Legal & General Share News (LGEN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Reckitt Benckiser, up 6.3%. The consumer goods giant said its pretax profit increased in 2015 thanks to improved margins, as currency headwinds held its net revenue broadly flat. The company said pretax profit for the year to the end of December was GBP2.21 billion, up from GBP2.13 billion in 2014. Net revenue was GBP8.87 billion, up slightly from GBP8.34 billion the year earlier, but cost of sales declined enough to offset a minor uptick in its net operating costs.

Hammerson, up 3.4%. The property developer said its pretax profit rose in 2015 as its rental income was boosted by ongoing strong demand for premium retail space in the UK. Hammerson said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December was GBP731.6 million, up from GBP702.1 million a year earlier as its net gains from its property investments, including those with joint ventures and associates, increased.

Hagreaves Lansdown, up 4.0%. Shore Capital upgraded its recommendation on the fund supermarket to Buy from Hold. The upcoming launch of Hargreaves Lansdown's new cash savings service has the potential to attract more money to the company's platform, according to the broker.

Prudential, up 5.1%. The stock has been down 20% year-to-date amid concerns over slow economic growth in Asia which is a key market for the life insurer. Legal & General Group, up 4.1%. Concerns over Solvency II regulations and new rules on capital across the EU have weighed on the life and general insurance stock, also down 20% year-to-date.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Randgold Resources, down 3.1%. Fresnillo, down 3.9%. The price of gold retreated to USD1,206.60 an ounce early Monday, having stood at USD1,234.70 at the London equities close on Friday. Nevertheless, the metal is still up 14% so far in 2016.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Fidessa, up 5.8%. The trading systems provider reassured investors about its ability to pay special dividends, amid investment in the range of asset classes it supports, expansion of its regional coverage, and the build out of its infrastructure. The dividend guidance came as the financial trading software company reported flat pretax profit in 2015, at GBP39.1 million, as revenue rose by 7.4% to GBP295.5 million and expenses before accounting for the effects of amortisation and acquired intangible assets increased by 8.7% to GBP256.4 million.

BGEO Group, up 5.8%. Georgia Healthcare, which was spun out of BGEO Group and floated on the London Stock Exchange in November, reported a jump in full-year pretax profit. The group's pretax profit rose to GEL23.6 million in 2015, from GEL14.5 million the prior year, boosted by growth in both healthcare services and medical insurance. BGEO owns 68% of Georgia Healthcare and is due to report annual results for 2015 on Tuesday. Georgia Healthcare shares were untraded at 165.00p.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Acacia Mining, down 9.1%. The miner said 2015 was "another year of transformation" as the company maintained its dividend despite swinging to a huge pretax loss, thanks to a drop in revenue and some hefty impairment charges. Acacia swung to a USD124.2 million pretax loss in 2015 from a USD115.2 million profit in 2014, after it booked a substantial amount of impairments and saw revenue decline to USD868.1 million from USD930.2 million. Impairments totalled USD146.2 million in 2015 and was the cause for the loss, with Acacia Mining not booking any impairments last year.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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88 Energy, up 117%. The Australia-based exploration company said its estimates for the Icewine-1 well in Alaska have been confirmed to be correct by the evaluation of the HRZ shale core, and said the majority of its acreage lies in a "thermal maturity sweetspot". The company said the final thermal maturity analysis of the core of the HRZ shale interval has confirmed the company's pre-drill predictions concerning the Icewine-1 well to be accurate

Coms, up 46%. The infrastructure services company said its results for the year to the end of January are set to outpace its expectations following good trading in its Redstone infrastructure and 'smart building' services unit. Coms said revenue and operating profit at Redstone have been significantly ahead year-on-year and said the business has benefited from Coms' solely focusing on the unit, following the restructuring which saw its dispose of and close its other businesses.

Hornby, up 2.5%. The train set maker said Chief Executive Richard Ames has stepped down and left the company with immediate effect. Chairman Roger Canham will become executive chairman and will head the company for the "foreseeable future", the group said. The departure of Ames comes after the group last week said it would see a "substantially wider" trading loss than previously anticipated for the year to the end of March following weaker than expected sales both in the UK and internationally.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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All Leisure Group, down 43%. The holiday company and tour operator saw its shares drop after potential plans to delist from AIM overshadowed the company's full-year results, which showed a small pretax profit in 2015 after a reduction in costs offset a small dip in revenue. "The board is actively considering delisting from the AIM market. It is mindful of the on-going costs of remaining as a publicly quoted company and the limited current and potential benefits available to the company. A further announcement will be made in due course," said Chairman Roger Allard. The group managed to squeeze out a GBP200,000 pretax profit in 2015 compared to the large GBP7.2 million loss last year despite revenue dropping to GBP127.3 million from GBP138.9 million.

e-Therapeutics, down 31%. The medical research and development company said top-line results from its phase 2b trials for its ETS6103 anti-depressant failed to meet the primary endpoint. The group said ETS6103 did not meet the primary endpoint from an efficacy standpoint, which had been to establish non-inferiority of the drug against amitriptyline, a currently-used tricyclic treatment. Further analysis will be undertaken but the company said its conclusion was ETS6103 was not non-inferior to amitriptyline from an efficacy view, though the overall results were similar to what it had hoped.

Magnolia Petroleum, down 18% at 0.154 pence. The US-focused oil and gas explorer said it has raised GBP300,000 through a share placing. The company issued 214.3 million shares at 0.14p per share through broker Cornhill Capital. Magnolia said it intends to use the proceeds from the placing to pay down its debt.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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