Last checked at LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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BHP Billiton, up 2.4%. The mining giant leads the FTSE-100 gainers after it said it is swaying towards demerging some assets as it continues to weigh up options for simplifying its big portfolio. It's going to focus on iron ore, copper, coal, oil and possibly potash, meaning it would be demerging aluminium, nickel and bauxite assets if that option is chosen. "We believe that a portfolio focused on our major iron ore, copper, coal and petroleum assets would retain the benefits of diversification, generate stronger growth in cash flow and a superior return on investment," the company said.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Premier Oil, up 3.6%. The oil and gas producer is the second highest FTSE 250 gainer after UBS upgraded the stock to Buy, from Neutral.
Capital & Counties Properties, up 2.1%. Exane BNP upgraded it to Outperform from Neutral.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Carillion, down 2.6%. The construction company has had its bid for Balfour Beatty rejected again. Balfour Beatty said it has considered a number of factors, including the potential for synergies, cost and execution risks, and a reduced exposure to recovery in UK construction, ahead of reaching its decision. Balfour Beatty also cited the sale of its US project management business, Parsons Brinckerhoff, which has become a bone of contention for the two companies, saying that terminating the sale process would risk damaging a "significant part of the value" of the company.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Sunrise Resources, up 26%. The company said it has got further positive results from the County Line Diatomite Project in Nevada, US, and the results support a large tonnage potential at the site. Sunrise said testing showed consistency across all of the samples collected, comparable to those previously reported by the company in May, and said drilling or trenching and further minerals processing at the site is now justified.
RapidCloud International, up 14%. The software provider said it has signed a contract with the registrar of companies for a country in Southeast Asia, and also has won a contract with the courier division of a budget airline. The company said the contracts are helping it to gain traction in significant new markets, including the public sector. The contract with the courier division of a budget airline is for provision of cloud hosting and managed services, as well as website design services including the provision of an online airway bill tracking system and a mobile app.
Zanaga Iron Ore, up 7.4%. The company said the Zanaga iron-ore project in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a joint venture between the firm and Glencore, has been granted a mining licence and said the companies have signed a mining convention with the African country's government. It reported the project is planned as a low-cost iron-ore operation and said it will be developed in two stages. The first will involve a 12 million tonnes a year operation, with the second stage to expand this by a further 18Mtpa to produce a total of 30Mtpa in high-quality iron-ore pellet feed product over a 30-year mine life.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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African Potash, off 8.8%. The exploration company has issued the first of four tranches of convertible securities under an agreement disclosed to the market last week. It said it issued the convertible security with the nominal value of USD830,000 at a purchase price of USD750,000.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
16 May 2024 21:22
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