Kingfisher Share News (KGF)

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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Kingfisher, up 1.6%. The DIY retailer's shares are higher after being upgraded to Neutral from Underperform by Merrill Lynch.

EasyJet, up 0.8%. The low cost airline reported a strong rise in passenger numbers in May, and its planes were more full as the growth in numbers outpaced increased capacity. EasyJet said it flew nearly 6.5 million passengers in May, up 7.2% from nearly 6.1 million a year earlier, while its load factor, a measure of how full its planes are, rose to 91.6% from 89.4%. On a rolling 12 month basis to the end of May, its passenger numbers were up 6.1% to 66.6 million from 62.8 million, while load factor rose to 91.2% from 89.9%.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Johnson Matthey, down 4.5%. Shares in the specialty chemicals and metals company are down even though it reported a large rise in pretax profit and its dividend that both comfortably beat market expectations after most of its divisions reported strong sales growth, partially offset by a weaker performance from the precious metals business. However, it gave a mixed outlook for its businesses in the current year. Johnson Matthey said the Process Technologies division is likely to have a "more challenging" time in the year to end March 2016, while Precious Metal Products results will be "significantly down" in the current financial year as a result of the sale of its gold and silver refining business.

Anglo American, down 2.7%, Fresnillo, down 2.7%, BHP Billiton, down 2.4%, Glencore, down 2.4% and Randgold Resources, down 2.3%. IG Markets analyst David Madden says mining stocks are being hit by the news that one Chinese broker is cutting back on margin trading, and this signals the strain the second-largest economy in the world is under. "China’s economy is too dependent on credit and it feels like the pressure cooker is about to blow," says Madden.

Aggreko, down 1.9%. The temporary power provider is down a day after the FTSE Committee announced its demotion from the FTSE 100. Its place will be taken by satellite company Inmarsat. The change will take effect from the market open on Monday, June 22.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Ladbrokes, up 2.0%. The company may be forced to provide a rival bookmaker in Ireland more information to allow the company to launch a bid for its Irish arm, The Daily Telegraph reported. Boylesports, the largest independent bookmaker in Ireland, has said it is interested in acquiring Ladbrokes' Irish business, but claims the assets were placed under court protection to prevent them being sold.

Dairy Crest Group, up 1.3%. The dairy company's shares are up after it was upgraded by Investec to Buy from Hold. The broker also increased its price target to 554 pence from 496p, saying that the company sounds confident that the sale of its Dairy division to Müller UK & Ireland Group will be cleared by the UK Competition and Markets Authority. Dairy Crest last November agreed to sell its Dairy business to Müller for GBP80 million. However, while the deal has been approved by shareholders, it is still awaiting competition clearance from the UK antitrust regulator.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Pets At Home, down 4.7%. The pet retailer shares are down even tough it posted a substantial rise in pretax profit for its 2015 financial year, flattered in part by costs it booked last year not recurring, but also by revenue growth in its merchandise and services businesses as it paid its maiden dividend. The company said it will pay a total dividend for the year of 5.4 pence per share, its maiden payout. The shares have risen by a third over the last six months.

Acacia Mining, down 2.7%. The miner said it has promoted Michelle Ash to chief operating officer, focusing on "realising the geological potential" of the company's assets, freeing up Chief Executive Brad Gordon who was holding the role. Ash is currently also acting as the general manager of Bulyanhulu gold mine in Tanzania, where she will be based. However, once the company has hired a new general manager for the mine "in the coming months", Ash will leave this role.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Crimson Tide, up 17%. The developer of the mpro5 enterprise smartphone and tablet apps in the cloud said it had won a contract for its mpro5 product that it expects to be worth at least GBP218,000 over the next four years. It said it had been chosen to provide proof of delivery information for deliveries across London by a "well-known information provider" that it didn't name. The first rollout of the system will be in the second half of 2015 and will be hosted on Microsoft's Azure cloud system.

Arcontech Group, up 17%. The company, which provides financial market data processing and trading services, has resolved and agreed new terms with a "significant" customer that it had previously warned had requested to cancel its contract 18 months early. Arcontech said all payments that had previously been owed to it have now been received. The client involved was not disclosed, nor were the financial details of the contract.

Feedback, up 16% at 2,41 pence. The software company said it knows of no other reasons for the recent jump in its share price, aside from the completion of a successful placing which attracted positive media comments Wednesday. Feedback shares touched 3.22p earlier, a new 52-week high. It raised GBP200,000 by placing 11.1 million new shares at 1.8 pence each with existing and new investors, money the medical imaging software company will use to fund the continued development of its TexRAD software.

Marimedia, up 13%. The digital advertisement company said it expects to post high single-digit revenue growth for 2015 compared with the previous year, although it warned that lower margins in its mobile segment and further investment will result in lower earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation than in 2014. It posted a pretax profit of USD8.2 million for 2014, on revenue of USD63.1 million. The mobile segment of Marimedia's business is expected to make up around three quarters of total revenue for 2015, compared with 18% of its revenue in 2014.

Kefi Minerals, up 8.2%. The company said test results from three prospects in the adjacent exploration licences to the company's Tulu Kapi project in Ethiopia indicate the company could double the project's existing ore reserve. The gold mineralisation identified from the test results over the three targets adjacent to the 1.0 million gold ounce Tulu Kapi project could potentially provide satellite feed to the central processing plant at Tulu Kapi or be developed as standalone heap leach projects, said Kefi.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Scisys, off 31%. The software systems company said it will see a "substantial short-fall in profits" for 2015 compared with guidance it gave in March, as a result of issues with a development project in its enterprise solutions and defence division, and a continued hit from the strength of sterling against the euro. Finncap analyst Lorne Daniel says this provision, together with the currency impact from a continuing pound strength, is likely to "virtually" eliminate the expected profit in 2015.

Pressure Technologies, down 30%. The high-pressure engineering manufacturer issued a profit warning as the fall in world oil prices eats into its Precision Machined Components and Engineered Products divisions. The weak market conditions for the two divisions are expected to continue into the next financial year and will then also start to hit its Cylinder Division, the company said. Pressure Technologies added that the planned restructuring of its Alternative Energy arm has been completed, but the arm has seen delays in securing new orders, which will also hit its performance in 2015.

Distil, down 19%. The drinks company said its revenue dropped substantially in its financial year to the end of March as it shifted its business model, though its pretax loss narrowed as the changes resulted in much lower costs. The company said its pretax loss for the year to March 31 was GBP289,000, compared with a GBP392,000 loss a year earlier, but revenue fell to GBP666,000 from GBP2.4 million due to its shift away from third-party distribution deals to a focus on its owned brands, which include Blackwoods Gin and Vodka and RedLeg Spiced Rum.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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