Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

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

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

Marks and Spencer Group, up 2.4%. The retailer has announced that it is planning to open 250 new stores outside the UK over the next three years, as part of its global expansion plans. At its investor day in Paris on Tuesday, it said that it will be entering new territories with existing partners, and expects the global expansion to increase revenues by 25% and profits by 40% over the next three years.

G4S, up 1.9%. The outsourcing company has won a seven-year deal with Netherlands Railways to provide cash services like transporting cash to ticket offices and managing ticket machines. It didn't give any financial details apart from saying it was a multi-million pound deal.

BHP Billiton, up 1.3%. The mining giant's shares have jumped higher after it said that it expects global growth in demand for both energy and metallurgical coal over the coming decades, with productivity key to generating acceptable returns. The increase comes after BHP jumped 2.1% on Tuesday after it revealed that it is considering an overhaul of its operating portfolio to focus on at most five commodities, including coal.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

Royal Dutch Shell, down 0.7%. Oil prices have seen a big fall due to hopes of rising oil supply from Libya. Brent dropped more than USD2.5 per barrel to a five month low of USD105.09 per barrel in Tuesday evening trade.

GlaxoSmithKline, down 0.5%. The pharmaceuticals major has chosen to stop the Phase III trial of its MAGE-A3 cancer immunotherapeutic in non-small cell lung cancer patients, as it said it would not be possible to identify a sub-population of MAGE-A3 positive patients with a specific gene signature that might benefit from the treatment. Patients who are MAGE-A3 positive have a tumour-specific antigen that is present in a variety of cancers but not in normal cells.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

Intermediate Capital Group, up 4.2%. The group's shares are the biggest risers in the mid-cap index after HSBC raised its recommendation on the stock to Overweight from Neutral, increasing its price target to 455.00 pence from 435.00p.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

FirstGroup, down 1.2%. The bus and rail company said US dollar revenue is expected to be down 1.8% on the year at First Student and down 2.9% at Greyhound due to the severe winter weather that regularly swept across the US between December and March. The company said its First Student operation was hit by the loss of over 4,000 school days across 75% of its territory due to the weather. The unit's operating margin is expected to be about 1% below the level it had predicted in January, when it said it the margin would be slightly ahead of 2013.

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AIM - WINNERS

Green Dragon Gas, up 19%. The company has inked an agreement with China United Coalbed Methane Corp to extend their partnership on five production-sharing contracts in China. China United, which is a subsidiary of oil major China National Offshore Oil Corporation, has committed to invest a further USD100 million into Green Dragon for a further 10% working interest in the business. It will continue to co-operate with Green Dragon to share information across all the wells drilled on the production sharing contracts. Additionally, the production sharing contract exploration terms have been extended for a further 2 years, and Green Dragon expects USD250 million in additional infrastructure investment from China United for its GSS block.

Minoan Group, up 10%. The travel agency operator said it has successfully developed its international travel and leisure business, which drove its total transaction value up 37% in its last financial year, and led to the group narrowing its full-year losses. For the year ended October 31, 2013, the travel company reported a pretax loss of GBP1.2 million, compared with a pretax loss of GBP1.3 million the prior year.

Plus500, up 10%. The spread betting company said it expects to exceed profit and revenue expectations for 2014 after it saw a strong first quarter. It posted revenues of USD60.7 million in the first quarter of 2014, ended March 31, more than doubled from USD19.8 million in the previous year, and more than half of its total revenues for all of 2013. The group also reaffirmed its commitment to pursuing a progressive dividend policy.

Optare, up 10%. The firm has won an order worth GBP3.5 million for 13 Versa hybrid buses and 3 Versa electric buses from Transport for Greater Manchester. The win is Optare's third win in the last week after it also won a GBP4.9 million order from Ulsterbus in Northern Ireland last Friday, and a GBP3.6 million order for electric buses from Nottingham City Council Tuesday.

Alecto Minerals, up 9.5%. The mining exploration company has reported an 80% increase in the resources estimate for its Kossanto gold project in Mali following recent drilling at two of the three main target areas at the project. The company said that Wardell Armstrong International had updated the independent inferred JORC-compliant resource estimate to 5.04 million tonnes, grading at 1.19 grammes per tonne gold for an aggregate 193,000 ounces of gold with a cut-off grade of 0.5 grammes per tonne.

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AIM - LOSERS

Rare Earths Global, off 79%. The company said it will ask shareholders for approval to delist its shares from AIM as part of its efforts to cut costs and because the listing is no longer useful in terms of access to capital. The company has been hit hard since it listed on AIM in 2012 after China set minimum production targets for separation plants and smelters in China of 2,000 metric tonnes a year and production targets of 20,000 metric tonnes for mixed rare earth mines, more than double the production capacity of Rare Earth's smelting and separation plant. The company is trying to find a way of meeting the criteria and getting its separation plant operational again, but in the meantime is trying to cut costs and carefully manage its cashflow.

Sunkar Resources, down 58%. The firm has warned that it has been hurt by economic uncertainty in Kazakhstan and may not be able to meet loan repayments unless it can raise new funds from its biggest shareholder. The company said that many new Kazakh government contracts denominated in the local currency have been out on hold due to the recent volatility in the tenge, which is causing wider economic uncertainty in the country. This has meant delays in the company agreeing any new contracts as well as delays in the receipt of money for existing contracts. Sunkar is now in talks with majority shareholder Sun Avenue Partners Corp and its owner Almas Mynbayev about a new convertible shareholder loan.

Sweett Group, down 30%. The construction and property consultancy said it is investigating further after evidence came to light suggesting that "material instances of deception" may have been perpetrated by one or more former employees between 2009 and 2011. The company has been talking with the UK's Serious Fraud Office and the US Department of Justice since allegations were made in the Wall Street Journal in June last year about improper business conduct by a former employee. In January, Sweett said an independent investigation into the allegation, which the company initiated, had ended after failing to prove the allegation. However, in its statement Wednesday, Sweett said it had commissioned a further independent investigation which is being undertaken on its behalf by Mayer Brown LLP.

Inditherm, down 17%. Shares in the company have fallen after it cautioned that its uneven order flow pattern is set to persist, even though it reported narrower annual pretax losses in 2013.

Cupid, down 11%. The online dating company said it swung to a loss in 2013. The company posted a pretax loss of GBP7.9 million in 2013, compared with a pretax profit of GBP9.2 million in 2012. It said revenues dropped significantly as a result of selling of its casual businesses, which represented 70% of its overall revenue. Revenues for the year from continuing operations was GBP26.6 million, similar to the level reported in 2012, but total revenues for the year, including discontinued operations, came to GBP56.1 million, significantly lower than the GBP80.9 million in total revenues the prior year.

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

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