Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Thursday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Sports Direct International, up 4.3%. The sporting goods retailer said it will provide an update on its outlook for the financial year to April 26 at its annual conference on Thursday, saying underlying earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation will be in line with market expectations, while both underlying pretax profit and earnings per share are set to be ahead.

Kingfisher, up 3.4%. The DIY retailer reported a drop in total revenue in the first quarter of its financial year as it was hit by adverse currency movements, but said it is making good progress with its turnaround plans. The retailer reported total sales of GBP2.59 billion for the 13 weeks to May 2, which is a 4.6% decline on the same period the year before, but would have been an increase of 2.7% had exchange rates remained constant. The group's performance was boosted by a strong performance in the UK and Ireland where total sales grew 2.9%.

International Consolidated Airlines Group, up 1.5%. The company said its EUR2.55 per share offer for Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus Group is its final offer and will not be raised. Aer Lingus shares are flat at EUR2.44. Aer Lingus shareholder Ryanair is down 1.3% at EUR11.60.

Direct Line Insurance Group, up 1.3%. JP Morgan has upgraded the motor insurer to Overweight from Neutral.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Intertek Group, down 1.6%. Deutsche Bank has downgraded the testing, certification and inspection services provider to Hold from Buy.

Marks & Spencer Group, down 1.3%, and Whitbread, down 0.8%. The companies have gone ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payouts.

Glencore, down 1.2%. Private equity group First Reserve Corp is to sell the remaining part of its stake in mining and commodities company Glencore, Reuters reported.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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PayPoint, up 6.2%. The payments services company reported higher pretax profit in its last financial year, driven by growth in its retail networks, and hiked its dividend on the back of the results. It said it made a GBP49.6 million pretax profit in the year ended March 31, compared with GBP46.0 million in the prior year. Revenue increased by 3.0% to GBP218.5 million due to growth across its retail networks, with margins improving.

Infinis Energy, up 3.7%. The British renewable energy company said it swung to profit from a substantial loss in the last financial year leading the company to significantly raise its dividend, as expected, as the expansion of its wind farms continues to progress on schedule.

Zoopla Property Group, up 2.6%. Jefferies has raised its price target for the online property portal to 400.00 pence from 269.00p, reiterating its Buy rating. Zoopla currently trades at 246.20p.

Premier Oil, up 2.3%. The companies involved in the Isobel deep exploration well offshore the Falkland Islands said they have made an oil discovery that has similar properties to the discovery made at the Sea Lion project. Premier Oil is the operator of the well with 36% stake. Shares in partner Falkland Oil and Gas are down 3.4%, while those of third partner Rockhopper Exploration are up 7.7%.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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SOCO International, down 4.1%, AMEC Foster Wheeler, down 3.7%, Cable & Wireless Communications, down 2.3%, Spectris, down 1.9%, Premier Farnell, down 1.9%, Inchcape, down 1.3% and Marston's, down 1.3%. The companies have gone ex-dividend.

Tate & Lyle, down 3.3%. The sugar and sweeteners company reported a huge drop in profit in its recently-ended financial year after suffering from issues with its supply chain, a weak performance from its bulk ingredients business, and tough market conditions for its SPLENDA Sucralose product.

ICAP, down 2.3%. Numis has cut the inter-dealer broker to Sell from Hold.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Connemara Mining Co, up 23%. The company said it has received encouraging initial results from the Inishowen gold licences in Donegal in Ireland. Connemara said the initial results indicate quartz vein boulders up to 45 centimetres in diameter containing robust gold grades. The gold grades obtained in the initial results range up to 15.35 grams per tonne, the company said.

Stellar Diamonds, up 12%. The company said it has almost reached USD1.0 million in sales during 2015 after completing another auction of diamonds from the Baoule project in Guinea. The company said it raised USD505,000 before costs in the latest auction which was held online and brought the total sales for the year to USD922,000, which has mainly come from diamonds extracted from Baoule.

Camco Clean Energy, up 12%. The clean energy and energy storage company said it has struck a deal to sell its US carbon credit portfolio for a total of USD2.24 million.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Marimedia, off 38%. The online advertising technology company said it anticipates its 2015 results will be materially below market expectations owing to a decision by the company to exit the display advertising sector and focus solely on mobile.

Northbridge Industrial Services, down 25%. The company said it sees "no reliable signs of any upturn" in the oil and gas sector in 2015 and said it expects to make a loss in the first half as the company slashes jobs and expenditure whilst closing and selling some of its operations to mitigate the difficulties in the sector.

Sareum Holdings, down 22%. The company said it has raised GBP1.4 million in a discounted share placing. Sareum said it had raised the funding via the issue of 577.4 million shares at 0.25 pence per share. The net proceeds are to be used to back its drug development programmes and for working capital. Sareum currently trades at 0.2795p.

Belgravium Technologies, down 15%. The mobile computing services company said it has secured a recent order for mobile systems but said delays to the contract will hit its first-half results.

Gable Holdings, down 10%. The non-life insurer said it swung to a loss in 2014 as it provided additional reserves to reduce a gap between the reserves it carries and the actuarial best estimate. Gable's pretax loss amounted to GBP5.4 million in 2014, a significant reversal from the GBP7.2 million pretax profit reported for the prior year.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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