Sovereign Mines of Africa Share News (SMA)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Glencore, up 6.5%, Anglo American, down 6.1%, BHP Billiton, up 4.9%, Rio Tinto, up 4.8%. Resource stocks continued the upward momentum seen on Tuesday as investors appear to be buying up the downtrodden shares as they seek some pre-Christmas bargains. Resource stocks have been hit hard throughout the year by the slowdown in demand from China and oversupply weighing on commodity prices.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Nostrum Oil & Gas, up 7.2%, Tullow Oil, up 7.0%, Ophir Energy, up 6.5%, Cairn Energy, up 5.2%. As miners benefited from bargain-hunting in the blue-chip index, oil and gas companies got a similar boost among mid-cap stocks, as the oil price edged higher on Wednesday.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Interbulk Group, up 113%. The logistics company said it has agreed to be taken over by Dutch logistics company Den Hartogh, as its annual pretax profit declined. InterBulk said it will be acquired by Den Hartogh for 9.00 pence per share, more than double its closing price on Tuesday of 4.00p. The agreement values InterBulk at GBP42.1 million in total. The news of the takeover came as InterBulk posted a decline in its pretax profit for the year to the end of September to GBP295,000 from GBP3.2 million a year earlier, as revenue fell to GBP225.3 million from GBP256.3 million. The fall in sales was down to destocking by its customers, triggered by falling oil prices, more competition in the liquid bulk market, continued restructuring in the European polymer industry and unfavourable currency movements, the company said.

Sovereign Mines of Africa, up 85%. The gold miner said it has made two new board appointments and raised GBP500,000 through a share subscription agreement. It has appointed Giles Clarke as its chairman and Rupert Fraser as non-executive director. Clarke is the chairman of Amerisur Resources, the London-listed oil and gas firm, mining exploration and development company Ironveld and natural resources investing company Kennedy Ventures. Fraser is a non-executive director at Ironveld. In addition, the pair have participated in a GBP500,000 fundraising by Sovereign Mines, through which it has issued 500.0 million shares at 0.10 pence per share.

Fastjet, up 26%. The low-cost African carrier said it has received clearance and has started sales of flights between Kenya and Tanzania. The company said the flights will start on January 11 and will operate daily between Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Nairobi in Kenya. "fastjet Tanzania has been working towards the launch of these routes for some time, and we are extremely pleased that clearance has now been granted to commence operations," said Ed Winter, Fastjet's chief executive.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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GAME Digital, down 39%. The video games and consoles retailer said it now expects its adjusted earnings for its first half to be down from the previous year, citing "disappointing" sales since the start of the school Christmas holidays, and recent trends in the UK console and video games market. The retailer said its total group gross transaction value for the 21 weeks to Saturday was down 6.7%, mostly as a result of a 20% fall in low-margin console sales. GAME Digital said that trading conditions in the UK retail market have been challenging, with total sales for the video games market down 13.5% year on year for the period. Whilst it saw a rise in content sales for the new generation of video games consoles the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, this was more than offset by a sharp decline in content sales for the previous generation, down 56.7%.

Panmure Gordon, down 20%. The stockbroker and investment bank said tough market conditions have continued into the second half of the year, leaving it looking robust going into 2016 but with revenue set to miss expectations in 2015. Panmure said a decline in capital market transactions has been seen in the second half of 2015, with a number of transactions pushed into 2016. Due to this, it will make a post-tax loss of GBP4.0 million to GBP4.5 million for all of 2015, which would compared to a GBP1.5 million profit a year earlier.

Pittards, down 13%. The leather goods manufacturer said profit for 2015 will be "materially below current market expectations", as suppressed demand continued to hits its volumes. However, the company said that it still expects its full year results to show a "reasonable level of profit". Pittards said that the continued strength of the US dollar, along with lower raw material prices, are beginning to be shown in better margins, and it is well placed to benefit from a recovery in volumes.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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