Mineral & Fin Share News (MAFL)

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

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

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Aggreko, up 2%. The temporary power supplier is a big gainer after the company said revenue grew 5% excluding pass-through fuel and currency movements in the three months to March 31. While reported revenues decreased by 4% as a result of foreign exchange movements, representing a slower start than in 2013, the company is well ahead of Liberum Capital's 2.5% full year revenue growth forecast excluding fuel and currency moves. Strong contract wins over the first quarter and first weeks of the second quarter provides some promise, says Liberum analyst David Brockton.

GKN, up 1.6%. The engineering company that makes parts for vehicles and aircraft has reported higher sales and profit for the first quarter. The company reported a pretax profit of GBP145 million for the three months to end-March, up from GBP119 million in the first quarter of 2013, as sales rose to GBP1.92 billion, from GBP1.89 billion. The company said organic sales growth was 7%, but the strength of sterling against most major currencies knocked 6% off the sales increase, meaning sales were overall up just 1%.

British Sky Broadcasting Group, up 0.9%. The company joined FTSE 250-listed TalkTalk Telecom Group in partnering AIM All-Share-constituent CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings in a joint venture to establish a new broadband services in the city of York, with the aim of building competing infrastructure to BT's Openreach. The companies will build a city-wide fibre-to-the-premise network to deliver broadband connections which it says will deliver speeds of one gigabit to homes and businesses. The first customers are expected to be connected on the new network in 2015. Beyond York, the companies also plan to bring a similar service to two further cities.

Imperial Tobacco Group, up 0.8%. The cigarettes and tobacco company has announced that it is to close cigarette factories in Nottingham and Nantes with the loss of up to 900 jobs in response to the downturn in European cigarette markets.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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G4S, down 3.6%. Shareholders have criticised the security company after it announced a big pay rise for its new chief executive, despite a recent scandal involving the overcharging of UK taxpayers for tagging offenders, the Financial Times reported Tuesday. Ashley Almanza, who took over as chief executive last June, was paid GBP1.46 million in 2013, a 23% rise from his predecessor Nick Buckles in 2012, even though the security group was hit by a series of scandals last year, the FT reports citing the company's annual report. Further weighing on the stock, Deutsche Bank has downgraded it to Sell, From Buy, and lowered its target price to 210.00 pence from 221.00p. Sylvia Foteva, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, says that there is no significant "hidden value" in the company to warrant its current valuation.

Rio Tinto, down 1.7%. The Anglo-Australian mining giant said that its global iron ore production for the first quarter rose 8% from last year, reflecting the continuing ramp-up of mining operations in the Pilbara region, but fell compared with the previous quarter due to bad weather. It said its iron ore production fell 6% when compared with its previous quarter as heavy rainfall, including from the major tropical cyclone Christine, closed ports and coastal rail operations at and near the Pilbara site.

SABMiller, down 1.6%. The brewer said that revenue growth and volume increases in the fourth quarter continued to be driven by its emerging markets businesses, which drove sales growth for the year as a whole. However, it also said that it was hit by currency headwinds and continued weakness in North America and Europe. Furthermore, Investec has downgraded the stock to Hold from Buy Monday, saying that the recent rally makes the valuation now look reasonably full. The brewer's share price has jumped approximately 12% since the end of January, and, with the stock now trading at a 9% premium to the Investec consumer staples index, the valuation appears to be full, says Anthony Geard, an analyst at Investec.

Sports Direct International, down 1.4%. The sportswear retailer is poised to begin selling on credit via its website, the Financial Times reported. The paper quotes Dave Forsey, chief executive of Sports Direct, saying the company would begin offering credit to customers later this year.

Diageo, down 0.9%. the world's largest producer of spirits and a major producer of beer and wine said it would launch an offer to buy up to 26% more of India's United Spirits in a deal estimated to be valued at about USD1.9 billion. It plans to buy 37.79 million shares at a price of 3,030 rupee per share. Diageo currently has a 28.78% stake in United Spirits, but if the current offer is successful, its holding will increase to 54.78%.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

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Debenhams, up 5.1%. The department store chain reported a drop in pretax profit for the first half of its financial year as it again had to heavily discount to pull shoppers into its stores. Although its revenue held up as it recorded a slight increase in the value of transactions, its margin was hit by the discounting. Shares in the company rose as analysts had feared the update could be worse. Furthermore, Debenhams pledged to do fewer small promotional sales, and focus just on its bigger sales events. It left its interim dividend unchanged at 1.00 pence per share.

