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(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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AstraZeneca, up 1.3%. The pharma firm said the US has approved self-administration of Fasenra in the form of the Fasenra Pen. The pen is a "pre-filled, single-use auto-injector" form of asthma drug Fasenra, meaning patients taking the drug can inject the medication themselves at home instead of going to the doctor for an injection. Approval for the Fasenra Pen was based on that phase 3 Greco trial and phase 1 Ames trial, which showed that the Fasenra Pen's safety and tolerability was consistent with the drug's existing profile. Fasenra has been approved as an add-on maintenance treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma, a type of asthma where the patient has very high levels of while blood cells called eosinophils, which cause inflammation in the airways. The pen is also ready approved in the EU. Fasenra is currently approves in the US, EU, and Japan, as well as other countries, as an add-on maintenance treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma.
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BP, up 1.1%. The oil major's Chief Executive Bob Dudley will retire after 40 years. He will step down following the release of BP's financial 2019 full year results on February 4, then will retire on March 31, 2020. He will be replaced by Bernard Looney, current Upstream CEO. Looney will remain in his current role until February. Looney has been Upstream CEO since 2016 and is in charge of BP's oil and gas exploration, development and production activities worldwide. BP has also appointed Lamar McKay, currently deputy CEO as chief transition officer. "These decisions are the result of a comprehensive and deliberate search process, including consideration of a range of internal and external candidates," BP added. Dudley continues the trend of UK company chief departing this week, with Alison Cooper leaving FTSE 100-listed cigarette maker Imperial Brands, Andrew Pardey departing FTSE 250 miner Centamin Dave Lewis, whose surprise plan to step down as Tesco chief executive was announced on Wednesday, which also saw departure announcements for two founders, Martin Gilbert at Standard Life Aberdeen and Vernon Hill at Metro Bank.
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Meggitt, up 1.1%. The defence engineer said it has been awarded a five-year supply deal by the US Army, worth USD48 million. Meggitt will supply an indefinite quantity of its Aerial weapons scoring systems to the US Army during the five-year period. Meggitt said: "Aerial weapons scoring systems provides essential gunnery training for defence customers worldwide, ensuring safe, efficient operation of targeting systems." The service will be supplied by the company's specialist defence division in Irvine, California, Meggitt added.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Marks & Spencer, down 3.2% The retailer was lower on HSBC cutting the stock to Reduce from Hold.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Hutchison China Meditech, up 5.1%. The biopharmaceutical firm said it has dosed the first patient in its international early-stage study of HMPL-523 in lymphoma. The phase 1/1b study has begun, with the first patient dosed on Thursday last week, and its "primary outcome measures are safety and tolerability". The study will also assess efficacy measures like objective response rate as a secondary outcome. The trial will assess patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma, meaning their cancer has either not responded to treatment or has stopped responding. Lymphoma is a type of blood cancer that develops in cells called lymphocytes and spreads through the body's lymphatic system. The study will take place globally and has sites in both Europe and the US. It "complements" Hutchison China's "ongoing phase 1b dose expansion program of HMPL-523 in Australia and China addressing a broad range of hematological cancers".
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Beowulf Mining, up 4.1%. The company said Sweden's minister for enterprise & innovation will not meet with the firm's chief executive as the meeting "concerns a forthcoming government decision". The miner also said an undisclosed Stockholm law firm had been hired to review Beowulf's Kallak mine concession application. "The legal analysis is unequivocal, that the company has robustly argued its case for a concession to be awarded," said Beowulf. Beowulf has been trying, without success, to gain government approval for its Kallak iron ore project in Sweden. Its CEO, Kurt Budge, had requested a meeting with Enterprise & Innovation Minister Ibrahim Baylan to discuss the application. However, the minister said he cannot meet with Budge because his request "concerns a forthcoming government decision - a dossier that is currently under preparation", meaning the government cannot meet or comment on the "ongoing review". Budge commented: "It is positive that Baylan writes about a 'forthcoming decision'.""It's six and a half years since the Kallak application was first submitted and it's widely recognised in Sweden that the company's application has been completely mishandled, and the case is rightly a focus for investors considering the feasibility of Swedish mining projects." The CEO added: "We appear to be moving towards a decision by the government, our discussions in Jokkmokk are about the future of Kallak and the town, working in partnership with the municipality, the community and the Sami reindeer herding community."
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Empyrean Energy, up 3.2%. The firm and Coro Energy said the Tambak-2 well in the Duyung production sharing contract in the West Natuna basin, offshore Indonesia, has been spud, and drilling has started. Coro, which is a southeast Asia-focused oil & gas firm, holds a 15% interest in the Duyung, while explorer Empyrean has an 8.5% stake. Coro Energy was trading 2.6% higher. The Tambak-2 well is mainly designed as an appraisal of the southern area of the Mako gas field, and will be drilled as a vertical well, with a total depth of 595 metres below sea level. An independent review by Gaffney Cline & Associates ascribed gross 2C resources of 276 billion cubic feet of recoverable dry gas in the Mako field with gross 3C resources of 392 billion cubic feet, reflecting additional field upside. Should the Tambak-2 well drilling result in a successful appraisal of the southern area of the Mako field, around 100 billion cubic feet could be added to the 2C category from 3C. The total time to drill, core, log and test the well is expected to take 33 days, after which the rig will be moved to the Tambak-1 location. The cost of the two-well programme is expected to be between USD17 million and USD19 million, of which Coro Energy will contribute USD10.5 million. Empyrean will fund 8.5% of the additional campaign costs over and above the Coro funding.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Mosman Oil & Gas, down 5.4%. The oil exploration, development and production company said the Stanley-3 well - located in the US state of Texas - continues to produce. Mosman has a 15% working interest in the Stanley-3 well. Mosman said the Stanley-3 well was placed on production on September 10 and produced 2,428 barrels at an average of 115.6 barrels of oil per day gross in September. However, the Stanley-3 well production rates are "still yet to fully settle", Mosman said. "We continue to be delighted with the progress at Stanley, and the clearly commercial flow rates being delivered underline the significant commercial success. Once Stanley-3 is fully settled, the operator's attention will move to Stanley-4," said Chair John Barr. "The company continues to meet its objectives, and very much looks forward to the next wells being drilled," added Barr.
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SRT Marine Systems, down 2.6%. The maritime surveillance, monitoring and management systems provider said it has made an "excellent" progress in the first half of its current financial year and expects continued growth in the second half. SRT said revenue during the six months to the end of September increased year-on-year by 10% to GBP3.5 million. During the period, the company said it has received all expected cash payments in respect of its systems business from previously completed milestones and purchased and paid for equipment required to complete scheduled project delivery milestones during the second half of the year. Despite that, SRT said it expects to report a half year pretax loss of GBP1.5 million compared to GBP1.3 million loss posted for the same period last year. SRT's transceivers business - which sells AIS transceivers into the leisure and commercial vessel markets - generated the majority of the revenue, the company explained, with growth of 15%. Meanwhile, the systems business - which delivers turn-key maritime surveillance and intelligence systems for coast guards and fisheries - also made good progress, SRT noted, delivering against GBP32 million of active contracts, with the next series of payment related milestones scheduled for customer acceptance during the second half of the year. Looking ahead, SRT said it expects to see its transceivers business continue to grow, as it has some major new product launches and marketing updates scheduled for November.
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By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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