Marks & Spencer Share News (MKS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Johnson Matthey, up 2.8%. The platinum and chemicals company said profit dipped in its financial year to the end of March in challenging markets and as it restructured its operations, though the group expects a better performance in the current year. Pretax profit was GBP386.3 million, down from GBP495.8 million the year earlier, despite revenue rising to GBP10.71 billion from GBP10.06 billion. Johnson Matthey declared a final dividend of 52.0 pence, taking its total dividend payout up 5.0% year-on-year to 71.5p, as it said it anticipates a strong performance in the current financial year, in line with market expectations.

Royal Dutch Shell 'A', up 1.1% Shell 'B', up 1.5%, BP, up 1.2%. The stocks were up amid the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries policy meeting being held throughout the day in Vienna. Brent was trading firm quoted at USD49.82 a barrel compared to USD49.62 at the London equities close on Wednesday. Oil-related stocks in the FTSE 250 were also benefiting, with Tullow Oil, up 3.4%, Weir Group, up 2.1%, Amec Foster Wheeler, up 1.7%, John Wood Group, up 1.5%, all among the best performers.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Wolseley, down 1.7%. The plumbing and heating products supplier was continuing its losses from Wednesday. Shares in Wolseley had fallen Wednesday after the company said recent revenue growth trends have been weaker, due to deflationary headwinds and mixed market conditions. Subsequently Exane BNP, Citi and UBS all cut their price targets on the stock.

National Grid, down 4.0%, Marks & Spencer Group, down 3.3%. The stocks went ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Moneysupermarket.com Group, down 7.3%. The price comparison website was downgraded to Hold from Buy by Jefferies.

Investec, down 1.8%. The Anglo-South African financial services group said it will raise funds through a placing to back a share buyback. Investec said it plans to raise up to around GBP145.0 million via the placing, which will be carried out through an accelerated bookbuild handled by bookrunner JPMorgan Cazenove. The funds raised will be used to fund a buyback of sterling and rand preference shares in the company, with any proceeds not directed to this used for general corporate purposes. Investec said the tender offers for the shares will be conducted "in the near future" and will be subject to shareholder approval at a general meeting.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Beowulf Mining, up 13%. The miner said it has been awarded a three-year exploration licence for the Atvidaberg nr 1 area in Sweden. The company said the licence area covers 225 square kilometres in the Bergslagen area of southern Sweden. The area includes a number of large and smaller mines producing copper, zinc, lead, gold, silver and iron ore. "We are delighted to have been awarded an Exploration Licence for Atvidaberg nr 1, maintaining our Nordic focus, while adding some commodity diversification to our asset base," said Kurt Budge, Beowulf's chief executive.

Petroneft Resources, up 12%. The oil and gas explorer said production from licence 61 in Russia has significantly increased since last year after two new wells drilled on the Arbuzovskoye field delivered encouraging results. The company said production from licence 61 is currently running at around 3,000 barrels of oil per day, considerably higher than in the middle of December last year when production was running below expectations at around 2,500 barrels of oil per day. Petroneft said the sharp increase in production is because of the "very encouraging results" from the A-214 and A-213 wells that have recently been drilled.

Eckoh, up 8.2%. The payments company said it has secured two new contracts in the US worth USD7.0 million and has updated its distributor deal with West Corp. Eckoh said its US unit has signed two contracts valued at an estimated USD7.0 million over three years. The first has been secured through its US reseller partner and is for an unnamed US insurance company, while the second is for an unnamed US group's contact centres. Eckoh also said it has entered a new three-year distributor deal with US telecommunications company West Corp. The pair signed a deal originally in 2014, and Eckoh said the new deal will expand its presence in the US market.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Sabien Technology Group, down 33%. The energy-efficiency technology company said the withdrawal of a number of large prospects from its sales pipeline since last June, as well as a reduction in contract values, is expected to hit revenue for its current financial year, widening its loss further. The group said it now expects to report revenue of GBP900,000 for the year to end-June, down from the GBP1.7 million reported a year earlier. At its last full-year results announcement in October, Sabien had said that even those year-earlier results had been "disappointing" to it. Sabien now expects to post a pretax loss of up to GBP1.7 million for the year that ends this month, more than double the pretax loss posted a year earlier of GBP570,000.

Armadale Capital, down 21%. The natural resources investment company said it has signed a heads of agreement to acquire the Mahenge Liandu graphite project in Tanzania. Armadale will acquire the project by issuing Armadale 80.0 million shares to Graphite Advancement Tanzania Pty, an Australian company which owns a 100% stake in the Mahenge Liandu project through a Tanzanian subsidiary. Armadale added it also has issued 3.0 million shares to advisers and consultants for the work carried out on the deal so far, though did not provide any details on the pricing of those shares.

Nighthawk Energy, down 17%. The oil and gas development and production company said falls in oil production, sales and prices caused its revenue to plummet during 2015, leading the the company to report a huge USD70.2 million loss for the year. Nighthawk said its net loss before tax amounted to USD70.2 million in 2015 compared to the USD5.7 million loss reported in 2014 as revenue declined by almost 38% year-on-year. The average price that Nighthawk received for its oil in 2015 was less than half what it was paid per barrel in 2014 and the amount of oil sold was 6.7% lower year-on-year, causing revenue to plummet to USD29.6 million from USD47.5 million in 2014.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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