VRP.L Share News (VRP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.
-------
FTSE 100 WINNERS
-------
Standard Chartered, up 5.1%. JP Morgan has raised the emerging markets bank to Overweight from Neutral.
-------
FTSE 100 LOSERS
-------
Carnival, down 2.8%. Deutsche Bank has downgraded the cruise operator to Hold from Buy.

Meggitt, down 1.9%. Bernstein has downgraded the engineer of components for the aerospace, defence and energy markets to Market-Perform from Outperform, according to traders.
-------
FTSE 250 WINNERS
-------
Centamin, up 14%. The Egypt-focused gold miner reported a sharp drop in pretax profit for 2014 as the falling gold price offset a rise in production, but the company still declared a dividend for the year. Centamin said its pretax profit for the year was USD81.6 million, less than half the USD184 million it posted a year earlier. Revenue dropped to USD472.6 million from USD503.8 million. However, the company proposed a final dividend of 1.99 US cents per share, giving it a total payout of 2.86 cents per share for the year. Centamin paid no dividend in 2013.

FirstGroup, up 3.8%. The transport operator said it had retained the First Great Western rail franchise in the UK until at least April 2019, and pledged to add new and updated trains, faster services, more direct trains to Devon and Cornwall and improvements to infrastructure. The company said it will continue the franchise until April 1, 2019, and the deal could be extended for a further year at the UK government's discretion. It has already been running the franchise since 2006.

Vedanta Resources, up 2.4%. JP Morgan has raised the miner's price target to 520.00 pence from 450.00p. The stock currently trades at 537.50p.

Pennon Group, up 1.8%. The water utility and waste management company said trading remains in line with expectations for its financial year to the end of March, with its South West Water business performing well and its Viridor waste management division making progress, leading the company to reiterate its dividend growth plans. It said it is well placed to generate increasing operating cashflows over the 2015-2020 regulatory period and, as a result, intends to continue with its current dividend policy of year-on-year growth of 4% above UK retail prices index inflation over that period.
-------
AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
-------
Silence Therapeutics, up 22%. The company said it had seen an "excellent outcome" in its Phase IIa trial of compound Atu027 in pancreatic cancer. The primary objective of the trial was to assess the safety and pharmacokinetics of the compound, and the second objective was to evaluate its efficacy including progression free survival.

Verona Pharma, up 21%. The company said it has seen "very encouraging" initial interim results from its ongoing phase I/II clinical trial with a new nebulised formulation of its RPL554 compound. Results from the first part of the study showed the drug was well tolerated across all doses tested, and no maximum tolerated dose could be defined. It noted that there were no changes in the subject's cardiovascular parameters, and a complete absence of nausea or vomiting at all doses.

Metal Tiger, up 19%. The company said it has now implemented its divisional restructuring and is in the position to self-finance its activities. The company said its two new investment divisions, Direct Equities and Direct Projects, are now embedded and fully operational. It had said in Late January it was to create the new structure as part of an updated strategic approach.

Premaitha Health, up 16%. The company said it has been awarded a three-year contract to provide its non-invasive prenatal test, known as IONA, to St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The test is currently the subject of a patent infringement suit filed by NASDAQ listed Illumina Inc last Monday. The contract was awarded following a competitive tender process, and St George's Hospital in South West London will be the first National Health Service facility to offer non-invasive prenatal testing in-house.
-------
AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
-------
Clean Air Power, off 31%. The company reported a sharp drop in revenue and an increase in cash consumption in 2014 and warned that 2015 would also be challenging as it seeks fresh funding to shore up an uncertain financial future. Clean Air Power said it faces significant doubt over whether it can continue in business unless it secures additional funding. It said it now has limited means to further cut costs, and is now seeking fresh funding through either a second major deal with a manufacturer, which would boost cash flow, or "alternative sources of funding". It said talks are ongoing with a number of manufacturers.

SpaceandPeople, down 15%. The marketing company said its pretax profit dropped in 2014 as a rise in its cost of sales outpaced revenue growth and said it would slash its dividend. It said its pretax profit fell to GBP596,000 from GBP1.8 million a year earlier.

Egdon Resources, down 10%. Europa Oil & Gas and Egdon Resources said they have plugged and abandoned the Kiln Lane-1 exploration well in the East Midlands of England and will return the site to farmland after drilling encountered sandstones with too much water.
-------

By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.