Northgate Share News (NTG)

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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Housebuilders - Persimmon, up 2.1%, Barratt Developments, up 2.0%. Liberum upgraded the two stocks to Hold from Sell. Liberum noted the decline in UK housebuilders shares as the Brexit referendum approaches, but the broker upgraded several companies in the sector as it doesn't see much downside risk following the share underperformance. FTSE 250 peer Redrow also was raised to Buy from Hold and was up 2.4%.

J Sainsbury, up 1.5%. Deutsche Bank upgraded the supermarket chain to Buy from Hold on the potential earnings generated from Sainsbury's acquisition of Home Retail Group. "The ability to enhance asset turn, and the related cost savings which drive the earnings accretion, is a key attraction of this deal in our view," the German bank said. Deutsche also said that Sainbury's is the only one of the Big Four UK supermarkets to have materially reduced its promotional activity over the past 18 months, which the bank thinks can contribute to a better margin performance. Home Retail was up 1.0%.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Miners - Rio Tinto, down 3.0%, Glencore, down 2.9%, Antofagasta, down 2.6%, and Anglo American, down 2.2%. The FTSE 350 Mining Index was hit a 2016 high on Thursday but was down 2.2% on Friday. "Once again miners sit at the bottom of the FTSE, as the sector finds it difficult to sustain the rally of recent months. Chinese stimulus and surging metals prices are now old news, so investors are still looking for fresh reasons to keep buying in," said IG Group's Chris Beauchamp.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Saga, up 4.2% at 209.90 pence. Numis Securities said Acromas Bid Co has sold its entire 32% stake in the over-50s insurer through a placing to institutional investors. Numis said the 352.7 million shares were placed at a price of 195.00 pence per share, giving the stake a value of GBP687.7 million. The shares were placed at a discount to their closing price on Thursday, which was 201.40p. Acromas is owned by Charterhouse Capital Partners, CVC Capital Partners and Permira, the private equity firms which were behind floating Saga in the London in May 2014.

Northgate, up 2.5%. Citigroup started coverage on the vehicle hire company with a Buy rating, according to traders.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Melrose Industries, down 3.3%. Numis downgraded the manufacturing business buyer to Hold from Buy saying investor appetite for more capital returns from Melrose Industries has meant the stock now trades at a 20% premium to Numis's valuation, causing the bank cut its rating. Since the GBP3.3 billion sale of Melrose's Elster Group energy metering business and subsequent GBP2.4 billion return of capital to its shareholders in late December, the stock has risen 33%. Numis said this reflects investor appetite to participate in the next deal, given that there have been no changes to the underlying business or expectations, and it doesn't want to chase the stock.

Victrex, down 1.6%. Exane BNP downgraded the speciality chemicals group to Neutral from Outperform.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Eurasia Mining, up 5.7%. The miner said it has received positive intermediary drilling results for the Monchetundra platinum project in north west Russia. Eurasia said infill drilling at the West Nittis area of the project has confirmed continuous mineralisation and should allow the definition of a reserve estimate. The group added a site visit by the Russian natural resources inspectorate group in late March confirmed the work on the project and the licence to be in good standing, with no issues identified.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Goldenport Holdings, off 73%. The shipping company said said it has reached an agreement with its lenders and will de-list from London in due course. Goldenport has been in talks with lenders in recent months after it disclosed in March the debt outstanding under its loan facilities was higher than the valuations of its vessels. The company had obtained approval from shareholders to sell its eight vessels for a nominal consideration to entities controlled by the Dragnis family, but said it has now agreed with its lenders to sell six of the vessels to the Dragnis family, with the other two to be sold on the open market to cover the loan facilities. Shares will be cancelled on May 23.

African Potash, down 46%. The potash exploration company said its supply agreement with Windmill has been terminated, but said it has signed a sales participation deal for potash with Safyr Commodities, which has, in turn, secured a sales agreement with Nyiombo Investments. Safyr Commodities is a company jointly owned by the chairman of Beryl Holdings Pty, Neverl Kambasha, and financial services group Safyr Group. African Potash said the conditional sale agreements with Nyiombo, an importer and distributor of fertiliser, is for 50,000 metric tonnes of urea and NPK fertiliser.

BMR Group, down 20% at 4.50p. The miner said it has raised GBP395,200 through the placing of 9.3 million shares at 4.25p each. Each placee will also receive for each share subscribed a warrant to subscribe for a further share at 7.0p each in the 42 days following the release of BMR's full-year results for the year ending June 30. The proceeds of the placing will be used to provide additional working capital for BMR's proposed tailings processing operations in Kabwe in Zambia.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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