LEK.L Share News (LEK)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Barclays, up 2.9%, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, up 2.8%, Lloyds Banking Group, up 2.9%, Standard Chartered, up 1.3%, HSBC Holdings, up 1.2%. All five of the major listed banks in the UK passed the Bank of England's stress tests, the results of the tests showed. The central bank said the UK banking system is strong enough to continue lending in the event of a global economic downturn, although its stress tests showed that RBS and Standard Chartered had capital inadequacies at the end of 2014. However, because of actions taken to raise capital since the end of 2014, the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority did not require either RBS or Standard Chartered to submit revised capital plans. The stress tests did not show capital inadequacies for Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide Building Society, or Santander UK.

Merlin Entertainments, up 1.2%. The theme parks and attractions operator said trading has remained in line with its expectations, and it is on track for the year to December 27, despite continued tough trading in its Resort Theme Parks operating division. Merlin said like-for-like revenue growth for its Legoland Parks division has remained robust in the 47 weeks to November 21, while its Midway Attractions business has seen growth, albeit at lower levels due to challenging markets in London and Hong Kong, which has been offset by strength elsewhere in Asia. For the Resort Theme Parks operating arm, however, trading at Alton Towers has remained significantly weaker year-on-year, though the year-on-year declines have eased in recent weeks.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Babcock International, down 2.6%. The defence and engineering support services company was downgraded to Sell from Neutral by Citigroup.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Petra Diamonds, up 9.9%. The diamond miner said it has bought an interest in the Kimberley Mines in South Africa from De Beers Consolidated Mines, in consortium with Ekapa Mining, for around USD7.2 million. Ekapa Mining will have a 50.1% stake in Kimberley Mines, whilst Petra will have a 49.9% stake. Petra will pay around USD3.6 million for its portion of the venture. The Kimberley Mines are expected to be cashflow positive in their first year of operation. The venture expects to produce around 700,000 carats per annum in its first three years of operation, with revenue of around USD65 million per year based on an assumed diamonds price of USD95 per carat.

Home Retail Group, up 6.2%. The retail executive responsible for turning around the Garden Centre Group is understood to be preparing a bid to buy the Homebase DIY and garden centre business from Home Retail, the Financial Times reported. Nicholas Marshall told the FT he has been looking at Homebase for the past couple of years and was holding talks with private equity companies, though no approach has yet been made to Home Retail, which also owns the Argos retail chain. People close to the situation said Marshall would likely seek to transform Homebase from a DIY centre into a more family-friendly retailer, with more extensive garden and pet products.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Sophos Group, down 6.8%. Pentagon Lock said it sold 60 million shares in the IT security and software company, or around a 13.3% stake, at a price of 265 pence each Tuesday, or a total of GBP159.0 million. This was a discount to Sophos' closing price Monday of 283.60 pence. Following the sale the sellers, Pentagon Lock Sarl, Pentagon Lock 7-A Sarl, Pentagon Lock US Sarl, and Pentagon Lock 6-A Sarl, hold an around 21.8% stake in Sophos.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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African Potash, up 8.6%. The potash miner said it has signed a deal with South African investment company Beryl Holdings to collaborate on its fertiliser operations in southern and eastern Africa. Under terms of the deal, African Potash will enter a long-term deal with Beryl, whereby Beryl's main fertiliser trading activities will be restructured into a newly-formed Mauritian company, which will become a wholly-owned African Potash subsidiary. African Potash will cover the GBP8.0 million consideration due under the agreement with the issue of shares to Beryl at 2.61 pence per share.

Lekoil, up 7.6%. The Nigeria and West Africa-focused oil and gas company said it has bought the stake of collapsed oil and gas firm Afren PLC in the OPL 310 licence in Nigeria. The licence includes the Ogo oil discovery, and Lekoil will pay USD13.0 million in cash to acquire the licence interest from Afren, which is in administration. Following the deal, Lekoil will hold a 40% participating interest in the licence, with the balance held by Optimum Petroleum Development Co, the operator and local partner for the licence.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Sovereign Mines of Africa, down 69%. The miner said talks with a potential partner for the redevelopment of its Mandiana project in Guinea have been suspended. The company said the talks collapsed after approval from the potential partner's board had not been forthcoming in a timely manner. Sovereign Mines also said it will be undertaking a capital raise which will be done at a price significantly below its current market price. It added, however, that without a capital raise, it will not be able to continue operating.

Brady, down 52%. The trading and risk management technology company said late Monday its revenue and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for 2015 will be "materially below market expectations" as some sales opportunities took longer than expected to be converted, and market conditions deteriorated. The company said that over the last month or so market conditions for its clients have "materially deteriorated", with several major commodity trading companies reporting deteriorating conditions, issuing profit warnings and announcing cost cutting and restructuring. As a result customers and new prospects are lengthening buying cycles, Brady said. Whilst it has been able to convert some of its pipeline into contract wins, it said it had seen a prolonging of the time it requires to convert its pipeline into sales.

ISG, down 27%. The construction services company said trading for its UK construction arm has been disappointing and while the remainder of its business will meet its expectations for the full year, that division will not. While its UK fit out and engineering services units have performed well, its UK construction business has had a disappointing period, with weak project outcomes on some legacy contracts and with volumes set to be below its expectations due to a continued focus on margins and risk control. This will result in some revenue being pushed into the 2017 financial year and will mean the UK construction business is loss-making in the financial year to the end of June 2016.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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