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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Vodafone Group, up 4.6%. The mobile communications company reiterated its outlook for its current financial year, as the group said it "continued to make good progress" during its first quarter. In the quarter to end-June, Vodafone reported revenue of EUR13.38 billion, down 4.5% from EUR14.01 billion the year before, due to a 5.3% hit from foreign exchange movements. However, Vodafone's preferred reporting measure, group organic service revenue, rose 2.2%, helped by a strong performance from Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, and a stable performance in Europe.

CRH, up 3.8%. The Irish building materials company said it now expects its first half earnings to be ahead of its previous guidance due to its trading performance in the latter half of the second quarter. The Irish firm now expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the first half of 2016 of EUR1.1 billion. This is higher than its previous expectations of EUR1 billion outlined towards the end of April.

Centrica, up 2.3%. The British Gas parent was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral by JPMorgan.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Marks & Spencer Group, down 2.3%. The homewares and clothing retailer was cut to Underweight from Equal Weight by Barclays. The bank said retailer's new strategy, which includes bringing the clothing business back to profitability, "could be a start, but things can get worse before they get better".
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Acacia Mining, up 6.4%. The miner said revenue, earnings and pretax profit all soared in the first half of the year after selling more gold for a higher price and at a lower cost, but said it ultimately suffered a small net loss after tax. The company which operates in Tanzania, said pretax profit rose to USD101.6 million in the first six months of the year compared to USD25.0 million a year earlier, more than a four-fold increase, as revenue for the half rose to USD504.9 million from USD446.8 million. The interim dividend was increased by 43% to 2.0 cents per share.

Home Retail Group, up 3.7%. J Sainsbury and Home Retail Group said the UK Competition & Markets Authority has unconditionally cleared the merger of the two companies following its Phase 1 investigation. Supermarket chain Sainsbury's is buying Home Retail - the owner of high-street catalogue retailer Argos - for GBP1.2 billion in a deal struck in April. Sainsbury's added that the acquisition is expected to complete in early September. Sainsbury's shares were down 0.4%.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Vesuvius, down 6.6%. The molten metal flow engineering company was double downgraded to Sell from Buy by Panmure Gordon. The broker predicts "another almighty crash" in the steel market and thus feels molten metal flow engineering company Vesusvius will not be able to sustain its first-half performance in the second part of 2016. Panmure analyst Sanjay Jha had expected China to take action to curtail its excess steel production, but instead monthly output since March has bounced back to near record highs. "Chinese steel exports have been rising faster than output, contradicting the view that underlying Chinese steel demand was recovering," the analyst said.

Howden Joinery Group, down 2.8%. The kitchens and joinery products supplier's shares were coming off Thursday's highs, when it had reported a surge in half-year profit thanks to revenue growth and margin improvements, prompting it to hike its interim dividend. The stock closed up 4.5% on Thursday.

William Hill, down 2.7%. Berenberg started coverage on the bookmaker with a Sell rating. William Hill has been suffering from weakness from its online business. "The recent execution issues in digital are tough to recover, the business is still skewed towards the sluggish UK retail channel and targets in Australia are unlikely to be met," Berenberg said. The departure of Chief Executive James Henderson on Thursday adds to the uncertainty, Berenberg added.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Forte Energy, up 23%. The Australian-based minerals company's shares rose after it resumed trading with plans to undertake a reverse takeover of a financial technology company. Shares had been suspended since December, when it had entered into a transaction funding agreement to help it move towards making a reverse takeover. Forte has proposed the reverse takeover of BOS Global, an Australia-based financial software and services company. It said its interests in uranium projects had been hit by a prolonged downturn in the global uranium market, and it had been unable to attract significant new investment to support its ongoing activities. If the reverse takeover is approved, Forte expects this to be completed on August 26, at which time it will change its name to BOS Global Holdings.

Scientific Digital Imaging, up 13%. The digital imaging technology group reported higher profit thanks to better margins in its recently ended financial year, with strong performances across its product lines. The company said it made GBP496,000 in pretax profit in the financial year to the end of April, driven by revenue growing to GBP8.5 million from GBP7.0 million and gross margin expanding to 61.1% from 59.2%. Scientific Digital said it saw good growth for its Synbiosis and Synoptics digital imaging technology brands in the year, accompanied by a strong performance for its Artemis CCD unit, which makes high-sensitivity cameras. Revenue also was boosted by the acquisition of Sentek, which makes sensors for water-based applications.

Bond International Software, up 9.3%. The software solutions provider said it has entered into a conditional agreement with a company owned by Tenzing Private Equity for the sale of its payroll subsidiaries. The subsidiaries comprise of Bond HR & Payroll Software, Bond Payroll Services and Eurowage. The net cash consideration for the sale is GBP27.4 million and the assumption of a GBP2 million net debt owed by Eurowage. During 2015, Bond Payroll Services and Bond HR & Payroll Software had a combined revenue of GBP7.1 million and a pretax profit of GBP2.0 million. Eurowage, trading as FMP Europe, had revenues of GBP4.9 million and made a pretax profit of GBP1.7 million in 2015.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Weatherly International, down 32%. The miner said copper cathode production from the Tschudi mine in Namibia should reach full capacity this year but said it recently suffered issues at the mine and is struggling to generate surplus cash at current prices. Weatherly's Tschudi mine produced its first copper cathode back in February 2015 and has been ramping up during the financial year that ended in June. A total of 15,884 tonnes were produced in the financial year at an average C1 cash cost of USD4,199 per tonne, below the guidance range of USD4,250 to USD4,350 per tonne. Production was lower in the final quarter of the year compared to the third and second quarter while costs were also higher because of increased rates of groundwater inflow, it said.

Ferrum Crescent, down 13%. The miner said it has secured an extension to the option it holds to acquire GoldQuest Iberica until the end of August to allow the sellers to resolve certain outstanding administrative issues. Ferrum signed an option and sale agreement back in February, giving it the exclusive right to fully acquire GoldQuest, which is being targeted by Ferrum for the Toral and Lago exploration projects that it holds in northern Spain. The option has been extended until the end of August at no cost to Ferrum and has been agreed because the current owners of GoldQuest, TH Crestgate, need to finalise the settlement and documentation of certain administrative issues and an historic back-in right over the Toral licence area held by Lundin Mining Corp, Ferrum said.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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