LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on the main London indices midday Monday.
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FTSE 100 - Winners
Fresnillo, up 3.2%, are the biggest winners on the blue-chip index. Following a poor performace on Friday, the majority of the mining sector constituents are winners, lead by Fresnillo, which is rebounding after being the biggest loser on the index on Friday.
Rio Tinto, up 1.3%. Despite the mining company expecting medium-term prices to drift lower, Macquarie believes that demand is still growing. The brokerage is positive as management targets sustainable iron-ore cost reductions of USD240 million. At the same time, Rio is applying focus on maximising revenue through technical marketing and quality-control efforts to further support margins. Macquarie is still upbeat about the news that the company made its first shipment of iron ore from its expanded port, rail and mine operations in Australia, as part of its plan to increase the capacity of its iron-ore operations there to 290 million tonnes a year. As a result, Macquarie has maintained an Outperform recommendation, increasing its price target by approximately 2.6% to 4,100 pence.
EasyJet, up 0.7%, and TUI Travel, up 0.9%, continue to rebound following last weeks profit warning from Ryanair that triggered a dramatic fall in share prices for the majority of airline companies.
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FTSE 100 - Losers
BG Group, down 4.9%. The oil and gas explorer is by far the biggest faller on the FTSE250 after it announced that delays in projects in Egypt and Norway will hit production in 2014. In an operational update, the oil and gas company said the on-going political and social instability in Egypt means phase 9a of its West Delta Deep Marine project had suffered delay and will now start later than expected in 2014, as long as there aren't further delays. The company also said that first production from the Knarr project in Norway is likely to be delayed by approximately four months into the second half of 2014. BG also announced that it will continue to operate fewer rigs in the US, reducing output there.
Associated British Foods, down 2.1%. The British multinational food processing and retail company said revenues and operating profits for the 52 weeks to September 14 are expected to be ahead of expectations in its retail, agriculture and grocery brands, with sales at Primark for the full year expected to be 22% ahead of last year. However, with EU sugar prices falling fast, the food division is under pressure, and Investec Securities expects to downgrade forecasts for 2014. Investec currently has a Hold rating on the stock, with the price target under review.
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FTSE 250 - Winners
CSR, up 5.4%, is the biggest gainers on the FTSE 250. Liberum is encouraged by the hidden value of CSR's highly saleable emerging technologies. Liberum believes that 2014 could see CSR's core business grow substantially faster than in 2013, with the release of multiple new products at the same time. Liberum believes that CSR is trading cheaply, at a discount to its peers, and therefore upgrades the company to Buy from Hold, raising the target price to 550p from 540p.
LondonMetric Property, up 1.8%. The real estate investment trust is one of the biggest winners on the FTSE 250 after it reported that it had acquired distribution warehouses in Northamptonshire and Leicester for GBP23.1 million.
DS Smith, up 1.4%, continues to do well following last week's interim management statement for the three month period to July 31. It has said the current year has started well and in line with its plans, driven by a good performance throughout the group and continued strong delivery of the previously announced synergies from the acquisition of SCA Packaging.
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FTSE 250 - Losers
Bwin.party, down 1.4%. Having been one of the big winners on Friday following the announcement that the digital entertainment company's new poker website going live, the company have fallen back to a position similar to levels before the announcement.
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AIM - Winners
African Mining & Exploration, up 27%. The mining company has seen a jump in shares prices after it said it has entered into an agreement to acquire an 80% interest in Matilda Minerals Limitada, a privately owned Mozambican heavy mineral sands explorer, for cash and shares.
Richland Resources is up 20% after it announced that pretax losses narrowed in its first half despite illegal miners affecting the company's operations in Tanzania during the period. The precious gemstone exploration and production company said pretax losses narrowed to USD551,000 from USD719,000 for the six months ended June 30. The company managed to increase production levels 28%, to 1.54 million carats from 1.21 million carats the previous year and recovered higher average grades of 93 carats per tonne compared to 61 carats per tonne during the period. The company also lowered administrative costs and operating costs.
Futura Medical, up 17%. The medical company's shares have increased after it moved a step closer to being able to market its CSD500 condom in Europe. It said it got a positive opinion on all aspects of the dossier it submitted to regulators earlier in the year.
Toumaz, up 12%. The UK semiconductor company has teamed up with Spotify to support the new Spotify Connect service on its dual-band connected audio module for audio devices like wireless speakers, AV receivers and internet radios.
Forbidden Technologies is up 8.9% after the company said that it was integrating with Windows Azure Media Services to promote cloud-video work-flows at the 2013 International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam. The cloud-video editing company's ForScene service will be shown working with Windows Azure Media Services to edit footage remotely. It said that this near-time clipping of live footage for global video-on-demand deliver would be particularly interesting for sports-rights holders.
Telit Communications, up 8.7%, posted big increases in pretax profits and revenues for the six months ended June 30, as it said it remains confident in meeting full-year expectations after continued investments and acquisitions. The wireless communications company, specialising in direct machine-to-machine connections between devices, had a pretax profit of USD5.6 million, up from USD2.71 million in the previous year. The company's performance was boosted by continued investment in sales and marketing and the recent acquisition of CrossBridge Solutions Inc.
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AIM - Losers
Mediazest, down 21%. Shares in the media agency dropped following poor full-year results. The company said that it had endured a disappointing year ended March 31, with turnover falling short and widening losses as a large project was rescheduled and long standing client HMV went into administration. The group posted a pretax loss of GBP551,000, widened from GBP424,000 in the previous year.
Brady, down 17%. The provider of risk management and trading software for global commodity markets has lowered its full year revenue forecast to GBP31.0 million from GBP35.5 million as a result of the complexity and size of upcoming contracts.
EpiStem Holdings, down 15%. The biotechnology company said its talks with US medical company Becton Dickinson, for the expansion of its supply and distribution agreement failed, and that its supply and distribution agreement entered into in August 2012 has now been terminated.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com
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