Vodafone Share News (VOD)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Vodafone Group, up 5.6%. The mobile telecommunications giant narrowed its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation guidance for the current financial year, ending March 2015, to between GBP11.6 billion and GBP11.9 billion, slightly higher than previously indicated, and raised its interim dividend, following a revenue rise in the half year to end-September. Vodafone also announced plans to launch residential broadband services in the UK in spring 2015 and is planning to use the infrastructure it acquired with Cable & Wireless Worldwide to launch these UK services. The company posted a pretax profit of GBP406 million for the half year, down from GBP1.51 billion a year before, as a big rise in costs offset a rise in revenue to GBP20.75 billion from GBP19.06 billion. The big uptick in administrative costs included a GBP637 million charge for the amortisation of its acquired customer base and brand intangible assets.

Land Securities Group, up 3.0%. The commercial property company said the shift in its retail portfolio to better quality properties is paying off, as it reported higher net asset value per share and a 7.5% valuation surplus over the first half of its financial year. Land Securities reported a basic net asset value per share of 1,183 pence on September 30, up from 1,069 pence at the end of March, while its adjusted diluted net asset value per share rose to 1,129 pence, from 1,013 pence. Its valuation surplus over the period was GBP880.2 million, representing 7.5% growth, and it combined portfolio was valued at GBP13.2 billion. In addition, the company reported a pretax profit of GBP1.03 billion for the half, up from GBP397.9 million a year earlier, while revenue profit increased to GBP170.0 million, from GBP156.5 million.

EasyJet, up 2.3%, International Consolidated Airlines Group, up 1.6%, and Carnival, up 1.4%. The companies are up after the price of Brent Oil hit its lowest level since October 2010, Tuesday morning. Brent hit a low of USD81.21 per barrel.

Capita, up 1.6%. The outsourcing company said it has been made preferred bidder on a deal potentially worth up to GBP325 million over 10 years to run the Co-operative Bank's mortgage servicing operation in the UK, a deal that marks a big new step into taking over mortgage servicing by the outsourcing giant. The deal needs to be approved by the bank's board and regulators, but Capita is expecting the deal to start in the first quarter of 2015. Under the terms of the deal, Capita would take over and transform The Co-operative Bank's mortgage servicing operations in Leek in Staffordshire and Plymouth. It pledged to install new systems to drive efficiency and to simplify business processes while sticking to regulatory requirements. Capita would also acquire the about 660 staff and assets of the bank's mortgage administration business Western Mortgage Services Ltd.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Tullow Oil, down 4.4%, BG Group, down 1.7%, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', down 1.6%, and BP down 1.3%. The companies are down after the price of Brent Oil hit its lowest level since October 2010, Tuesday morning. Brent hit a low of USD81.21 per barrel.

In addition, Tullow Oil had its price target cut by 32% to 685.00p from 1,000.00p by HSBC, but it maintains its Overweight rating. The stock currently trades at 486.60p.

CRH, down 2.5%. The building materials company said its operating earnings and like-for-like sales grew in the third quarter, although at a slower pace than in the first half, as growing demand in the US offset moderating markets in Europe, and it reiterated its forecast for earnings growth of about 10% in the whole of 2014. The company said like-for-like sales, which exclude acquisitions and disposals and currency movements, grew 3% in the third quarter, down from 5% growth in the first half. That helped pushed up earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation by 6% on the year, driven by 10% growth in the Americas, but that was a slowdown from 27% growth in the first half.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Renishaw, up 9.8%. The metrology and healthcare products manufacturer said it has continued to see strong demand across its product lines and will up investment in manufacturing capacity in order to meet this demand. In a short trading statement, the company said its anticipates pretax profit for the full year to be GBP95 million to GBP105 million, on revenue of between GBP425 million and GBP445 million. It reported pretax profit of GBP96.4 million on revenue of GBP355.5 million in 2013.

Taylor Wimpey, up 3.4%. The housebuilder upgraded its operating margin growth forecast for 2014 and reiterated its medium-term forecasts, saying the recent slowdown in the UK housing market meant it is now growing at a steady and sustainable rate. The company now expects its operating margin to grow 400 basis points in 2014. It said its sales rate for the year to date stands at 0.66 sales per outlet per week, slightly ahead of the 0.65 rate it reported for the same period in 2013. For the second half to date, sales rates of 0.60 are around 5% below 2013, it added.

