Legal & General Share News (LGEN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

Babcock International Group, up 3.5%. The company said its Cavendish Fluor Partnership has been selected as the preferred bidder in the competition for a GBP7 billion contract to take ownership of Magnox Ltd and Research Sites Restoration Ltd, the site licence companies for 12 UK nuclear sites. The joint venture was named the lead bidder by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Resolution, up 2.6%, Aviva, up 1.5%, and Legal & General Group, up 1%. The life insurance companies are rebounding after they fell sharply on Friday on the news that the Financial Conduct Authority is about to launch an inquiry into the sector.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

GlaxoSmithKline, down 0.7%. The pharmaceuticals giant said that its Phase III STABILITY study for darapladib in the treatment of patients with chronic coronary heart disease failed to meet its primary endpoint. The study's primary endpoint was time to first occurrence of any major adverse cardiovascular event, including cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction and stroke. It showed there was no difference to this endpoint between patients receiving darapladib or a placebo. Nevertheless, the company said that the drug on the reduction of coronary events was of potential interest.

WM Morrison Supermarkets, down 0.5%, Tesco, down 0.5%, and J Sainsbury, down 0.3%. The supermarkets' shares have dropped after Societe Generale revised their price targets lower. It has cut its price target for Morrisons to 170.00 pence from 200.00p, its price target for Tesco to 240.00p from 270.00p, and its price target for Sainsbury's to 330.00p from 370.00p.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

Phoenix Group Holdings, up 3.1%. The firm is another life insurance company that is rebounding after it saw its share price plummet on Friday.

Lonmin, up 2%. The mining company said former Anglo American executive Brian Beamish will become the interim chairman of its board from May 1, after Roger Phillimore stands down the previous day. Lonmin had already said Phillimore intended to retire, but Monday said he will step down on April 30. Beamish is an engineer, and spent 36 years with Anglo American, most recently as director of mining and technology.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

Intu Properties, down 9.6%. The stock has gone ex-rights Monday following a 2-for-7 rights issue issue at 180p. Although the shares appear to lead the FTSE 250 fallers, after adjusting for the technical movement, the shares are off about 0.5%, broadly in line with the Real Estate Investment Trust sector.

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AIM - WINNERS

Kea Petroleum, up 27%. The oil and gas exploration and development company said it has reached a commercial agreement on the proposed farm-out of interest in its PEP 51153 site, which includes the Puka discovery, in New Zealand. IT said the documents giving effect to the farm-out and resultant joint venture are undergoing final legal review. The Puka site provided 39,500 barrels of production in the six months to November, but had fallen to 2,532 in January of this year due to mechanical failure of the down hole pump. Kea said that planning is underway to make significant repairs to the down-hole equipment which should be completed for production to recommence during March.

Alexander David Investments, up 21%. The firm is proposing to acquire Tiziana Pharma Ltd in a reverse takeover, a move which would transform the investing company into a development stage biotechnology company. If shareholders approve the plans, the company will change its name to Tiziana Life Sciences PLC.

Daily Internet, up 13%. The group has revealed that its newly acquired internet infrastructure service provider Netplan Internet Solutions has won a new contract with an existing US-based customer worth around GBP160,000 per year. Daily Internet, which acquired Netplan in November 2013, said that Netplan's revenue growth following acquisition has been ahead of its expectations due to new customer wins and larger contracts with existing customers.

Blue Star Capital, up 11%. The group has announced that its investee company Oak Media has entered into an agreement with Nektan for money gaming services in the UK.

e-Therapeutics, up 10%. The group said that it has achieved positive interim results from a UK study evaluating the safety, dosing and anti-tumour activity of its ETS2101 drug in patients with advanced solid cancer tumours. It said it had completed six dose escalation steps up to 22 mg/kg, and ETS2101 was found to be well tolerated at all doses by all patients with no serious adverse events reported. The company added that analysis of the trial data also indicates that tumour development might be being retarded by the activity of ETS2101 in patients who joined the trial with progressive disease with a wide variety of tumour types.

Regenersis, up 7.9% at 385.25p. The outsourcing services provider said it has agreed to acquire Finland's Blancco Oy Ltd for EUR60 million and has raised GBP100.0 million gross in an over-subscribed share placing. It will acquire Blancco, a data erasure software provider, for EUR58.7 million in cash and about EUR1.3 million in shares. The GBP100 million was conditionally raised by issuing about 29.0 million new shares at 345 pence each. The proceeds not going towards the acquisition will be used for general corporate purposes, Regenersis said, and may include repayment of debts under Regenersis' revolving credit facility. Regenersis also said trading since the end of 2013 remains in line with market expectations.

Burford Capital, up 6%. The company said that its adjusted pretax profit rose to USD42.5 million in 2013, up from the USD34.1 million posted in 2012, while its total income rose to USD60.7 million from USD54.2 million.


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AIM - LOSERS

Kibo Mining, off 20%. The mineral exploration and development company said it had raised GBP750,000 in a share placing, money it will use to help it advance its Imweru gold project. It said it had placed 30 million shares at 2.5 pence each. Kibo's shares are quoted at 2.638 pence.

African Potash, down 15%. The potash exploration and development company, which is yet to produce revenues, said it swung to a pretax loss in its first half, as operating expenses were hit by the development of operations in the Republic of Congo. It posted a pretax loss of USD554,000 for the six months to the end of 2013, from a pretax profit of USD1.2 million the previous year.

Petards Group, down 13%. The security and surveillance systems developer shares have fallen after it reported that it swung to a loss in 2013 due to a sharp fall in revenues, even though its performance is set to improve in 2014 and the chairman said the company was no longer in "retrenchment mode". It said it made a GBP2.3 million net loss in 2013, compared with a GBP200,000 net profit in 2012, as revenues slid to GBP6.3 million, from GBP9.0 million and it booked GBP306,000 in restructuring costs.

Zambeef Products, down 12%. The agribusiness has warned that it will report a pretax loss for the first half of the financial year due to increased competition in its markets that is pushing down prices as well as the impact of disease control measures in the Zambian pig market. Increased volatility in the Zambian kwacha also will have a substantial impact on the company, raising its dollar-denominated costs for things like edible oils and stock feed.

Red Rock Resources, down 12%. The mining and exploration company said its pretax loss narrowed in its first-half but the sale process of part interest in its Greenland operations is continuing slowly. It noted that its ongoing sale of part of its interest in its Greenland Iron Ore project has moved slowly and it is disappointed that it has not yet concluded.

The TEG Group, down 9.1%. The developer of organic composting and green energy plants said its loss widened in 2013 as it was hit by exceptional provisions and a contract delay. It reported a pretax loss of GBP2.7 million, compared with a loss of GBP1.3 million in 2012, as revenues declined to GBP19.6 million from GBP22.4 million and it booked GBP467,000 in exceptional costs.

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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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