LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
J Sainsbury, up 0.8%. The food retailer is the latest of the big UK supermarkets to update the market and has reported its first sales fall in nine years in its fourth quarter. Despite the drop, Chief Executive Justin King said the grocer will not get caught up in the price war within the supermarket sector at the moment, and will ensure competitive prices in its own way.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
Resolution Limited, down 6%. Although the group reported a large jump in pretax profit to GBP369.0 million in 2013, compared with GBP66.0 million in 2012, the results were broadly in line with expectations and poor dividend growth is likely to remain a drag on the share price, according to Berenbereg analyst Matthew Preston. The dividend was left flat Tuesday and the "transition to a progressive dividend remains some way off," says Preston. Moreover, the lack of development in discussions regarding the disposal of life-assurance arm Lombard is unlikely to be helpful to the shares, says the analyst.
Tate & Lyle, down 1%. The speciality food and bulk ingredients manufacturer's shares have been hit by a negative price target revisions by Jefferies and Exane BNP Paribas. Jefferies lowered its price target to 630.00p, down from 700.00p, while Exane BNP cut it to 730.00p from 900.00p.
Antofagasta, down 0.7%. The mining company has reported a sharp drop in net profit for 2013 as the fall in commodity prices combined with higher costs, particularly for energy, to more than offset higher copper production. The Chile-based company reported a net profit of USD659.6 million, or 66.9 cents a share, for 2013, down from USD1.04 billion, or 105.2 cents a share, in 2012. Revenues fell to USD5.97 billion, from USD6.74 billion.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
Berkeley Group Holdings, up 1.9%. The housebuilding company said sales of new-build properties across all of its brands have been strong since November. The company, which is made up of four autonomous companies - St George, St James, Berkeley and St Edward - said the UK government's Help to Buy Scheme has increased activity in the property market and so has helped the acceleration of delivery of new homes across the sector. Its comments come just after UK Chancellor George Osborne said the first phase of the government's flagship mortgage-financing scheme will be extended by four years to 2020.
IG Group Holdings, up 1.5%. The spread betting firm reported a 9.1% increase in third-quarter net trading revenue, driven by its European and UK operations, while also expecting lower full-year costs than previously expected. IG reported GBP96.7 million in net trading revenue for the three months ended February 28, compared with GBP88.6 million for the corresponding period a year earlier. It said it is on track to deliver net trading revenue for all of 2014 ahead of the GBP361.9 million reported in 2013 and in line with expectations.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
Cairn Energy, down 12%. The oil and gas exploration company swung to a loss in 2013 as it booked a big impairment for the Catcher fields in the North Sea, and it warned that its outlook depends heavily on its exploration programme this year and the timing of the resolution of its tax dispute in India. The company, which currently doesn't earn any revenues, booked a loss of USD555.9 million for the year, compared with a profit of USD72.6 million in 2012, as unsuccessful exploration costs rose.
Xaar, down 8.8%. The digital inkjet printing technology company is a big faller despite doubling its full-year dividend as it saw pretax profit jump in 2013. The main reason for the movement looks to be that Chief Executive Ian Dinwoodie has announced his plan to retire during 2015 and said that the search for his successor is already underway, says Jefferies analyst Andy Douglas. While the analyst believes that this is a personal decision and that "there is nothing sinister behind the announcement," he recognises that this has the potential to impact sentiment in the near-term.
Moneysupermarket.com Group, down 4.7%. The company's share price has plummeted after Simon Nixon, the company's founder and non-executive deputy chairman, sold a large portion of his stake in the group in an overnight placing. Nixon, who after the UK equity market close on Monday announced that he intended to sell 55.0 million shares, increased that figure to 70.0 million on the back of strong investor demand, meaning that he now holds a 16.6% in the company, down from the 29.48% held prior to the placing.
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AIM - WINNERS
Nyota Minerals, up 18%. After seeing shares plummet in early trading, Nyota is now amongst the leading gainers on the AIM market after its shareholders voted against its remuneration plan and against its request to approve an additional 10% share placing facility. The gold explorer had said Monday that shareholders had passed a resolution to approve the issue of new shares of up to 10% of the issued share capital of the company, but Tuesday issued a correction saying the resolution hadn't in fact been passed on a show of hands.
Clear Leisure, up 15%. The group's shares have risen after it got a GBP10 million two-year credit line from GEM Global Yield Fund Ltd, a facility that provides it with funds for working capital, fire power for potential acquisitions, and which may also be used to support debt restructuring at its Mediapolis SpA unit. Clear Leisure said the cost of the credit line is GBP135,000, and it will also issue GEM with 11.5 million five-year warrants at 4.4 pence a share.
Jaywing, up 13%. The marketing and consulting business has acquired Leeds and London-based search marketing agency Epiphany Solutions Ltd. Jaywing said its bought Epiphany for an initial cash payment of GBP11 million, plus a further deferred cash payment of GBP1 million and earn-out consideration of up to GBP6 million, subject to the future performance of the business. It said the earn-out consideration would be payable in two instalments over the next two years.
Stellar Diamonds, up 9.1%. The group has announced that bulk sampling at its Tongo kimberlite dyke project in Sierra Leone has continued to yield high grades and exceptional quality diamonds. The company said the sampling, being done as part of its definitive feasibility study, was producing consistent "outstanding" gem quality diamonds, with stones up to 6.7 carats in size. It also said processing to date had yielded 551.6 carats at an average grade of 126.3 carats per hundred tonnes. The company also said it expects grades to further increase as more diamonds are recovered through re-processing. It wants to recover a minimum 1,000 carat parcel so it can confirm diamond grades and values.
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AIM - LOSERS
ASOS, down 16%. The online clothing and beauty retailer's shares have plummeted after it announced an increase in capital expenditure and a cut to pretax profit guidance for the 2014 full-year, leading to concern over the online retailer's future margin prospects. In a trading statement covering the two months to February 28, ASOS reported 26% revenue growth, behind full-year consensus expectations of 32%. Along with the disappointing early year growth, the retailer announced a 7% cut to its pretax profit guidance for the year, along with an increase in capital expenditure to GBP68 million from the previous guidance of GBP55 million.
Madagascar Oil, down 14%. The oil and gas exploration and development company's shares have dropped sharply despite reporting that oil production rates have increased on a month-by-month basis at its Tsimiroro Field. However, while it had announced in December that it planned to declare commerciality at the site around February this year, it said Tuesday that it will now wait until the end of this quarter or into the second quarter to consider commerciality for the site, or whether further information is required.
Alexander Mining, down 11%. The mining and mineral processing technology company is down despite announcing that its MetaLeach Ltd subsidiary has been granted a patent in Canada for a Method for Extracting Zinc from Aqueous Ammoniacal Solutions. "The grant of our patent in Canada is another welcome expansion of the granted patent coverage for our proprietary processing technology for zinc," Martin Rosser, Chief Executive, said in a statement.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
24 Sep 2014 11:14
