VRP.L Share News (VRP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Royal Mail, up 2.6%. Shares in the postal operator have risen after JP Morgan Cazenove upgraded its rating on the stock to Overweight from Neutral, increasing its price target to 605 pence from 515p. The rise comes just a day after Royal Mail's shares fell 4.5% when the UK government said it raised GBP750 million by selling a further 15% stake in Royal Mail for 550 pence a share. Shares in the company are currently quoted at 506.00 pence.

BT Group, up 1.3%. UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has proposed controls on the wholesale prices BT charges for its business lines, with the aim of reducing costs over a three-year period. Ofcom believes the proposed price caps "should lead to significant real-terms price reductions for most customers" in this market, including businesses, schools, universities and libraries. Consumer mobile and broadband operators also would see savings which could be passed on to customers, Ofcom said.

Imperial Tobacco Group, up 0.8%. The tobacco company's shares are among the biggest risers in the blue-chip index after Société Générale and Morgan Stanley both raised their respective price targets on the stock. SocGen, which has a Buy rating on the stock, has lifted its price target on the company to 3,800 pence from 3,500p, while Morgan Stanley, which has an Overweight recommendation for the company, has increased its price target to 3,600p from 3,500p. Shares in the company are currently quoted at 3,293.00 pence.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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J Sainsbury, down 1.4%, and Wm Morrison Supermarkets, down 1.2%. The food retailers are giving back some of the gains posted over the past two day. Sainsbury's and Morrisons saw their shares rise on Wednesday and Thursday after the former on Wednesday reported a drop in retail sales, but its chief executive said he is encouraged by the "early trends" the grocer is seeing. Tesco, down 1.3%, also is reversing some of its recent gains, but the decline is not significant enough to place it among the leading fallers in the blue-chip index.

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' and 'B' shares, down 1.1%. Shell has notified Ukraine that it will pull out of a shale gas exploration project in the east of the country, the Financial Times reported, as a result of the ongoing conflict in the region. Insiders cited heightened geopolitical risk and sharp drop in global oil prices, which has made shale gas exploration projects less attractive, the report says.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Synergy Health, up 2.4%. N+1 Singer has upgraded its recommendation on the company to Buy from Hold saying that the US Federal Trade Commission's decision to challenge the company's takeover by STERIS Corp has "precipitated a sharp fall in the share price to a level we think looks compelling whether Synergy remains independent or not". N+1 Singer has a 1,912 pence price target on the stock. Synergy Health's shares are currently quoted at 1,797.00p.

Ted Baker, up 1.6%. The fashion retailer said it is on track to meet expectations for its full year following a strong start, with revenue up 24.2% in the eighteen weeks from the beginning of February to June 6. Retail sales during the period were up 18.9%, or 18.1% at constant currency, the company said. E-commerce sales rose 46.9%, driven by further growth in the UK and a strong performance from Ted Baker's US site, as well as a contribution from its new Canadian site launched at the end of 2014. Wholesale sales rose 41.2%, boosted by a good performance in the UK and North America. In North America sales were driven by a strong start to the season and changes to buying patterns, Ted Baker said, and it now expects full-year growth in this segment of around 18%.

Clarkson, up 0.7%. The shipping services company said that Chief Financial Officer Jeff Woyda has been appointed to the role of chief operating officer as well. "Jeff joined Clarkson in 2006 and has played a major role in the growth and development of the business over the last 9 years," Chief Executive Andi Case said in a statement. "The board believes this appointment better reflects Jeff's remit and role within the business."

Petrofac, up 0.7%. UBS has upgraded the oil services company to Buy from Neutral, increasing its price target to 1,100 pence from 897p and saying that the company's valuation looks cheap. Shares in the company are currently quoted at 912.00p.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Petra Diamonds, down 9.3%. The diamond producer said it expects to report lower revenue when it next reports annual results, as average prices for selling its diamonds have come under pressure. It said that a "lower incidence" of high quality stones, together with higher volumes of smaller diamonds, has put pressure on the average prices it has attracted for its gems. The company expects revenue for the year ending June 30 to amount to about USD430 million, compared with USD471.8 million in the year that ended June 30, 2014. Petra Diamonds' production target of about 3.2 million carats for the year ending June 30 remains intact.

Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, down 8.1%. The bookmaker's shares have fallen sharply after it said it has "become aware" that the independent trustees of both Emerald Bay and Stinson Ridge have decided to sell up to 50 million shares in the company through a placing. Bwin.Party said the placing arrangements are consistent with the trusteees obligations to sell their holdings before the end of October under the terms agreed by the shareholders. Those terms were announced by bwin.party at the end of October 2013. Bwin.Party said outstanding takeover proposals for the company will be unaffected by the news.

Card Factory, down 3.3%. Shares in the greeting cards and gifts retailer are down after Nomura downgraded its recommendation on the stock to Neutral from Buy, even though it increased its price target for the company to 315 pence from 300p. Card Factory's shares are currently quoted at 355.00p.

Serco Group, down 2.2%. Shore Capital has released a note saying that it expects the outsourcing company to report a "significant" fall in revenue and profitability for the first half of 2015. The first half period for 2015 is expected to see a "significant decline in revenues and profitability" reflecting the restructuring of the company and a new focus on core public sector service, Shore Capital analyst Robin Speakman says, while highlighting the challenges in setting a half-year performance forecast given the little guidance that has been provided by Serco on the financial outcome for the half.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Octagonal, up 38%. Octagonal, which already had owned 9.97% of Global Investment Strategy, is acquiring the remaining shares in the financial services company, which serves smaller institutional funds, family wealth offices and high net worth investors. GIS also provides stockbroking services. The deal requires shareholder approval because it has been deemed a reverse takeover on account of the significant change in the AIM-listed company's business. Octagonal, which currently has a market capitalisation of GBP3.7 million, said it has raised GBP1.7 million before expenses in a subscription to fund the deal and for general working capital needs. It is paying GBP1.5 million cash for GIS and issuing 336.1 million Octagonal shares at 2 pence each, worth GBP6.7 million. Shares in Octagonal are currently quoted at 0.256 pence.

Amerisur Resources, up 11%. The company said it has signed a deal with Petroamazonas to permit the construction and use a pipeline from the Ecuadorian border to transport its crude oil. Petroamazonas, the Ecuadorian state-owned operator of the Amazonas pipeline network, has committed to a minimum transport volume of 5,000 barrels of oil a day with a transport tariff of USD1.09 per barrel, Amerisur said. Amerisur said pipeline and system control construction works will begin imminently, and it is confident the pipeline will be in operation by the fourth quarter of 2015. It is currently evaluating offers and options for the transport and commercialisation of its oil.

Verona Pharma, up 7.8%. The drug development company has taken on a secondary listing on the Xetra exchange, part of Deutsche Borse, in Germany. It said it has opted to list on the Xetra to raise its profile in continental Europe, and to increase the potential for investors in Germany-speaking Europe to trade in its shares.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Aurasian Minerals, off 20%. The company said its key objective in the current year is to secure a project that will create shareholder value, as it posted a narrowed pretax loss for its recently ended financial year. For the year to end-March, the company posted a pretax loss of GBP417,000, narrowed from a pretax loss of GBP821,000 a year before, mostly as a result of GBP500,000 impairment of exploration and evaluation assets in the previous year. It is not yet revenue producing.

Trap Oil, down 11%. The company said it has not reached any firm decisions or conclusions over potential financing, after noting a jump in its share price. Trap Oil said it is continuing to urgently assess a number of potential funding sources, including potentially selling some of its licence interests. It is in talks with its creditors, shareholders and potential investors but said there can be "no certainty that a viable funding solution will be forthcoming". It reiterated its believe that without viable funding, it currently only has adequate working capital to support its activities until early July. Shares in the company more than doubled on Thursday.

Alba Mineral Resources, down 8.3%. The company has raised GBP355,000 through the placing of 71 million shares at a price of 0.50 pence each. Alba Minerals plans to use the proceeds of the placing to satisfy its commitments to existing projects, to evaluation new project opportunities and for general working capital purposes. Shares in the company are quoted at 0.55 pence.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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