Rank Share News (RNK)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Persimmon, up 4.1%. Interim results from the housebuilder pulled up shares across the sector, following comments that demand for housing was currently robust, with little impact from the UK's vote to leave the European Union. The group posted a 29% rise in first-half pretax profit after it sold more homes at a higher price, and said lending supply has continued to prove strong and customer demand is still robust. The group said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of June was GBP352.3 million, up from GBP272.8 million a year earlier, after revenue grew to GBP1.49 billion from GBP1.33 billion. The group said it sold 7,238 homes in the half, from 6,855 a year earlier, with the average selling price of those homes GBP205,762, 6.0% ahead of the prior year. Peers also benefited, with Barratt Developments up 4.5%, Taylor Wimpey up 4.1% and Berkeley Group Holdings up 3.9%. In the FTSE 250 Bellway, McCarthy & Stone, Crest Nicholson and Bovis Homes Group were up 5.9%, 5.4%, 4.6% and 3.6% respectively.

Tesco, up 3.2%. Among the UK's big four supermarkets Tesco, the market leader, saw the slowest rate of sales decline with 0.4% and its market share dip to 28.1% from 28.3%. J Sainsbury, which had been the star performer in recent Kantar grocery sales data, saw sales fall 0.6% year-on-year and its market share decline to 16.1% from 16.3%, though Asda's continued woes mean Sainsbury's remains firmly entrenched as the second-largest grocer by market share. Wm Morrison Supermarkets, meanwhile, saw sales fall 1.8% and its market share decline to 10.6% from 10.8%. Sainsbury's was up 1.4% and Morrisons up 0.4%.

BHP Billiton, up 2.8%. The Anglo-Australian miner was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Jefferies.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Royal Dutch Shell 'A', down 0.6%, Shell 'B', down 0.5%. The oil major was tracking a lower spot oil price, quoted at USD48.57 a barrel compared to USD49.35 at the London equities close Monday.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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JRP Group, up 15%. The annuities provider said trading has remained in line with its expectations and its merger is progressing to plan. JRP, the result of a merger between annuities providers Just Retirement and Partnership Assurance, said trading in the quarter to the end of July was in line with its expectations in its defined benefit de-risking, individual guaranteed income for life and lifetime mortgages units. JRP added its Solvency II ratio at the end of June was around 130%, meaning it remains well-capitalised. The merger also continued to progress to plan and the group said it will provide a further update on its push to hit its targeted GBP40.0 million in annual cost savings in due course. Shore Capital was encouraged with the positive commentary about trading in JRP's annuities business amid a difficult environment and reiterated its Buy rating. "We view this as excellent news given some of the negative commentary in the market place over the impact of lower interest rates on the annuity markets," said Shore.

Kier Group, up 3.3%. The construction company said it has been awarded three major construction frameworks worth in excess of GBP5.00 billion since its last trading update in early July, providing a long-term pipeline of potential contract awards. The group said it has secured a place on the shortlist for the four-year, GBP4.00 billion Department of Health Procure22 framework as one of six principle supply chain partners. The framework will start in October. Kier is also one of five suppliers listed for two five-year construction frameworks worth up to GBP750.0 million at Gatwick Airport. Lastly, Kier has secured a place on the list for the two-year, GBP500.0 million framework from the University of Cambridge to provide a range of facilities including laboratories, teaching and lecture spaces and sport facilities.

Rank Group, up 2.2%. The casino and bingo hall operator said its pretax profit grew in the year to the end of June, despite revenue only ticking up marginally. Rank, which was involved in a joint bid to acquire bookmaker William Hill with online betting firm 888 Holdings, an offer withdrawn last week, said its pretax profit for the year to June 30 was GBP85.5 million, up 15% from GBP74.5 million a year earlier. Revenue grew 1.0% to GBP708.5 million from GBP700.7 million, but like-for-like revenue increased 3.0%, with solid growth across its brands and different channels. The owner of the Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca Bingo businesses said digital revenue increased 11% year-on-year in the first half, while Mecca Bingo also performed well, delivering like-for-like revenue growth of 2.0%.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Jersey Oil and Gas, up 18%. The oil and gas company said, alongside its partner, it has agreed to farm-out a 70% working interest in one of its offshore licenses in the UK Central North Sea to Norwegian firm Statoil. The London-listed company owns a 60% interest in the UK seaward licence P2170 which contains blocks 20/gb and 21/1d with its partner, CIECO Exploration & Production (UK), holding the other 40%. Together, they have signed a binding but still conditional sale and purchase agreement to jointly give Statoil a 70% interest in the licence. Statoil will become the operator of the asset and will pay a total upfront consideration of USD2.0 million, of which USD1.2 million will be paid to Jersey Oil.

Journey Group, up 18%, Jaguar Holdings said it has agreed a GBP28.4 million deal to acquire the catering services and in-flight products provider. Jaguar, a special vehicle formed by private investment house Harwood Capital to make the bid for Journey, will pay 240.00 pence per share to acquire Journey. The price is an 18% premium to Journey's closing price on Monday and a 30% premium to its volume-weighted average price in the year to Monday. "The offer provides all Journey shareholders with the opportunity of a cash exit at a meaningful premium to the prevailing share price and recognises the company's underlying value, whilst also providing those shareholders, who so elect, with an opportunity to retain an interest in the business going forward," said Stephen Yapp, Journey's executive chairman.

Hostelworld Group, up 7.4%. The hostel-focused online booking platform said it is on track to meet its expectations for the full-year despite uncertainty in the travel industry, reporting lower revenue but a narrowed pretax loss in the first half of 2016. Hostelworld's revenue for the first half of the year was down 8.4% to EUR40.2 million, from EUR43.9 million the year previously. However, its pretax loss narrowed to EUR5.5 million from EUR14.6 million the year prior. The group said it will pay an interim dividend of 4.80 euro cents per share, having paid its maiden dividend of 2.75 euro cents per share in May. The narrowed pretax loss was attributed to decreased administrative expenses, down 11% to EUR30.4 million from EUR34.2 million year-on-year.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Vast Resources, down 7.3%. The miner said production from the Pickstone-Peerless gold mine in Zimbabwe increased significantly in the second quarter and said expansion options are currently being considered, but said the performance from the mine in Romania is still unsatisfactory. Vast owns an 50% stake in the Zimbabwean gold mine and is the operator of the asset, which, in the second quarter of 2016, produced 4,542 ounces after milling 61,577 tonnes of ore. The asset was commissioned just over one year ago and those figures can be compared to the first quarter of this year, when it produced 2,808 ounces from milling 54,237 tonnes of ore. The performance from the Manaila polymetallic mine in Romania, however, was not as good during the second quarter. Although the amount of ore milled was one-third higher in the second quarter from the first, rising to 29,830 tonnes from 22,510 tonnes, the amount of concentrate produced declined 12% to 727 tonnes from 822 tonnes.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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