Vodafone Share News (VOD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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J Sainsbury, up 2.5%, Tesco, up 0.6%, and WM Morrison Supermarkets, up 0.5%. The UK food retailers are up after Sainsbury's published its first-quarter numbers. The supermarket posted its second consecutive quarterly sales drop, as the price war between the big names in the UK continues, but it also said that it expects like-for-like sales growth to remain positive for the full-year. "Compared to the generally overcast outlook for the sector, it has not been such a bad performance, and it seems that Sainsbury’s lead over its competitors is holding up for now," says IG market analyst Brenda Kelly.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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International Consolidated Airlines Group, down 5.4%, and easyJet, down 3.4%. The airlines are big fallers after German airline Lufthansa lowered its operating profit view for 2014, due to weaker-than-expected revenue in the passenger and freight businesses and a pilots strike. For the 2014 fiscal year, the company now expects operating profit to be approximately EUR1 billion, down from an earlier estimate of between EUR1.3 billion to EUR1.5 billion. Its 2015 forecast was pulled back to EUR2 billion from EUR2.65 billion.

Vodafone Group, down 3.1%, and Johnson Matthey, down 1.8%. The companies are amongst the leading fallers in the blue-chip index after going ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout.

Rolls-Royce Holdings, down 2.6%. The aircraft engine maker said a decision by the Emirates airline to cancel an order for 70 Airbus A350 aircraft has knocked about 3.5%, or GBP2.6 billion, off its order book. Rolls-Royce was due to provide its Trent XWB engines for the aircraft. It said it was disappointed with Emirates' decision, but was confident that the A350 delivery slots vacated by the Dubai-based airline would be taken up by other airlines.
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FTSE 250- WINNERS
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Betfair Group, up 1.9%. The online betting company reported higher profits and revenues in its last financial year, prompting the company to raise its dividend by 54%. For the year to end-April, the company reported a pretax profit of GBP61.1 million, compared with a GBP49.4 million pretax loss the prior year, when it booked GBP104.5 million in exceptional expenses and charges. Revenues for the year rose 2% to GBP393.6 million from GBP389.0 million the prior year. The group declared a full-year dividend of 20.0 pence per share, up from the 13.0 pence dividend it paid out a year earlier.

ITE Group, up 0.4%. The exhibitions company has agreed a binding contract to buy a 50% stake in Indonesian exhibitions company PT Debindo Unggul Buana Makmur from that company's founders. It didn't give any financial details for the acquisition, but said it expects it to boost earnings in the first full year of ownership. It added that it will finance the deal out of its existing balance sheet.
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FTSE 250- LOSERS
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Intermediate Capital Group, down 4.6%, LondonMetric Property, down 3.4%, Booker Group, down 3.1%, and Victrex, down 2.9% are four more companies that have gone ex-dividend.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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Octagonal, up 29%. The company said that its main investment, a 9.97% stake in custody and clearing company Global Investment Strategy UK Ltd, had performed strongly in the past two months. Octagonal said GIS settled 12,000 transactions worth over GBP1.6 billion during April and May combined, and launched a mini prime broker service for its hedge fund clients. GIS's main business is settlement and safe custody services for over 300 global hedge funds and family wealth offices.

Greka Drilling, up 23%. The specialised, unconventional oil-and-gas driller is a big winner despite saying its pretax profit fell significantly in 2013 as revenues almost halved after a major client, connected company Green Dragon Gas, reduced its drilling programme during the year. Greka Drilling said its pretax profit fell 69% to USD1.1 million from USD3.5 million the previous year, as revenues fell to USD30.5 million from USD60.9 million. Despite this the company remains confident of the year ahead, saying that its strong backlog of USD97 million in contracted work at year end and mobilisation orders means that it expects growth in both China and particularly India, where it looks to further expand.

Getech Group, up 19%. The company, which provides data, studies and services to the oil, gas and mining exploration sectors said it has won a USD2 million contract with an existing client, one of the several significant contracts it had flagged that it was working on in a trading update on Tuesday. It said the new deal included a renewal of a Globe subscription for a further three years to July 2017. It also includes a long-term licence for regional high-resolution gravity and magnetic data, and a subscription to Getech's global depth-to-basement project which started in April 2014 and is planned to complete in the fourth quarter of 2015. Getech's Globe product is a geographic information system based on its gravity and magnetic data. Getech shares fell 11% on Tuesday after it warned that its trading update that full-year pretax profit would be "significantly" below market expectations.

