VIY.L Share News (VIY)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Rio Tinto, up 2.8%, Anglo American, up 2.5%, BHP Billiton, up 2.1%, Glencore, up 1.2%, and Antofagasta, up 0.8%. The mining companies all are among the biggest gainers in the blue-chip index on the back of some strong Chinese manufacturing purchasing managers' index data released overnight. The results of a survey by the China Federation Of Logistics And Purchasing and the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that Chinese manufacturing PMI rose to 51 in June from 50.8 in May, coming in in-line with economists' expectations. Meanwhile, revised estimates released by Markit and HSBC bank confirmed that manufacturing activity rebounded in June. The HSBC manufacturing PMI rose to 50.7 in June from May's 49.4, marking the first signs of improvement since December 2013. Rio Tinto also is benefiting from Bank of America Merrill Lynch's decision to raise its recommendation on the company to Buy from Neutral, increasing its price target to 4,000 pence from 3,400p, saying that its valuation is now compelling and that it believes that iron ore, which is a key driver for Rio, is "bottoming".

Diageo, up 1.5%. Shares in the company continue to rise, having jumped 1% on Monday, on the back of continued speculation regarding a potential merger with SABMiller.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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WM Morrison Supermarkets, down 2%, Tesco, down 1.3%, and J Sainsbury, down 0.9%. The food retailers are among the heaviest fallers in the blue-chip index as they continue to struggle to keep hold of their market share and sales, as the pressure from German discounters Aldi and Lidl mounts, according to the latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel. Among the UK's four biggest supermarket chains, Tesco and Wm Morrison Supermarkets saw drops in both market share and sales in the 12 weeks ended June 22, Kantar said, while US Wal-mart Stores Inc-owned Asda and J Sainsbury increased both market share and sales. Meanwhile, Aldi and Lidl continue their stellar growth streaks, holding onto their all-time record market shares reached in the immediately prior period of 4.7% and 3.6%, respectively.

Standard Chartered, down 0.8%. The UK-based emerging markets-focused bank's shares have fallen on the back of some negative price target revisions. Goldman Sachs has cut its price target to 1,240 pence from 1,390p, while JPMorgan Cazenove has lowered its target to 1,350p from 1,450p. The company's shares fell 4% last Thursday after it said it expects its first-half operating profit to be down by about 20% and first-half income to be down by a mid single-digit percentage from a year before.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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St Modwen Properties, up 4%. The company, which specialises in regenerating brownfield land across the UK, reported an increase in profit and revenue for the first-half, underpinned by recovery in the UK property market. It posted pretax profit of GBP61.0 million for the six months to end-May, up from GB45.6 million a year earlier. Profit was boosted by a GBP27.7 million valuation gain on investment properties compared with a GBP16.7 million gain a year earlier. Revenue, meanwhile, rose to GBP110.1 million from GBP63.8 million a year earlier.

SuperGroup, up 2.3%. Shares in clothing designer and retailer SuperGroup have dropped sharply in recent months, and Berenberg believes that this weakness provides an "attractive buying opportunity". The Superdry clothing brand owner's shares have fallen almost 40% since the end of March, and by almost 20% since its disappointing fourth quarter update at the beginning of May. However, "we believe that SuperGroup has significant long-term growth potential and view the share price weakness over the past few months as a highly attractive buying opportunity," says Bethany Hocking, an analyst at Berenberg.

Premier Oil, up 2%. The oil and gas company said it has sold its fully-owned subsidiary Premier Oil Sumatra North BV to KrisEnergy Asia Holdings BV, for an after-tax consideration of USD40 million, plus working capital adjustments. It said the deal is subject to government approvals and is part of its ongoing strategy to dispose of USD300 million in non-core assets in 2014 so that it can focus on higher return projects.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Ocado Group, down 4.2%. After rising sharply at the open, Ocado's shares are now the biggest fallers in the FTSE 250. The decline comes despite the online grocery retailer saying that it swung to pretax profit in the first half of its financial year, driven by strong sales growth boosted by its tie-up with Wm Morrison. The online retailer posted a pretax profit of GBP7.5 million for the 24 weeks to May 18, compared with a GBP3.8 million loss in recorded a year earlier. Revenue grew by 21% to GBP429.7 million from GBP355.9 million. However, "after this set of interim results, where we've had the chance to re-appraise our long standing caution on the Ocado business model, the risks still more than match the rewards at the current share price," said Mike Stewart, an analyst at Shore Capital.

Synthomer, down 1.3%. The maker of resins and binders for construction and manufacturing is among the biggest losers in the mid-cap index after it said that Group Chief Executive Adrian Whitfield will step down from the role on June 30, 2015. Whitfield has served in the position for the last eight years. He will remain on the board and as group CEO until June next year in order to allow sufficient time for the company to find a replacement and to care-take an orderly transition.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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San Leon Energy, up 34%. The oil and gas production company said it has signed a joint venture deal with Palomar Natural Resources of the US across seven concessions in Poland's Permian Basin for an initial payment of USD20 million in cash. It said that Palomar will get a 65% working interest in San Leon's Southern Permian Basin and Northern Permian Basin licences in return for the cash and carried payments for an initial work programme on the sites. San Leon said that the carried payment of San Leon's interest in the first two development wells on the Rawicz gas field will be repaid from half of San Leon's production revenues from the site once it goes into production. If it fails to go into production, the carry will not be repaid. The company added that Palomar will fully carry without repayment, the work over, recompletion, and testing of three existing wells in the Siekierki Gas Field.

