MMX.L Share News (MMX)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Royal Mail, up 3%. Cantor Fitzgerald has upgraded the UK's legacy postal operator to Hold from Sell, saying that the company's valuation now fits in with its forecasts. The broker also has lifted its price target to 500.00 pence from 440.00p, noting that it now expects capital expenditure and cash restructuring charges will be, in aggregate, GBP70 million lower each year, and inflows from property and other disposals will be GBP30 million higher.

Taylor Wimpey, up 1.5%, Barratt Developments, up 1.3%, and Persimmon, up 0.6%. The housebuilding companies are among the biggest risers in the blue-chip index after Deutsche Bank increased their respective price targets. Deutsche Bank lifted Taylor Wimpey's price target to 210 pence from 173p, Barratt Developments' to 659p from 576p, and Persimmon's to 2,068p from 1,648p. The investment bank has a Buy recommendation for both Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments, while it has a Hold rating for Persimmon.

EasyJet, up 0.5%, and International Consolidated Airlines, up 0.2%. Shares in airline companies have edged higher after Ryanair Holdings said that its profit after tax in the financial year to the end of March climbed 66% to EUR867 million from EUR523 million, while its margin also increased. The airlines also are benefiting from lower oil prices Tuesday. Brent oil fell below the key USD65 a barrel level, but has since rebounded slightly and trades at USD65.03, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate, sunk under the USD60 a barrel level, now trading at USD59.33 a barrel. Ryanair shares are up 7.0% to EUR11.68.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Randgold Resources, down 1.6% at 4,702.00 pence. Shares in the gold producer are down after Goldman Sachs lowered its price target on the company to 4,450p from 4,500p, maintaining its Neutral recommendation.

GlaxoSmithKline, down 1.1% at 1,448.00p. JPMorgan has slashed its price target for the pharmaceutical giant to 1,320 pence from 1,380p, retaining its Underweight recommendation on the stock.

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and 'B' shares, down 1.4%. The Financial Times has reported that the oil reserves that Shell are hoping to find in the Artic are unlikely to be brought into production before the 2030s due to the difficulty involved in securing environmental approvals. Marvin Odum, head of oil and gas production for Shell in the Americas, told the FT the company's success or failure this year and in 2016 in making a significant discovery will be critical for the future of oil development in the Arctic region. The oil and gas major is also likely being affected by the lower price of oil.

AstraZeneca, down 1.2%. The pharmaceutical company said that Amgen Inc has terminated their co-development and commercialisation deal for monoclonal antibody brodalumab after observing "suicidal ideation and behaviour events" in the programme that might result in "restrictive labelling". Brodalumab was developed by Amgen and was in development for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and axial spondyloarthritis. The two companies entered into a collaboration deal in April 2012 for five monoclonal antibodies from Amgen's clinical inflammation portfolio, including brodalumab.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Cineworld Group, up 2.4%. The cinema operator's shares have risen after it reported a rise in revenue in the first 19 weeks of 2015 as sales grew in each of its divisions, and said it is confident it will meet market expectations for the full year. It said total sales in the 19 weeks to May 14 grew 26.8% on the year before, with the box office growing 23.8%, retail rising 27.9% and other income up 47.1%.

Berkeley Group Holdings, up 1.7%, Bellway, up 1.2%, and Crest Nicholson Holdings, up 1%. Like their FTSE 100 counterparts, the FTSE 250 house builders are up on the back of upward price target revisions by Deutsche Bank. The investment bank has increased its price target on Berkeley Group to 3,471 pence from 2,749p, on Bellway to 2,316p from 2,104p, and on Crest Nicholson to 486p from 402p. Deutsche Bank has a Hold recommendation on all three stocks.

WS Atkins, up 1.2%. Panmure Gordon has increased its price target on WS Atkins to 1,575 pence from 1,500p, maintaining a Buy recommendation on the stock and saying that its confidence in the engineering and design consultancy company is growing ahead of its financial year 2015 results. "Leading indicators have sent mixed signals recently, though industry data suggests its end markets continue to improve, supporting our view that higher earnings quality and attractive returns should expand the valuation rating for Atkins," says Kevin Fogarty, an analyst at Panmure.

