Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Barclays, up 3.6% at 251.25 pence, Lloyds Banking Group, up 2.0% at 80.33p, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group up 2.1% at 347.2p. The banking stocks are reversing all the losses they made on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lifted its price target for Barclays to 333.2 pence from 315.5p, reiterating its Overweight rating, while it also raised its RBS price target to 391.6p from 375p, keeping its Equal-Weight rating. Meanwhile, Jefferies upgraded Lloyds to Hold from Underperform, saying the group's premium valuation is now supported by a progressively rising dividend.

Royal Dutch Shell 'B', up 2.2%. Reuters reports the US government upheld a 2008 lease sale in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska, meaning Shell has moved closer to returning to exploration work in the region since it lost control of the Kulluk oil rig in 2012. The Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will now consider Shell's exploration plan and will perform an environmental assessment of it, which would take at least 30 days. But Shell, in anticipation of returning to the region, has already moved rigs to Alaska, Reuters said.

Glaxosmithkline, up 2.3% at 2,144.5p. Barclays raised its price target for the pharmaceutical company to 1,840p from 1,690p, keeping its Overweight recommendation.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Kingfisher, down 2.0%. The shares of the DIY retailer are down after rising 4.4% to a nine-month high on Tuesday as it reported a drop in sales and profit for its last financial year which it blamed on a slower French market and the strength of sterling, but said the new CEO plans to organise the company "very differently" to create a unified business that will share IT systems and buying and stock inventory infrastructure. Meanwhile, Nomura has cut its price target for Kingfisher to 305p from 315p, retaining its Neutral recommendation.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Evraz, up 6.5%. The steel miner said it will return USD375 million to its shareholders even though its pretax loss widened in 2014 on the back of a USD1.0 billion foreign exchange loss caused by the devaluation of the rouble, saying it has "improved business prospects" in 2015. Evraz reported a pretax loss of USD1.08 billion in 2014, compared with a USD637 million loss in 2013, on the back of the substantial foreign exchange loss and an impairment charge.

Firstgroup, up 4.4%. The transport company said its trading in the fourth quarter and whole of the financial year that ended on Tuesday was in line with its expectations, with good performances in its UK bus and rail operations. FirstGroup said its UK bus business is delivering volume growth and achieving a positive yield, and it has made progress on cost-cutting efforts within the division. Separately, Panmure Gordon upgraded the transport company to Buy from Hold, cutting its price target to 120p from 140p.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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CEB Resources, up 70%. The natural resources focused investment company said it has sold its remaining stake in Australian Securities Exchange-listed Balamara Resources. In October, CEB Resources sold a third of its shares in Balamara for AUD350,340. Wednesday it sold its remaining stake, selling 9.8 million shares for AUD178,108, representing a much lower price compared with the sale in October last year.

Daily Internet, up 12%. The hosting and cloud infrastructure company said its expects its results for the year to the end of March be significantly improved on the prior year. It expects revenue to be ahead of market expectations and expects earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation to be "materially ahead" of market forecasts. The company also said its Netplan Internet Solutions Ltd business has a series of contracts worth a total of GBP565,000 with a global insurance company.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Amerisur Resources, off 27%. The company said its reserves and resources for its exploration and production assets in Colombia and Paraguay fell following an independent reserves report undertaken by Petrotech Engineering. The report concluded that the company's proven gross field reserves was 16.2 million barrels of oil, down from 19.8 million barrels in 2013, whilst proven plus probable gross field reserves fell to 24.6 million barrels from 32.8 million barrels.

The Real Good Food, down 14%. The company said the fall in European Union sugar prices has meant trading in its Napier Brown and Garrett Ingredients businesses has been very difficult. Napier Brown returned to profit in the second half, it said, but remains behind expectations for the year. The company said the group outside of Napier and Garrett performed ahead of expectations, with its Renshaw and Haydens businesses both performing well.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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