Lpa Share News (LPA)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices late-morning Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Rio Tinto, up 4.7%. The Anglo-Australian metals and mining giant admitted it rejected a takeover offer from Glencore in early August, saying that a deal would not have been in the best interest of shareholders. Analysts have seen some merit in the deal, however, and haven't ruled out another approach. Rio Tinto therefore now trades with a bid premium. Glencore shares are down 0.6%.

Tesco, up 3.1%. The embattled supermarket has seen its shares move higher amid two reports. Private equity group TPG has emerged among a group of potential suitors considering a bid for the marketing group behind Tesco's Clubcard loyalty scheme, Sky News reported Tuesday. The buyout firm is understood to have made an approach to Tesco about acquiring Dunhumby in a deal that would be worth over GBP2 billion, Sky News said. Secondly, Tesco has suspended a firth executive amid its onging investigation into the GBP250 million black hole found in its first half profit estimates last month, according to the Financial Times.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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International Consolidated Airlines, down 5.5%; EasyJet, down 4.5%; Carnival, down 2.5%; TUI Travel, down 2.2%; Intercontinental Hotels Group, down 2.1%. Airline, hotel chain, and travel stocks are lower across Europe after the first case of human-to-human transmission of Ebola in Europe was confirmed. A nurse in Madrid, who had been treating a Spanish national that had been working in Sierra Leone, was confirmed to have the disease after two blood tests came up positive.

Following a strong run that has seen the shares of the low cost airline gain 13% over the last two weeks, easyJet was also hit with a price target cut from JP Morgan. The investment bank reiterated an overweight rating but adjusted its price target to 1,815p, down from 1,909p. Easyjet shares closed Monday at 1,467p.

Schroders, down 3.2%. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has cut its rating on Schroders by two notches to Underperform from Buy, due to concerns over the impact on profit margins of potential incoming regulation. The downgrade comes with a price target cut of 14% to 2,400 pence from 2,800 pence. Schroders closed Monday at 2,351p. The investment bank is concerned that the European financial regulator is following in the footsteps of the UK regulator by considering preventing asset managers from paying for research out of dealing commission, a move that would hurt profit margins.

GlaxoSmithKline, down 1.7%. Deutsche Bank cut its price target on the pharmaceutical giant to 1,420 pence from 1,450 pence, reiterating a Hold rating. Glaxo shares closed Monday at 1,434 pence.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Cairn Energy, up 8.1%. The oil company said that oil has been discovered in an exploration well offshore Senegal that it has a 40% working interest in, and it thinks it may have significant potential as a standalone discovery as well as raising the potential of a wider block. In a statement, Cairn said preliminary analysis of results from the FAN-1 exploration well showed 29 metres of net oil bearing reservoir in the Cretaceous sandstones. The drilling made no contact with any water in a gross oil bearing interval of more than 500 metres.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Spirent Communications, down 19%. The telecommunications equipment company warned that its revenue started to be hit as trading conditions softened in the latter part of the third quarter, and it expects revenue and operating profit in the fourth quarter to be lower than it had hoped. It now expects third-quarter revenue to be slightly below USD110.0 million, compared with USD107.7 million in the third quarter of last year, while fourth quarter revenue is now expected to be in the range of USD120.0 million and USD125.0 million because the weaker trading conditions will likely persist during the quarter. Spirent warned that demand levels dipped sharply as a result of merger activity and delays in capital expenditure, as future new technology deployments were being assessed in areas in which Spirent has increased its investments.

Hunting, down 3.5%. The oil equipment and services company has been downgraded to Sell from Hold by Liberum Capital. Liberum says that it remain optimistic about onshore US activity, where Hunting is well places, but that the market has already priced in that optimism, and other markets are expected to slow. The brokerage has a price target of 763 pence. Hunting closed Tuesday at 850.475p.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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ITM Power, up 12%. The energy storage and clean fuel company said it now has GBP6.8 million of projects under contract, an increase since the end of July, and a further GBP1.2 million of new projects subject to final contract negotiation. ITM Power had GBP6.6 million of project under contract at the end of July and GBP5.1 million under contract at the end of April. The company said the figures reflect the conclusion of a number of negotiations and the receipt of revenue for existing projects.

SYNETY, up 8.0%. The cloud-based telephony company expressed confidence for its future, citing its growing sales pipeline and the scale of its opportunity in the US, as its annual recurring revenue more than doubled in the nine months to end-September. SYNETY posted annualised recurring revenue of GBP2.2 million for the nine months, increased from an annualised GBP150,000 a year before.

LPA Group, up 5.4%. The LED lighting and electro-mechanical system manufacturer said its LPA Excil Electronics subsidiary has won two deals worth a combined GBP3.3 million to supply LED based lighting on two major rail vehicle projects in the Middle East and Australia. In a statement, LPA Group said orders received in the year ended September 30 amounted to GBP18.5 million. It said the figure excludes the rail vehicle projects it has just won, as well as two aerospace programmes and Hitachi Intercity Express Programme previously reported.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Ultrasis, down 72%. The software company saw its shares plummet after it said it will cancel its AIM listing on the request of a substantial shareholder with whom they have loan facilities, and said Non-Executive Chairman Gerald Malone will depart. The company has facilities in place with shareholder Paul Bell, of which around GBP700,000 was undrawn at the start of September. Under the terms of the facilities it is able to draw down a maximum of GBP1 million in any rolling 12 month period, and has already reached this limit. Bell has written to the company saying he is prepared to continue to consider on-going requests for draw-downs over this limit subject to a review of Ultrasis' short- and medium-term working capital requirements, and the cancellation of its trading on AIM.

Orsu Metals, down 15%. The mining group has agreed a one week extension until October 4 for the second non-refundable payment of USD100,000 which it did not receive as planned on October 4 from David-Invest LLP and David Way Ltd under the Akdjol and Tokhtazan gold exploration licenses exclusivity agreement.

Tricorn Group, down 13%. The industrial engineering group warned that its first-half revenue will be down on the year and its pretax loss won't narrow by as much as it had hoped as the performance of its US transportation business has lagged behind expectations. The company said it expects revenue in the six months to end-September to be up 8% on the six months to end-March, the second half of its last financial year, but down 6% year-on-year. It said its first-half US transportation revenue will be "notably" lower than in the first half of its last financial year, and broadly level with US revenue in the second half of that year.

Intercede Group, down 11%. The software company saw its shares drop in early trade on Tuesday after the company said that while it is optimistic of meeting full year expectations, its performance will be dependent on the timing of the receipt of orders. Intercede said its smart card-related identity business is strong, but the order book for the unit will be subject to the timing of a relatively small number of big orders and seasonal variations primarily due to the US government fiscal year.
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By Jon Darby; jondarby@alliancenews.com; @jondarby100

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