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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Hammerson, up 2.7% at 618.50 pence. Deutsche Bank hiked its price target on the real estate developer to 775p from 750p and reiterated its Buy rating on the stock. Deutsche said it favours Hammerson's prime retail exposure and attractive earnings growth prospects and said the company's quality assets offer "optionality" on rental growth. The company remains one of Deutsche's top picks in the real estate sector in the UK. Land Securities Group, a rival of Hammerson, was 1.9% higher, as Deutsche upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Kingfisher, down 1.8%. The DIY retailer was downgraded to Reduce from Neutral by Nomura to account for the possibility the company will not provide a cash return to shareholders in 2016, as well as Kingfisher's higher capital expenditure plans, a limited reduction in development market losses, and additional central costs. Though in favour of Kingfisher's strategic plan, Nomura said it may be tough to execute and will be reliant on a cyclical recovery in the European market.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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AO World, up 7.3%. The online electrical appliances retailer revealed prominent fund manager Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb has taken a 5.0% stake in the company. The investment firm, which runs the Sequoia Fund, took a 5.4% stake in the company last week, according to a stock exchange filing. The investment came just over a week after AO World reported a swing to a first-half loss due to investments made in its German operation and start-up costs in other parts of Europe. In February, it issued a profit warning following a slowdown in sales in the fourth quarter of its financial year to the end of March, then missed those downgraded expectations in June, sending its share spiralling lower.
Home Retail Group, up 2.5%. In addition to the possible bid for Homebase from former Garden Centre Group boss Nicholas Marshall, The Sunday Times reported a number of other potential suitors have lined up both for the Homebase business and for a break-up bid for owner Home Retail. Though some analysts are sceptical that a bid will emerge from Marshall, several retail industry figures have been tapped by private equity firms in recent months to advise on possible bids for the company, the newspaper said. Among those to have run the rule over the company are Golden Gate Capital, a San Francisco-based digital retail group which would be interested in the Argos catalogue retail unit of Home Retail, and Leroy Merlin, a French DIY chain which would be looking at Homebase, The Sunday Times reported.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Serco Group, down 7.0%. The outsourcer said its trading for 2015 is set to come in ahead of previous guidance, but projected another year of pain in 2016, with revenue and its trading profit set to fall. Serco said trading in 2015 has been ahead of its expectations, with underlying trading profit set to beat its previous guidance and reported trading profit to be significant higher than its underlying figures due to an improved operational performance and renegotiation of loss-making contracts. However, for 2016, Serco expects to generate revenue of around GBP2.8 billion, compared to around GBP3.5 billion for 2015, and said its trading profit will fall further to around GBP50.0 million, almost half the upgraded guidance for 2015 of GBP95 million.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Independent Oil & Gas, up 36%. The oil and gas company said it has now secured funding for the Skipper well at its licence in the North Sea and expects to spud the well early in 2016. The company said it has secured funding for the exploration well and now has sufficient working capital for the next 12 months, after signing loan agreements with GE Oil & Gas UK and London Oil & Gas. Independent Oil & Gas expects the Skipper well will be spud in late January or early February and said its contract with the drilling rig provider, along with the well service management contract, are close to being secured.
InternetQ, up 27%. The mobile marketing company issued a series of rebuttals in a response to a blog post about the company last week. Last Thursday, website ShareProphets published a blog questioning InternetQ's business model, causing shares in the company to drop sharply. InternetQ refuted a number of claims made by the blog post, including that the company is "misleading" in capitalising "the majority" of its operating costs and therefore reporting "high" profits. The company said it only capitalises a minority of its operating costs and asserted that its accounting polices fully comply with International Financial Reporting Standards.
PeerTV, up 25%. The TV technology company said it received a trial order from a new, undisclosed North America-based customer for its Quad Core Android Set Top Boxes with DVB-T2 connectivity. It said expects to deliver the set-top box units during the next two months. PeerTV didn't provide the number of units it will deliver or any other financial details.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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LGO Energy, down 21%. The oil and gas company said it has started a strategic review and entered an offer period following a separate statement in which it said its sale and purchase deal with Trinity Exploration & Production has been terminated. LGO said it would consider "all options" for the future of the company as it kicked off its strategic review. The oil and gas company owns production assets and reserves in both Trinidad and Spain. It has also entered into an offer period in order to facilitate discussions with potential suitors or partners, it said. Trinity, which also Monday said it has secured a further extension to repayments on its USD13.0 million debt facility, was down 9.4%. The extension is to this coming Friday.
Hardide, down 11%. The advanced surface coating technology developer said it swung to a loss in the year to the end of September following a significant slowdown in oil and gas markets in the second half. Hardide said it made a GBP207,000 pretax loss for the year to September 30, swung from a GBP110,000 profit a year earlier. Revenue for the year was GBP3.0 million, flat year-on-year but marking a significant slowdown in the second half, after first-half revenue had increased 36%. The slowdown was due to the weakness in oil and gas markets, where all companies offering services and products to the industry have been hit by a collapse in orders amid the low oil price.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
24 Feb 2015 08:18
