OPHR.L Share News (OPHR)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
-------
FTSE 100 WINNERS
------
Associated British Foods, up 2.3% at 3,019.00 pence. The group shares are higher after Goldman Sachs upgraded it to Buy from Sell, lifting its price target to 3,120p from 2,755p.

Weir Group, up 2.0% at 2,016.00p. Credit Suisse raised the oil and gas support service company price target to 2,205p from 1,915p, keeping an Overweight rating.
-------
FTSE 100 LOSERS
------
Old Mutual, down 1.1%. The life insurance and asset management group said it has agreed a deal to sell the Swiss arm of its Skandia business for an undisclosed amount. The Anglo-South African group said Skandia Leben, part of its Old Mutual Wealth division, has been sold to Life Invest Holding, a company formed by the German conglomerate Mutschler Group and Hannover Re, the German reinsurer.
-------
FTSE 250 WINNERS
------
Ophir Energy, up 5.0%. Barclays upgraded the engineering company to Overweight from Equal Weight, saying it believes recent stock price weakness - down by 25% in the last month, versus the peer group down 5% - combined with significant progress in Ophir's Equatorial Guinea project provides an attractive opportunity to revisit its investment case.
-------
FTSE 250 LOSERS
------
Synergy Health, down 1.8%. Health services companies Synergy and STERIS said they intend to contest the US Federal Trade Commission's attempt to block STERIS's proposed USD1.9 billion cash and share takeover of Synergy Health. The FTC has informed Synergy that it intends to seek to block the acquisition. STERIS and Synergy said in a statement that they welcome "a full judicial review of the competitive effects of the combination". STERIS is based in the US state of Ohio, while FTSE 250 constituent Synergy Health is UK based. Synergy Health's share price has fallen over 16% since last Friday amid speculation of an attempt to block the acquisition by the FTC.
-------
AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
-------
Minco, up 50%. The company posted a profit in the first quarter of the year due to a foreign exchange gain. It said its profit for the first quarter was USD482,000, compared to a USD271,000 loss a year earlier, due to a USD665,000 foreign exchange gain it booked in the quarter. Minco restarted drilling work at the Buchans project in Central Newfoundland in April and is also making progress on the Woodstock manganese project in Canada.
-------
AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
-------
Macromac, down 29%. The mobile services company posted a fall in pretax profit for 2014, despite seeing a rise in revenue, as a result of a step-up in costs. It posted a pretax profit of MYR7.3 for 2014, down from MYR8.2 million a year before, despite seeing revenue rise to MYR29.8 million from MYR24.1 million.

Sefton Resources, off 24%. The oil exploration and production company focused on California and Kansas in the US said it is moving closer to hiring a new chief executive, having now identified a preferred candidate for the role. However, Sefton also said it has learned that a complaint has been lodged with a US court by former Executive Chairman Jim Ellerton against the company, two directors and one former director, claiming damages related to Ellerton's resignation from the company's board, the termination of his consulting contract, and Sefton's deal with Hawker Energy.

Immunodiagnostics Systems Holdings, down 12%. The company, which provides clinical laboratory diagnostic services, said it expects revenue to continue to fall in its current year, and revenue in its recently ended financial year to be in line with previous guidance. It expects to post revenue of GBP45 million for the year to end-March 2015, compared to GBP52 million a year before. This is in line with guidance it provided in April. At the time, it attributed the decline to a lower level of its instruments being placed with end customers by distributors.

TomCo Energy, down 8%. The shale exploration and development company said it has made progress on the Holliday Block in Utah but said it has had to initiate a restructuring programme to cut costs after the developer of the technology needed for the project said last week the equipment would be delayed. Red Leaf Resources said it would delay the target date to complete the construction of the EcoCapsule technology by two years to 2017.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.