Keras Res Share News (KRS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Glencore, up 8.7%. The miner and commodities trading house said it will refinance its USD8.45 billion revolving credit facility earlier than expected. It has signed a new revolving credit facility to refinance and replace the existing facility. Glencore said it is currently in the initial pre-syndication phase, and the company has received commitments from its senior banks for USD8.40 billion. The new facility remains unsecured and carries a 12-month extension option and a 12-month borrower's term-out option, extending the final maturity to May 2018.

J Sainsbury, up 3.5%. The supermarket chain was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral by Exane BNP.

Rolls Royce Holdings, up 2.7%. The power systems developer is preparing to grant activist investor ValueAct a seat on its board, giving the US-based hedge fund influence over the direction of the business as it seeks to recover from a string of profit warnings, the Financial Times said. ValueAct is the largest shareholder in the engine maker with a 10% stake and has met with other leading investors in the group in recent weeks to assuage concerns about its intentions should it be given a seat on the board. Rolls-Royce told the FT no decision has yet been made on whether to support or reject ValueAct's request for a seat.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Severn Trent, down 0.2% and United Utilities Group, down 0.1%. UK water regulator Ofwat said it believes it is right to have favoured consumer interests over the financial interests of UK water companies by changing the rules concerning how companies' regulatory capital value is calculated. The regulator published the changes in an update to its 2014 price review reconciliation rulebook, as it addressed its treatment of the capital expenditure incentive scheme. The capital expenditure incentive scheme is a critical component of how the price limits imposed on UK water companies is determined by Ofwat every five years. The industry is in the second year of the 2015 to 2020 price period.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Electrocomponents, up 6.9%. HSBC upgraded the electronic and maintenance products distributor's stock to Buy from Hold.

Spectris, up 4.3%. The precision instrumentation and controls supplier was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral by JPMorgan and Add from Hold by Numis.

Auto Trader Group, up 3.7%. The automotive marketplace operator said it has traded well in the past four months and its underlying operating profit it set to come in slightly ahead of market expectations. The company, which floated in London in March last year, said its average revenue per retailer forecourt has been stronger than anticipated in the four months since the end of the first half of its financial year to September 27. Consumer services revenue has also come in ahead, it said. Numis responded by upgrading the stock to Buy from Add
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Booker Group, down 0.3%. The food wholesaler was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform by Exane BNP.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Mirada, up 23%. The software provider for digital television and broadcasters said it has launched its first over-the-top content service for Mexican telecoms operator Izzi Telecom. The company's over-the-top product, meaning content is provided via the internet, will replace Izzi's existing product, allowing customers to watch both live and catch-up television content. This roll-out is expected to generate a "significant incremental revenue stream" for Mirada, the company said.

KBC Advanced Technologies, up 17%. The software provider for the oil and gas industry said it has agreed a deal to be acquired by Yokogawa Electric in a deal that will value it at GBP180.3 million, trumping its previous deal with US software company Aspen Technology. It had previously agreed a GBP158.0 million, or 185.00 pence per share, takeover by Aspen in January. However, the new deal from Tokyo-based Yokogawa is at 210p, a 14% premium to the 185p offer from Aspen. KBC closed Tuesday at 183.38p per share. As a result the KBC directors have unanimously withdrawn their recommendation for the Aspen deal and intend to recommend that KBC shareholders vote in favour of this new deal.

Keras Resources, up 4.0%. The iron ore exploration company said said one of its shareholders has sold its stake in the company and no longer holds any shares in Keras. YA Global Master SPV has placed its entire shareholding of 45.8 million shares to a "select group of shareholders", which were not named. Following the transaction, YA Global does not hold any shares in Keras. Based on the current amount of shares in issue, totalling 1.19 billion shares, those 45.8 million shares represent around a 3.8% stake in Keras. As part of the transaction, Keras said any outstanding liabilities owed to YA Global have been converted into a non-convertible loan of GBP265,000, payable in 12 months as a one-off payment. Importantly, that means YA Global will not be able to acquire any shares in Keras through that loan.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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600 Group, down 25%. The engineering company said conditions have remained tough in the second half of its financial year and it anticipates it will miss market expectations. The company said market conditions have remained tough, with customers still hesitant to commit to orders. The weakness in the European market it saw in the first half has continued and has been accompanied by a softer US market, particularly in its machine tools unit.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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