Max Petroleum, up 23%. The oil and gas company said that in June it commissioned a new oil pipeline and an associated oil terminal facility connecting its Zhana Makat field with the regional oil export pipeline, roughly 10 kilometres away. It said it is now possible to deliver oil directly from its Zhana Makat central processing facility to the national Kazakh pipeline network, enabling direct delivery of both domestic and export oil sales. The company said oil produced at the Zhana Makat, Borkyldakty, Sagiz West and East Kyzylzhar I fields can now be transported to end users using this pipeline at a transport cost saving of roughly USD4.0 per barrel. The company said that the amount of oil being delivered via the pipeline is now being ramped up to a total of roughly 3,400 barrels of oil per day, which represents the total available volume to be transported through the line. Max Petroleum also said that it expects the process to save it roughly USD4.9 million in annualised transport costs once the ramp-up process is complete.

Cyan Holdings, up 14%. The company said that a consortium led by Larsen & Toubro has been chosen by Tata Power Mumbai to deploy Cyan's control and communication network for electricity metering, CyLec. According to Cyan, Tata selected the consortium after a 12-month evaluation of its technology. The initial contract with Tata is for the deployment of 5,000 consumer meters in a district in Mumbai and is currently planned to go live in early 2015. Under the partnership, Larsen & Toubro will supply smart meters with CyLec wireless technology inside, and Neosilica will provide a meter data acquisition system interface from Cyan's head end server into Tata's meter data management system for billing and fault management.

Litebulb Group, up 14%. The brand and product development company said that its subsidiaries have received orders worth more than GBP1 million from a number of retailers, including Debenhams and Tchibo. It said subsidiary GO Entertainment Group Ltd has signed an agreement with an unnamed UK retailer to develop a new range of products, including books, memorabilia, DVDs and magazines. The company has also received an order from Debenhmans to supply more than 30 items for its Christmas Gift Range, including gift sets and stocking fillers, through its Bluw business. The order from Debenhams represents a 16% increase on Christmas orders for 2013. Bluw has also signed a new contract with German retailer Tchibo.

Ilika, up 10%. The company said it has achieved a twenty-five-fold increase in the capacity of cells in its solid-state batteries, which it hopes to launch next year. It said it now plans to further increase the energy stored by a stacked battery by depositing thicker cells and simultaneously increasing the number of stacked cells.

Central Rand Gold, up 10%. The gold mining and exploration company said that independent consultants have reclassified gold mineralisation at its Central Basin mining area in South Africa to 'Mineral Resource' from 'Exploration Target', more than doubling the company's resource base. It said that following the successful start of an acid mine drainage pumping and treatment process by the Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority on site, independent consultants Venmyn Deloitte upgraded gold mineralisation found between 450 metres and 900 metres below surface. The company said that new pumps installed in March and a high-density sludge plant which was commissioned in May, have shown that the entire basin can be drained of water from a single point. It added that studies have shown it can drain beyond the 450 metre level, allowing for extraction, which brought the mineralisation into the resources category. As a result, Venmyn Deloitte have issued a new competent persons report for the site, which shows that the reclassification has more than doubled the resource base of the company to 9.9 million ounces of contained gold from 4.5 million ounces previously.

Quindell, up 9.4%. Asset manager Fidelity Worldwide Investment's US arm FMR LLC has doubled its stake in Quindell. The move, which makes Fidelity the second-biggest investor in the company after founder Robert Terry, comes as investors and short sellers continue to debate the merits of the Quindell model.

ViaLogy, up 8.1%. The company has raised gross proceeds of GBP0.7 million through an over-subscribed open offer, adding to GBP6.5 million it raised in a placing earlier in the month. It will use the money to develop and commercialise the IONA Test, a non-invasive pre-natal screening test for Down's Syndrome.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
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MoPowered, off 50%. The mobile commerce company said that revenue rose less than had been anticipated in the first-half, and warned that revenue in 2014 is now expected to be more modest. It reported revenue in the six months to end-June "in excess of three quarters of a million pounds," representing growth of over 60% from the second-half of 2013, although the increase is less than had been anticipated. MoPowered said that after a strong first quarter, it has been hit by delays and some of the larger deals that were expected to complete in the second quarter have now slipped to the second-half of the year. MoPowered said growth in its recurring revenue, and therefore revenue as a whole, will be more modest than had been expected for 2014 and beyond.

7digital Group, down 10%. The digital music and radio services company has seen its shares plummet despite saying that it does not expect Blackberry Ltd's decision to shut down the music and video sections on the Blackberry World app store to hold back its financial performance for the year. The digital music and radio services company, which has a contract with Canadian handset maker Blackberry, issued a statement Tuesday following Blackberry's decision last month to close the music and video sections of BlackBerry World and replace it with the Amazon Apps Store.

Metminco, down 9.3%. The exploration and development copper-mining company said the Supreme Court in Chile has rejected the company's application to appeal a recent decision which found that a granted First Easement Extension, allowing the company to engage in further mining at the Mollacas Copper Project, was invalid. It said the Supreme Court made the decision on the basis that the Court of Appeal was right to say that the extension cannot be granted without the land holder's permission. Metminco said it has now lodged an appeal against the decision, stating that the review panel only considered one of the arguments presented in the case prior to making its determination. The company has also lodged an appeal to the Chilean Constitutional Tribunal for a decision on the Court of Appeal's application of various civil and mining codes in making its original ruling.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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