Last checked at LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
Antofagasta, up 7%. The company said it has achieved record copper production in the full-year 2013. Copper production increased 1.6% to 721,200 tonnes from 709,600 tonnes the previous year, with a particularly strong fourth quarter which saw a 4.9% increase in production to 182,900 tonnes compared to its third quarter.
Anglo American, up 5.8%. The major mining company said it has increased production in its fourth quarter for all its major metals. The group also noted that its exploration and evaluation expenditure for the fourth quarter 2013 totalled USD166 million, a 19% decrease on the previous year, and its total expenditure for 2013 equalled USD533 million, a decrease of 27% on the previous year.
ITV, up 2%. The company said it will be launching a new pay TV channel, ITV Encore, as part of a wider four-year partnership with British Sky Broadcasting Group. "Buried down at the bottom [of the announcement], it confirms it has signed a new retransmission deal for its ITV2/3/4 HD channels," says Liberum Capital, "which we believe offers substantial upside from the old deal, and which should not be in consensus," it adds.
Randgold Resources, up 1.9%. The company said its Loulo-Gounkoto gold mining complex in Mali is expected to beat its revised production target for 2013. Chief Executive Mark Bristow also announced that guidance for 2014 would remain at 640,000 ounces of gold for the Loulo-Gounkoto gold mining complex.
Persimmon, up 1.5%. Jefferies analyst Anthony Codling believes the housebuilder's share price has been lifted after the Nationwide Housing Society revealed that UK house prices increased at the fastest pace in more than three-and-half years in January, supported by strong growth in employment, record low mortgage rates and rising confidence. The house price index climbed 8.8% annually in January, marking the fastest growth since May 2010, when prices rose by 9.8%. Prices are around 4% below their 2007 peak.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
Sainsbury, down 2.1%. The supermarket chain said Chief Executive Officer Justin King will step down in July after 10 years at the helm and will be succeeded by Mike Coupe, currently the group's commercial director. During King's time at the helm, Sainsbury profits have trebled to GBP756 million in the financial year that ended in 2013 from GBP254 million in financial year that ended in 2005, while building an online grocery business worth GBP1 billion and receiving over 190,000 orders each week.
British Sky Broadcasting Group is down 1.7% in the aftermath of ITV's contract announcement. BSkyB is reporting interim results Thursday.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
Carphone Warehouse Group, up 8%. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it had signed a deal for Carphone Warehouse to operate over 60 of its Samsung stand-alone stores across Europe, and said there was the potential to further expand the store partnership in the future.
Berkeley Group Holdings, up 2.2%. Berkeley is another housebuilder gaining on the back of the Nationwide housing prices data released early Wednesday.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
BTG, down 3.1%. The specialist healthcare company is the index's biggest faller, despite saying that trading is in line with expectations so far this year and reiterating revenues guidance. Given that the stock was trading at GBP4.6 two months ago and now trades closer to GBP6, "simply reiterating guidance is not enough to keep momentum", says Numis Securities analyst Charles Weston. The stock has made excellent gains in recent weeks, mainly on the back of positive regulatory news, says Weston.
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AIM - WINNERS
Fusionex International, up 16%. The enterprise software provider announced that it had won a first contract for its big data analytics product GIANT. The company said the contract is a multi-million dollar deal over five-years, with an option for renewal.
Staffline Group, up 14%. The company reported higher profits and revenues for 2013 as it added new clients and retained old ones, and it said it was on track to more than double sales over the next three years. The company said pretax profit rose to GBP8.6 million in 2013, from GBP8.5 million in 2012. Revenues rose to GBP416.2 million, from GBP367.0 million in 2012. It has now implemented its five-year growth strategy and is on track to make GBP1 billion in sales in 2017. The company also said trading had got off to a strong start this year and it said it was increasing its total dividend for 2013 by 23.5% to 10.0 pence.
Renew Holdings, up 11%. The firm said trading had been strong in the first quarter of its financial year, a situation it expects to continue in the second quarter, as its rail, water and nuclear businesses all perform strongly. Chairman Roy Harrison said the company's order book at the end of December stood at GBP433 million, up from GBP340 million a year earlier.
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AIM - LOSERS
Mobile Streams, off 34%. The mobile content retailer warned that profits were hit by the fall in the Argentine peso in the first half of its financial year as well as higher spending on marketing, and a further fall in the Argentine currency means it won't meet market expectations for its full-year results. The fall in the Argentine currency - it makes 85% of its revenues in the country - means it expects EBITDA for the first half of the year to be below the year-earlier period.
Mulberry Group, down 25%. The group has issued a profit warning after reporting a fall in retail sales in the last 8 weeks as it was hit by the discounting seen in the UK sector over Christmas, and a challenging Korean wholesale market. Total retail sales fell 3% in the 17 weeks to January 25, even though its international retail sales were up 40% over the period. The company warned that it now expects total sales for the year to end-March to be broadly in line with the previous year as a fall in wholesale sales offsets overall growth in retail sales.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
13 Jul 2023 16:55
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