Sovereign Mines of Africa Share News (SMA)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Anglo American, up 2%, BHP Billiton, up 1.2%, Rio Tinto, up 1%, and Glencore, up 0.3%. The mining companies are among just a handful of blue-chip winners Friday as their shares rebound somewhat after suffering heavy losses Thursday. IG Markets analyst David Madden says the miners were knocked by the news that a Chinese broker is cutting back on margin trading, and this signals the strain the second-largest economy in the world is under. Anglo, Rio and BHP Billiton closed down 4.1%, 3.2%, 1.1% and 2.6, respectively, Thursday.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Wm Morrison Supermarkets, down 2%. The grocer has seen a substantial shareholder rebellion against its remuneration report, with more than a third of the shareholders voting against. It said 38% of shareholders who voted did so against the remuneration report, which included a proposal to give David Potts, its newly-appointed chief executive, a long-term incentive plan for 2015 which will be 300% of his salary. Additionally, Deutsche Bank has cut its price target on the supermarket chain to 180 pence from 210p, maintaining its Hold recommendation on the stock. Shares in Morrisons are currently quoted at 174.70 pence.

Vodafone Group, down 1.8%. Despite edging higher at the open, shares in the mobile communications company have moved firmly lower after it said it is in early talks with cable company Liberty Global about a possible asset exchange, but that it is not discussing any potential merger with the company.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Allied Minds, up 1.5%. The US-focused science and technology development and commercialisation company has hired the former chairman and chief executive of US drug company Amgen as a director on its board. It said Kevin Sharer, the former head of Amgen, will help oversee its growing portfolio of life science and high-tech companies.

Halfords Group, up 1.1%. The car parts and bicycle retailer's shares have risen after it reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year as revenue hit the GBP1 billion mark for the first time, driven by a strong performance in both its Retail and Autocentres divisions, and it said its customer experience strategy is progressing well. The company said it will pay a dividend of 16.5 pence, up 15% from the year before. Following the results, Investec Securities increased Halfords' price target to 560 pence from 545p and maintained its Buy recommendation on the stock. Shares in the company are currently quoted at 489.80 pence.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Betfair, down 5%. Numis has cut Betfair to Sell from Reduce, saying the company's share price has outperformed its peers and now stands at a valuation which does not reflect the challenges the online betting and gaming operator now faces. After increasing his target price in line with the outperforming share price for some time, Numis analyst Ivor Jones says he "simply cannot make sense of a share price" of more than their updated price target of 2,100 pence, which has been increased from 1,620p. Betfair's shares are currently quoted at 2,512.00p.

Bellway, down 1.6%. Shares in the housebuilder have fallen even though it said it expects its housing completions to rise at the close of its financial year, with its operating margin set to improve and its forward sales book strengthening as it said it had seen little impact from the General Election in the UK. The company said it expects housing completion for the year to the end of July to be around 850 units higher than the 6,851 it reported a year earlier. It added that its full-year operating margin should improve by around 300 basis points to over 20% in the year, up from 17% a year earlier. Bellway also said its forward sales position going into the new financial year is set to be around 22% higher in value year-on-year at GBP1.27 billion.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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RapidCloud International, up 17%. The company said it has raised GBP1.7 million through a share subscription for 3.2 million shares at 54 pence each, a premium price, with Southeast Asian asset management firm Corston-Smith Asset Management. It said it plans to use the proceeds to enhance its product suite, to continue to invest in its sales and marketing, and complete select strategic acquisitions. RapidCloud's shares are currently quoted at 43.98 pence.

UK Oil & Gas Investments, up 14%, and Stellar Resources, up 12%. The companies, alongside their partners in the Horse Hill project in southern England, have received an independent report which has upgraded the oil in place estimate for the project. The companies said that oil services firm Schlumberger has estimated a gross overall oil in place for the Jurassic section of the Horse Hill-1 well of approximately 271 million barrels of oil per square mile. A total of 255 million barrels gross oil in place is situated within the tight limestone and mudstone plays of the Kimmeridge, Oxford Clay and Lias. The balance is in the Upper Portland Sandstone discovery previously announced. The 255 million barrel estimate for the tight limestone and mudstone plays compares to the oil in place estimate the companies received in April from Nutech, which estimated the total oil in place at 158 million barrels per square mile.

Ariana Resources, up 13%. The company has received encouraging results from the soil geochemical programme conducted at the Karakavak prospect at the Red Rabbit gold project in Turkey. It said the programme has identified five new discoveries in the Karakavak prospect area, doubling the number of drill targets. Ariana said the results underpin the broader resource potential at Red Rabbit.

PeerTV, up 9.8%. Shares in the company have jumped after it said it has received an order from a new customer with a sales value of USD47,000, for quad-core Android set-top boxes to be deployed as part of a field trial. Although it did not disclose the name of the customer, PeerTV said it is a privately held Eastern European based company offering telecommunications services to a user base of around 50,000 subscribers. PeerTV expects to deliver the units during the next three months.

Union Jack Oil, up 8%. The company and peer Egdon Resources said they have struck deals with Celtique Energie Petroleum to increase their stakes in the PEDL241 licence in Lincolnshire. Egdon has acquired a further 40% stake in the licence for a nominal consideration, increasing its total stake to 80%. Union Jack also has doubled its stake in the licence, acquiring a further 10% to bring its total interest to 20%, also for a nominal fee. Shares in Egdon Resources are quoted up 2.7%.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Sovereign Mines of Africa, off 46%. The Africa-focused mining sector investor said its future looks bleak following a tough 2014, when it struggled to find a strategic partner for its Mandiana gold project in Guinea. Sovereign Mines said investors appear to have little appetite for supporting exploration projects at present, which it attributed to the weak gold price. It said its search for sources of finance to continue its drilling programme a Mandiana was unsuccessful over the course of 2014, and the situation was made worse by the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea, which curtailed exploration activity across the country and made finding a partner for its project very difficult. The company warned that if it fails to secure further financing or find a suitable strategic partner for the project, it may not have enough money on its books to retain its exploration assets and continue operating.

Amphion Innovations, down 21%. The company, which invests in medical and technology businesses, said it has raised GBP1.5 million in a discounted share issue to provide working capital and funding for its partner companies. It said it has raised GBP1.5 million via the issue of 29.3 million shares at 5.25 pence per share. Amphion shares are currently quoted at 6.95 pence.

Iofina, down 12%. Shares in the company, which specialises in the production of iodine and chemical derivatives, have been hit after it said the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation of the State of Montana denied the granting of a water permit for Iofina's subsidiary Atlantis Water Solutions. The company was granted a preliminary water permit in October last year, but received numerous objections against it. The DNRC rejected all but one objection from a local water-supply competitor, and a hearing was held in February. However, following the hearing, the DNRC has decided to the deny the permit. Iofina says it intends to take further legal action against the ruling

EU Supply, down 9.1%. The electronic tender management and contract management service provider's shares are down despite saying it is trading in line with its expectations and sees a robust pipeline of opportunities. In a statement issued ahead of the company's annual general meeting, Chairman David Cutler said trading in 2015 has been in line with its expectations.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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