Next Share News (NXT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

Persimmon, up 4.7%. The housebuilder's share price has jumped following comments over the weekend from UK Chancellor George Osborne. Speaking ahead of the budget on Wednesday, Osborne said he would extend the government's Help to Buy scheme, which has been seen as benefiting the house builder in recent months. The scheme was originally planned to finish in 2016, but now will be extended until 2020. The Chancellor also announced a plan to ease the UK's housing shortage by building a garden city. Furthermore, UK property prices rose to an record high in March, with the average asking price rising 1.6% from the prior month, according to figures from Rightmove released overnight. The average asking price for a new property coming to market climbed to GBP255,962 from GBP251,964 in February.

Glencore Xstrata, up 2.8%. The group is on the edge of reaching a deal on the multibillion dollar sale of its Las Bambas Peruvian copper project to a Chinese consortium, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper said that, according to people familiar with the matter, the mining giant could announce the deal, with a Chinese consortium headed by state-controlled Chinese copper company China Minmetals Corp, as early as Tuesday.

Vodafone, up 1.3%. The telecommunications company has confirmed that it will acquire Grupo Corporative Ono S.A for EUR7.2 billion, as part of its strategy to build a unified communications provider in Spain. It said it expects to achieve cost and capital expenditure synergies from the acquisition with a run-rate of around EUR240 million before integration costs by the fourth full year after the acquisition is completed. Vodafone estimates it will see revenue synergies with a total net present value of around EUR1.0 billion. The acquisition also will help Vodafone to complete its fibre-to-the-home roll-out to 1.5 million homes in Spain, it said.

Next, up 1.1%. Although the clothing and home retailer's share price has risen sharply since the beginning of 2014, Jefferies believes that there are still "multiple reasons to be bullish" on the stock. From a macro-economic perspective, UK consumer confidence has continued to improve, and personal disposable income is expected to grow in 2014 and 2015. From a company perspective, the investment bank is confident that the increased frequency of catalogues, together with the new brands-only catalogue and the fast growing international online business should lead to an increase in online sales in 2015 and 2016.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

Tesco, down 1.9%, J Sainsbury, down 1.4%, and WM Morrison Supermarkets, down 1.1%, are once again the three biggest fallers in the blue-chip index. The food retailers, which rebounded on Friday, paring some of Thursday's losses made on the back of a weak earnings report by Morrisons, are once again big losers Monday. Tesco leads the falls after it was cut to Underperform from Neutral by Merrill Lynch.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

Bovis Homes, up 5.2%, Crest Nicholson Holdings, up 4%, Taylor Wimpey, up 3.6%, Barratt Developments, up 3.6%, Bellway, up 2.3%, Berkeley Group Holdings, up 2.6%. Like Persimmon in the FTSE 100, the housebuilders are benefiting from the comments made by the UK Chancellor and the increasing price of British homes.

Polymetal International, up 2.6%. The gold, silver and copper-mining exploration and production company announced significant falls in ore reserves and mineral resources in 2013, but expects significant improvements in both during 2014.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

Cairn Energy, down 2%. The major oil and gas exploration company said the exploration JM-1 well offshore Morocco has been plugged and abandoned despite confirming the presence of heavy oil over a 110 metre space in the Upper Jurassic region. One of Cairn's partners in the well, Genel Energy, is flat Monday at 1,015.00 pence.

Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, down 1.5%. Citigroup has lowered its market size assumptions for the gaming company and downgraded it to Sell from Neutral, following a slower-than-expected start in the US and continued weak performance in Europe. Citi also has reduced its price target on the stock to 95p from 125p.

Essar Energy, down 1.5% to 65.35 pence. The oil company's shares have fallen Monday after Essar Global Fund reaffirmed its offer for the remainder of Essar Energy after the UK equity market closed on Friday. Essar Global Fund's offer of 70p per share is the same price which Essar Energy's independent directors said in February undervalues the business. The directors immediately Friday responded by repeating their rejection of the offer. They said that they have not changed their view that 70 pence per share "materially undervalues the company and its future prospects." They said Essar Energy is worth at least 97p.

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AIM - WINNERS

Ideagen, up 23%. The information management software provider has won two NHS contracts in Birmingham worth a combined GBP400,000 in first-year value. The contract with the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust has selected dart/KW, Ideagen's electronic medical record solution, and dart/OCM, its order communications solution. Birmingham Children's NHS Foundation Trust has selected the Patient First offering, the group's Emergency Department service.

Tracsis, up 11%. The company said it now expects its full-year results to exceed current market forecasts, as it saw pretax profit rise in the half year ended January 31, boosted by its acquisition of Sky High Technology. It posted a pretax profit of GBP2.3 million in the half, up from GBP1.7 million in the previous year, as revenue rose to GBP9.8 million from GBP4.7 million. The company also raised its interim dividend by 17% to 0.35 pence from 0.30 pence.

Oxford Advanced Surfaces Group, up 11%. The technology company, which develops engineered materials and surface modification applications in various markets, said it is currently investigating the use of its proprietary Onto technology platform to modify graphene chemically for multiple applications.

LiDCO Group, up 9.5%. The cardiovascular monitoring company said it will be showcasing the new version of LiDCOrapid software at the 34th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine later this week.

Petroneft Resources, up 8%. The oil production company has completed a USD6.7 million fundraising and production has increased at its 61 and 67 licences in Russia. It said it has agreed the terms of a placing of 62.3 million shares at 5 pence per share raising USD5.2 million and it has arranged an additional USD1.5 million debt drawdown with Arawak Energy by increasing its existing USD15 million loan to USD16.5 million on the same terms. Petroneft said it also has granted Arawak an additional 2 million warrants over ordinary shares at a strike price of USD0.0891 per share.

Rose Petroleum, up 7.8%. The natural resources company said it has signed a farm-in agreement to acquire a 75% stake in oil, gas and hydrocarbon leases covering 195,000 acres in Utah. It said the leases would be given to its newly formed subsidiary Rose Petroleum Utah LLC and are for sites in the significant Uinta and Paradox Basins in the east of the US state. The company said both sites, which were acquired from Rockies Standard Oil Company LLC, have extensive infrastructure and target unconventional shale resource plays as part of the US shale gas boom.

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AIM - LOSERS

Creat Resources Holdings, off 52%. The resources investment company said its net loss widened to USD7.6 million for the six months to the end of 2013, from USD4.0 million the previous year. Additionally, if it cannot implement its investment policy by April 4, trading in the company will be suspended according to AIM rules until such time as the company makes an investment. If a further six months passes, Creat said its shares will be cancelled and the board will convene a general meeting to consider appropriate actions.

Kimberley Enterprises, down 22%. Shares in the company have tumbled after the property developer said its financial condition remains weak, as it has not yet received the sale proceeds from disposals from its joint ventures. It said it has not yet received the disposal proceeds from its 50% owned joint venture with Heitman LLC, from the sale of the fourth stage of the Safranka project, and the sale of the Zabki project during 2013. As a result, it continues to rely on the financial support of its parent company group

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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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