.44 billion, down from USD3.36 billion a year earlier. The revenue declines were broadly shared out across its operations, with revenue falling across the board for its zinc, iron ore, copper and aluminium mining operations and for its oil and gas business. Production levels remained robust across the company, with record quarterly refined silver production from its Zinc India business and record metal production in its aluminium unit, but revenue was dragged lower by sinking commodities prices.
AG Barr, up 2.8%. The Scottish drinks company, which makes Irn-Bru, said the soft drinks market in the UK has remained challenging but said it expects its results for the financial year to the end of January to be in line with its expectations. AG Barr said its revenue for the fourth quarter to the end of January is expected to grow around 2.5% year-on-year, a slowdown on the 5.0% annual growth it reported a year earlier. AG Barr said the soft drinks market in the UK remains challenging and highly competitive, though it said its trading strategy and brand activities helped it deliver a solid performance.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Acacia Mining, down 2.4%. The miner said one of its contractors working at the North Mara mine in Tanzania died in the early hours of the morning on Friday. Acacia said Chacha Range, an operator for one of the contractors working at the mine, died after a haul truck overturned on the road to the Gokona deposit. No other injuries were reported and an investigation into the incident is underway, Acacia said. It didn't say whether or not the investigation would affect production.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Learning Technologies Group, up 14%. The education technology company said it has acquired digital learning company Rustici Software and has bought a 30% stake in learning analytics firm Watershed Systems. Learning Technologies will pay USD26.0 million to acquire Rustici, a Nashville, US-based e-learning software company, from its founders in cash and shares. It will pay USD20.0 million in cash and USD6.0 million in shares, which will be issued at 29.19 pence per share. In addition, the company will pay USD3.0 million to buy a 30% stake in Watershed, though this will be prior to Launch Tennessee, a local funding body, taking a stake in the business, which will dilute Learning Technologies' stake to 27.3%.
ISG, up 14%. Cathexis UK Holdings said it has raised its cash takeover offer for construction services group ISG significantly, following ISG's board having consistently reiterated its opposition to the first offer. Cathexis said it has offered 171.00 pence per share in cash for ISG, significantly higher than the 143.00 pence per share it had made previously. The new deal values ISG at GBP84.6 million and is a 40% premium to its closing price on December 10, the day before the first offer was made. ISG has consistently urged shareholders to reject the deal, saying it undervalues the business.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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ITM Power, down 18%. The energy storage and clean fuel company said it has raised funds through a placing and open offer as it reported an uptick in revenue and narrowing of its loss for the first half. The company said it has raised GBP2.1 million through a firm placing with institutional investors, issuing 14.3 million shares at 15.00 pence per share. In addition to that, the company will issue up to 24.9 million further shares through an open offer at the same price in order to raise up to GBP3.7 million more. ITM added its interim pretax loss for the half to the end of October narrowed to GBP3.2 million from GBP3.7 million. Revenue rose to GBP655,000 from GBP521,000, but the narrower loss was driven by a sharp decline in research and development spending, which was not offset by a big rise in prototype production and engineering costs.
Proxama, down 16%. The proximity marketing and digital payments company said it has received a "number of expressions" of interest in relation to its digital payments division, and said it believes that its balance sheet would be "significantly bolstered" by the sale of this business. Proxama has two divisions, proximity marketing and digital payments. It said that both divisions had seen a stronger second half in 2015, resulting in total revenue of around GBP3 million for the full year, up from GBP800,000 in 2014. However, after receiving interest in the digital payments division, it has begun negotiations to sell the unit, and expects the sale of the business to complete in the second quarter of 2016.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
25 Feb 2016 16:40
