UBM Share News (UBM)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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ITV, up 1.7%. Telecommunications and cable group Liberty Global has increased its stake in broadcaster ITV to 9.9%. Liberty has acquired a further 138.7 million shares in ITV, increasing its total holding to 398.5 million. At the same time it has entered into a hedging transaction in respect the new shares it has acquired and has obtained further financing from its hedge counterparty. Brokerage Liberum Capital believes that the acquisition of a bigger stake in ITV by Liberty may suggest that a bid by another company for ITV could be near.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Antofagasta, down 2.7%. The mining company has entered into a definitive agreement with Barrick Gold which will lead to the company acquiring a 50% stake in the Zaldivar copper mine in Chile. Antofagasta will acquire the stake in the holding company, Compañia Minera Zaldívar, from Barrick Gold for a total consideration of USD1.00 billion in cash, of which USD980 million will be paid once the deal has been closed, followed by five annual payments of USD5 million starting in 2016.

InterContinental Hotels Group, down 2.7%. The hotelier said after the market close Thursday that it is not in talks with US hotel group Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide about a merger. The stock had gained 4.6% on Thursday on speculation about a combination of the two companies and on a strong set of interim results from IHG.

Weir Group, down 1.6%. The engineering services company has had its price target cut by a number of brokerages and banks. Societe Generale has lowered its price target on the company to 1,600 pence from 1,750p, while HSBC has lowered its target price to 1,700p from 1,900p, UBS to 2,000p from 2,220p, Citigroup to 1,950p from 2,200p, Exane to 1,625p from 1,800p, and Goldman to 1,950 from 2,000p. Weir's shares are currently quoted at 1,528.00p. The price target revisions come after Weir said Thursday that it expects a much stronger second half of the year after reporting a large fall in profit in the first half as the oil price collapse continues to impact on activity in the oil and gas sector.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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JD Sports Fashion, up 8.2%. The retailer said it anticipates beating market expectations for the full year, after the group said trading remained strong in its business in the first half of the year. JD said like-for-like sales in the half year to August 1 have been ahead of its expectations, though the group has seen its margins squeezed by the weakness of the euro. But, assuming its current performance continues, JD Sports said it expects its headline pretax profit for the full year will be around 10% ahead of the current market consensus of GBP110 million.

UBM, up 5%. The media company said its first-half results were in line with expectations and said its full year outlook remains unchanged despite pretax profit dropping on the back of a number of exceptional items. It posted a pretax profit of GBP58.4 million in the first half of 2015, falling from a GBP82.5 million profit a year earlier despite revenue climbing to GBP456.0 million from GBP361.0 million. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 13% to GBP98.8 million from GBP87.4 million. UBM maintained its first half interim dividend of 5.3 pence per share.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Essentra, down 5.2%. The plastic and fibre products company said its pretax profit fell in the first half of 2015 thanks to exceptional costs it booked in the period, but revenue surged on the back of the acquisition of Clondalkin Specialist Packaging. Pretax profit for the company fell to GBP45 million from GBP49 million a year earlier, thanks to one-off costs Essentra booked, primarily related to the acquisition of Clondalkin. Revenue rose to GBP550.4 million in the half, up from GBP431.1 million, primarily thanks to the Clondalkin acquisition, as like-for-like revenue growth came in at 1.1%. Essentra said it will pay an interim dividend of 6.3 pence per share, up from 5.7p a year earlier.

Moneysupermarket.com Group, down 4.3%. Martin Lewis, the founder and editor-in-chief of MoneySavingExpert.com, has sold a 1.6% stake in price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com for GBP25.2 million. Credit Suisse said it sold 9.0 million shares on behalf of Lewis, who sold MoneySavingExpert.com to Moneysupermarket in 2012, leaving him with a 1.5% stake in the company. Lewis, who still holds 8.4 million shares in the company, will be unable to sell further shares for 180 days on completion of the placing. Another 4.3 million shares were placed with investors on behalf of the Charities Aid Foundation, which cut its holding to 0.1% from 0.9% as a result. The placing raised GBP12.0 million for the charity, which received its shares as a donation from Lewis. The shares were sold at 280 pence per share. Shares in Moneysupermarket are currently quoted at 283.43p.

Vedanta Resources, down 2.4%. The multi-commodity company has reported a dramatic fall in revenue and earnings in its first quarter, as weak commodity prices hit many of its segments. It said revenue in the first quarter ended June 30 totalled USD2.95 billion, falling from USD3.06 billion a year earlier, as some of its segments, especially its oil and gas division, reported a drop in earnings due to commodity price declines. That led to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of USD644.6 million, down 38% from the USD1.04 billion reported a year earlier. The oil and gas division generated Ebitda of USD215.4 million in the first quarter of the financial year, falling from USD549.9 million a year earlier as revenue tanked to USD413.0 million from USD748.0 million.

Vesuvius, down 2.0%. The molten metal flow engineering company said its pretax profit fell in the first half of 2015 due to a decline in global steel production and inventory volumes, which pulled down its revenue in the half. The group said its pretax profit in the first half fell to GBP37.9 million, down from GBP40.4 million a year earlier, as revenue fell to GBP702.6 million from GBP729.8 million a year earlier.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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Enegi Oil, up 14%. The company said its joint venture company ABT Oil and Gas has sourced the "final essential" consortium member for its marginal field initiative. It said ABT Oil and Gas, its joint venture with ABTechnology, has signed a collaboration agreement with global engineering and design consultancy Arup. Therefore, Arup becomes the latest member of the Marginal Field Delivery Consortium that ABT Oil and Gas has established to assist in the delivery of its marginal field initiative. The consortium has been established to focus on the delivery of marginal field projects, and Arup will be joining Kongsberg Maritime, Apollo, RMRI, Braemar ACM, AGR and Frames.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
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Oxford Pharmascience Group, off 21%. The company said that it is encouraged by results from its pilot clinical study of its OXPzero tablet, although it did not meet one of its two primary endpoints. The study was of OXP005, a re-application of the company's OXPzero technology as it has been developed for ibuprofen, designed to cause less upper gastro intestinal irritation than anti-inflammatory drug naproxen. The tablet was being studied in comparison with Naprosyn with two primary endpoints: a comparison of its overall Lanza score - a clinical rating score of gastrointestinal irritation in the stomach and duodenum on endoscopic evaluation - and a comparison of the total number of erosions observed in the stomach and duodenum. Oxford Pharmascience said that in the study both OXP005 and Naprosyn exhibited a similar Lanza score. However, the Lanza score endpoint was not met. OXP005 met its other primary endpoint of reduced erosions.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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