Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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BP, up 2.4%. The oil major led FTSE 100 gainers after it said it has agreed to settle one of many outstanding legal claims made against the company following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010 after agreeing to pay some of its investors USD175.0 million. US Federal and District Courts certified a legal case back in May 2014 that was brought against the company by a group of investors that purchased BP's US-listed American Depositary Shares after the oil spill occurred. Those investors felt the full-effects of the oil spill and the impact of the incident was not revealed by the company in a timely manner, causing them to make losses. BP shares also were being supported by a rise in world oil prices Friday.

Royal Dutch Shell 'B', up 1.8%, Shell 'A', up 1.7%. Like BP, Shell was buoyed by the latest revival in oil prices. Brent oil was quoted at USD50.13 a barrel Friday, higher than the USD49.77 at the London equities close on Thursday. In the FTSE 250 Tullow Oil was up 3.4%.

Shire, up 1.6%. The Irish pharmaceutical company said it has completed its USD32.0 billion takeover of the US's Baxalta and expressed confidence in the revenue growth that the combined business will deliver. Shire entered into talks to buy Chicago-based Baxalta in August last year, shortly after Baxalta had been spun off from Baxter International. The deal was approved by 94% of Shire's shareholders last week, paving the way for the completion on Friday. Shire said the combined business is expected to deliver double-digit compound annual top-line growth, with revenue to rise to USD20.0 billion by 2020. That would compare to the USD6.42 billion in revenue Shire alone reported for 2015. Morgan Stanley also resumed coverage on Shire with an Overweight rating.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Marks & Spencer, down 0.8%. The clothing and home furnishings retailer was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral by JPMorgan.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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ICAP, up 2.6%. The interdealer broker and trading platform provider soon to be renamed NEX Group, said it has secured a contract to provide fixed income and foreign exchange electronic execution services in mainland China through the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, the country's official inter-bank market trading platform. EBS BrokerTec, ICAP's electronic foreign exchange and fixed income platform business, will handle the contract, which will be worth USD65.0 million over three years.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Dechra Pharmaceuticals, down 3.2%. The veterinary pharmaceuticals company was downgraded to Hold from Buy by Jefferies.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Norman Broadbent, up 17%. The recruiter said its pretax loss narrowed in 2015 thanks to higher revenue and restructuring action across the group. The company said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December was GBP425,000, narrowed from a GBP1.4 million loss a year earlier, as revenue grew to GBP8.6 million from GBP7.4 million. Norman Broadbent said its executive search business saw revenue decline over the year due to weaker trading conditions in September and October, which recovered somewhat in November and December.

Bond International Software, up 16% at 101.90 pence. Constellation Software said it was considering making a GBP44.2 million cash offer for recruitment software company. The offer would be at 105 pence per share, with 42.1 million Bond shares currently in issue. Canadian-listed software provider Constellation, its subsidiary Trapeze ITS Luxembourg SARL and its President and Chairman Mark Leonard together hold a 29.6% stake in Bond International. Constellation said a further announcement will be made "as and when appropriate", and there can be no certainty that Bond will accept the offer.

James Fisher & Sons, up 3.5%. The marine engineering services company said it has struck a GBP1.9 million deal to acquire the Return to Scene Ltd unit of AIM-listed SeaEnergy. Return to Scene provides visual asset-management photographic capture services, digital media services and forensic services to the oil & gas and security sectors. James Fisher will pay GBP1.9 million upfront for the business and another GBP100,000 if Return to Scene wins certain contracts before the end of 2016. SeaEnergy was down 12% as it said it has been placed into administration. SeaEnergy's shares were suspended in April pending clarification of its financial position, after which KPMG was appointed to run an accelerated sales process.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Bushveld Minerals, off 15% at 2.09p. The mineral development company said it has secured financing of USD5.2 million to complete the first phase of its acquisition of Strategic Minerals Corp. Bushveld is buying Strategic Minerals with private investor Yellow Dragon through special purpose vehicle Bushveld Vametco from Evraz, for a total of up to USD17.2 million. Bushveld will funds its loan through a placing and subscription of 98.3 million shares with institutional investors at 1.8p each, led by a subscription for 50 million shares for the sum of USD1.3 million by Yellow Dragon, together with the grant of one warrant for each two shares exercisable at 2.4p each for a period of 2 years. Evraz shares were up 0.7%.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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