Micro Focus International, up 1.1%. The software company has reiterated its full-year guidance on a pro-forma basis including its acquisition of The Attachmate Group Inc, saying the result "reflects a strong finish" to its recently ended financial year. Micro Focus expects to post adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, excluding some other exceptional costs and foreign currency gains of at least USD345 million for the year to end-April, on revenues of around USD835 million. This will include a contribution from Attachmate from the period from November 20 2014 to end-April 2015.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Tullow Oil, down 4.6%, Premier Oil, down 2.3%, and Petrofac, down 1.5%. The oil related companies' shares have fallen as the price of oil continues to trade lower.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Inditherm, up 63%. The heating products company has proposed a reverse takeover of medical device distribution firm Inspiration Healthcare Ltd, a share consolidation, and changing its name to Inspiration Healthcare Group. The proposals include a share consolidation of every ten existing ordinary shares into one new share, following which the vendors of Inspiration Healthcare will receive 25.56 million new shares or 83.3% of the company's enlarged share capital as consideration for the reverse takeover, which values Inspiration at GBP7.2 million.

Premier African Minerals, up 22%. The company's shares have jumped after it said it remains on track with the RHA Tungsten project in Zimbabwe. It said the process plant was delivered to the site on schedule and said the offloading plant and management team induction has now been completed.

Coms, up 22%. The company has agreed to sell the business and some assets of its telecoms operations to Timico for an initial GBP2.5 million, with a further GBP1 million payable depending on the trading performance of the business. Following the completion of the sale, Coms will be comprised of its remaining infrastructure business Redstone and London video production company Darkside Studios.

Eden Research, up 21%. Shares in the company are up after it announced that its first product 3AEY has been authorised for the treatment of botrytis in table and wine grapes from the Regulatory Affairs Directorate in Malta. Malta is acting as the zonal rapporteur member state for the Southern EU agricultural zone. Following this authorisation Eden expects the remaining member states across the Southern Zone to grant authorisation for the sale and use of 3AEY in their jurisdictions within the allocated 120 days.

Plus500, up 19%. The contracts-for-difference trading platform provider's shares have rebounded somewhat after closing down 35% on Friday. Shares in Plus500 fell sharply Friday after it resumed trading as it goes through anti-money laundering procedures that have resulted in the freezing of client accounts in the UK.

ScotGold Resources, up 17%. The company's share price has surged after it said the total ore reserve estimate for the Cononish gold project in Scotland has nearly doubled. It said the total ore reserve estimate, provided by Bara Consulting Ltd, has been increased to 198,000 ounces of gold, nearly triple the previous estimate, and 851,000 ounces of silver. The life of mine has been increased to approximately eight years, the company said, at a processing rate of 72,000 tonnes per year. The average annual gold equivalent production for Cononish has been increased to around 23,000 ounces per year.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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William Sinclair Holdings, off 18%. The horticultural products company has warned that it will face a funding shortfall over the summer and is considering options on how to raise cash, as it said it has appointed an interim chief executive officer. It said that following a review of the business and a move to address unprofitable contracts, it has undertaken a detailed budgeting review which has revealed it will face a funding shortfall in the summer. The company did not provide any details on the size of the shortfall. As a result, the company is considering a number of strategic options, including raising capital, selling assets and more aggressive operational changes in order to resolve the issue. In a separate statement, William Sinclair said it has hired Stuart Burgin as its interim chief executive.

Minds + Machines Group, down 11%. Shares in the company have fallen despite it reporting a rise in pretax profit for 2014 as a result of gains from participating in auctions for new generic top level domains during the year. For 2014 the company posted a pretax profit of USD22.1 million, up from USD1.1 million in 2013, as revenue rose to USD1.9 million from USD56,000 and as a USD33.7 million gain from generic top level domain auctions offset a step up in administrative costs. The company also announced the departure of Executive Chairman Fred Kreuger. Keith Teare has been appointed as non-executive chairman.

Publishing Technology, down 11%. The publishing software and services company has proposed a discounted share placing to raise up to GBP9 million and an open offer to raise a further GBP1 million, which it plans to use to pay down its debts, as it posted a swing to a pretax loss for 2014. It posted a pretax loss of GBP4.0 million for 2014, compared to a pretax profit of GBP665,000 in 2013, as revenue fell to GBP14.4 million from GBP16.9 million, gross margin was reduced and it invested in restructuring the business throughout the year. The company plans to raise GBP9 million in the placing of 7.5 million shares, and a potential further GBP1 million through an open offer for 833,333 shares, both at a price of 120 pence, a 19% discount from its closing price of 148 pence last Friday. Publishing Technology's shares are quoted at 132.00 pence.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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