Evraz, up 3.5%. The Russian steel maker's shares are the big risers in the mid-cap index after Societe Generale upgraded it to Buy, from Sell, lifting its price target to 135.00 pence from 108.00p.

Kentz Corporation, up 1.6%. The oil and gas engineering company has extended the scope of its telecommunications contract for the Fort Hills Oil Sands Project in Canada, with a USD64 million order. It said the scope has been extended to include full engineering, design and procurement of the project telecommunication systems, and will include a range of technologies to ensure the effective construction and operation of the plant site.

African Barrick Gold, up 1.4%. The gold miner has received positive results from its exploration programmes in Kenya ahead of more advanced drilling. It said assay results from a further 327 drill holes testing existing gold-in-soil anomalies confirmed prospectivity for the sites, including a 3 metre space at 15.2 grams per tonne of gold from 41 metres down and a nine metre space at 1.71 grams per tonne of gold from 62 metres depth at the KDAC0312 site. It also said its KDAC0361 tests included a 39.5 metre space at 0.81 grams per tonne of gold from 9 metres down and its KDAC0376 site showed a 9 metre space at 2.57 grams per tonne of gold from 57 metres in depth.

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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS

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Mineral & Financial Investments, up 18%. The group's shares have hit a seven-month high after it reported a third consecutive quarter of increased net asset value after a prolonged period of declines. The investor in commodities sectors said its net assets stood at GBP1.08 billion, or 7.89 pence a share, at the end of March, up from GBP1.06 billion, or 7.75 pence a share, at the end of December.

Victoria, up 12%. The floor coverings firm said it expects its profit before tax and exceptional items to be ahead of market expectations for the year to March 29 thanks to continuing improvements in like-for-like profitability as well as the addition of recent acquisition, Globesign group.

CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings, up 10%. The company's share price has jumped after FTSE 100-listed BSkyB and FTSE 250-constituent TalkTalk revealed that they had partnered with CityFibre with the

Surgical Innovations Group, up 9.3%. The company, which produces devices for use in minimally invasive surgery, posted a decline in pretax profit for 2013, despite seeing revenue rise, due to the US Dollar exchange rate and its investment in streamlining its manufacturing operations. It posted a pretax profit of GBP796,000, down from GBP1.2 million in 2012. Revenue rose to GBP8.6 million, from GBP7.6 million, but this was offset by higher sales costs and operating expenses. Revenue growth was bolstered by a 22% increase in sales of its branded product, particularly its Reposable brand of technology.

Providence Resources, up 8.8%. The oil and gas exploration and development company has confirmed that it is in commercial discussions with a number of interested parties in relation to the development of its Barryroe oil field. It said it was confirming the talks following media speculation concerning farm-out discussions for the Barryroe site, which is located in the North Celtic Sea Basin, offshore Ireland.

Parallel Media Group, up 7.5%. The firm said that insurance company AIA Group Ltd 's Korean subsidiary had appointed it as an agency of record and marketing partner for its AIA Real Life: NOW Festival event. Parallel will procure corporate sponsors for the music festival, which is scheduled for August 15 and 15 in Seoul. No financial details of the agreement were disclosed.

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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS

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DDD Group, off 8.7%. The company swung to a pretax loss in 2013, hit by lower shipments of its 3D imaging technology in the ailing PC market. It posted a pretax loss of USD2.0 million, swung from a pretax profit of USD1.3 million in 2012, as revenue dropped to USD3.4 million from USD8.6 million, knocked by a slump in shipments of its TriDef 3D technology across TV, PC and mobile. Shipments dropped to 11.2 million units from 15 million during the year. Unless there is a reversal in this market in general, DDD said it does not expect this market to contribute to its future 3D technology revenues. However, it did express confidence in the emerging 3D smart-phones and tablets market, saying a majority of its new licensees are in this market.

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

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