Morgan Advanced Materials, up 1.7%. The company said it is trading in line with expectations and said it expects its revenue growth in the second half to be higher year-on-year. Its book-to-bill ratio is at 1.04 for the year to date and its outstanding order book is currently around 6% higher than at the same time last year on a constant currency basis. Morgan said it expects revenue growth of 3% in the second half, based on the order profile in its book, on both a continuing and constant currency basis against a year earlier.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Afren, down 5.0%, and Premier Oil, down 3.6%. The companies have been hit by the low price of Brent oil.

TalkTalk Telecom Group, down 3.9%. The telecommunications company is down despite saying it is on track to deliver its financial targets for the 2017 financial year and it swung to a pretax profit in the half year to end-September. The company raised its interim dividend to 4.6 pence from 4.0 pence in the previous year. TalkTalk posted a pretax profit of GBP20 million in the half year, swinging from a pretax loss of GBP9 million a year before, as revenue rose to GBP871 million from GBP843 million. Jefferies said that the higher subscriber acquisition costs imply a 7% to 8% reduction in full year earnings, and whilst TalkTalk's guidance of 25% margins by the financial year 2016/17 remains, it relies on an around GBP100 million net reduction in subscriber acquisition costs.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Central Rand Gold, up 208%. The company said it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Hiria Group Co Ltd to sell the entirety of its Dutch subsidiary. The subsidiary, Central Rand Gold (Netherlands Antilles) NV, owns the assets of the Central Rand Group and will be sold to Hiria for USD150 million if the transaction goes through via a formal share sale agreement. The memorandum is not binding, and Central Rand said it is continuing talks with other parties interested in purchasing the assets and subsidiary. The company and Hiria have agreed to try and finalise the deal by the end of March 2015.

Amur Minerals Corp, up 33%. The company is up after it said its exploration and production licence application for the Kun-Manie nickel copper sulphide project has been approved. Amur said the Ministry of Economic Development in Russia has given its approval for the plan, meaning all independent and external reviews required have been completed and the approval moves Amur a step closer to converting its exploration licence into a production licence

Venn Life Sciences Holdings, up 12%. The company said it had signed a deal worth over EUR1.4 million to conduct a European wide Phase II study for an undisclosed US based company. Venn said that the deal followed multiple contract signings during the year, and expands its US customer base. It has won business worth a total of EUR8 million in the past six months, including Tuesday's deal.

Sweett Group, up 11%. The construction and property consultancy company said it thinks it is doing all it reasonably can to cooperate with a UK Serious Fraud Office probe into its business dealings, even though it said the SFO no longer considers that the company is co-operating because it is continuing its own "independent" investigation into the matters. Last week, the construction and property consultancy had said it was continuing to cooperate with the SFO as the body probed allegations that were made in the Wall Street Journal in June last year about improper business conduct by a former employee of its subsidiary Cyril Sweett International Ltd.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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EU Supply, off 21%. The company said delays to the roll out of a Danish housing project would result in a portion of revenue from the project being pushed into next year. EU Supply noted around GBP200,000 in revenue originally pencilled in for 2014 will be shifted to 2015. The delayed revenue is result of the slower-than-expected roll out of its project in the Danish public housing sector.

IndigoVision Group, down 16%. The company warned that its operating profit is set to fall short of market expectations after sales came in below hopes in its most recent quarter. It said sales for the fifteen months to October 31 were up 9% on the previous 15 months at GBP43.4 million. However, sales in the fifth quarter had been below its expectations as sales fell in Latin America and Asia Pacific, offsetting growth in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

ZincOx Resources, down 13%. The company said its Korean recycling plant will not return to full production until next year following its suspension to be repaired, leaving it with lower cash reserves. The current repairs are set to last two more weeks and once production restarts at the plant, ZincOx expects to return to full production in the first quarter of 2015. The repairs will leave the company with lower cash reserves than it would normally operate with, but ZincOx expects its balance to be restored to a normal level as production increases during November and December.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com

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