Unitech Corporate Parks, up 14%. The investor in Indian property said it has signed an agreement to sell its property interests subsidiary to an affiliate of Brookfield Property Partner for about GBP205.9 million in cash, and expects to return cash to shareholders once the deal is completed. Unitech said it expects to have the cash to return about 56 pence a share to shareholders once the deal completes. That would be a 45% premium to its share price on April 2, the day before it announced the approach, and a 79% premium to its lowest share price in the last 12 months. It would also be above its estimated net asset value per share of about 53 pence as of March 31. The deal needs to be cleared by Unitech shareholders, and the company will also seek permission to change its investing policy to allow the cash return.

SeaEnergy, up 10%. The offshore energy services business said it had entered into a joint venture with Singapore-based shipping company Go Offshore (Asia) Pte Ltd that will manage Go's vessels in UK, European and adjacent waters. SeaEnergy said its SeaEnergy Ship Management Ltd unit will take a 51% stake in the joint venture, which will be called GOSeaEnergy Ship Management Ltd.

LiDCO Group, up 9.9%. The cardiovascular company said it remains confident of meeting market expectations for its current financial year, which ends on January 31, 2015. In a statement ahead of the company's annual general meeting, Chief Executive Terry O'Brien said LiDCO is well-funded and expects to be debt free by the end of the financial year. The company made its first ever pretax profit in its last financial year, and started generating cash before financing costs. "We look forward to continued growth in profitability and remain confident of meeting market expectations for the full year," O'Brien said in the AGM statement.

Herencia Resources, up 8%. The mineral exploration and development company said it has received more high-grade drill results from the Picachos drill programme in Chile, continuing to confirm broad zones of high grade copper mineralisation at shallow depths. It said laboratory assay results from the most recent drilling includes a 45 metre space at 1.70% copper from 95 metres in depth at the PP14022 hole and an 11 metre space at 1.20% copper from 72 metres depth at the PP14027 hole.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
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Quindell, off 27%. The provider of software and consultancy services to the insurance and telecoms sector said it won't be able to move to the London Stock Exchange's main market for the time being because it hasn't be able to satisfy some of the rules for a premium listing on that market. It said its advisers have been told that Quindell particularly didn't meet the rule that says a company may not be able to list if it has gone through a significant change in its scale or operations in the previous three years. It said it will continue seeking a premium listing on the main market in London as soon as it can, but will also continue looking at other options, including listing in North America.

Ferrum Crescent, down 22%. The iron ore developer said an independent valuation of its mineral assets at the Moonlight iron ore project has shown a preferred valuation of USD33.0 million, as it continues to seek funding to conduct a bankable feasibility study for the site. The news comes after Ferrum Crescent said in May that it had failed to receive the second funding payment of GBP500,000 from Anvwar Asian Investment, as part of a deal to sell 35% interest in a subsidiary that holds its Moonlight iron ore assets in South Africa for USD10 million. On Wednesday, the company said it remains in discussions with Anvwar and other parties over financing for the Moonlight project's bankable feasibility study, and it will update the market in due course.

StratMin Global Resources, down 15%. The graphite exploration and production company said its pretax loss widened significantly in 2013 as administrative expenses increased while the company achieved first production from its Lohorano plant. Its pretax loss widened to GBP2.5 million from GBP363,000 the previous year. The company said it achieved first production of graphite from its Lohorano plant in September 2013, with first revenues of GBP46,000 being included in the financial data. However, as the company developed its operations in Madagascar during 2013, its administrative expenses jumped to GBP2.1 million from GBP363,000.

AfriAg, down 13%. The agricultural transport company said it raised GBP400,000 through a discounted placement of 100 million new shares. The company said it will use the proceeds to strengthen its balance sheet and provide working capital to investigate acquisition and investment opportunities. The subscription shares represent 8.65% of the enlarged issued share capital of the company. AfriAg's shares have fallen to 0.436 pence, bringing them close to the placement price of 0.40 pence per share.

John Lewis of Hungerford, down 12%. The kitchen and furniture designer and manufacturer said it continues to trade ahead of the volumes experienced last year, with dispatched sales and the forward order book up 8.9% on a year earlier. However, it also warned that operating profit for its full year will be lower as it invests in new showrooms.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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