VRP.L Share News (VRP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Royal Bank of Scotland Group, 7.3%, Hargreaves Lansdown, up 7.2%, Lloyds Banking Group, up 5.8%, St. James's Place, up 5.9%, Barclays, up 5.6%. Financial services stocks were up as the latest opinion polls ahead of the UK referendum on Thursday showed the Remain campaign in the lead.

Taylor Wimpey, up 6.3%, Barratt Developments, up 5.9%, Berkeley Group Holdings, up 4.8%. Housebuilders also benefited from the swing in favour of Remain. "UK financials and property are outperforming on the back of weekend Brexit polls showing a shift back in favour of Remain. This has resulted in a surge in buying interest for the pound sterling and a relief rally for battered financials and housebuilders as investors price in a lower probability of event-risk attached to a UK exit from the European Union. Polls last week suggested the Leave camp taking an increasing lead which sent the currency and UK equities significantly lower given the more uncertain outlook," said Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets. Mid cap peers Bovis Homes Group and Bellway were also up, 6.1% and 6.0% respectively.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Randgold Resources, down 2.7%, Fresnillo, down 1.0%. The gold miners were down on the lower gold price, quoted at USD1,282.92 an ounce compared to USD1,286.70 at the London equities close Friday.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Circassia Pharmaceuticals, down 67%. The biopharmaceutical company said it was disappointed by results from its phase III cat allergy study, as there was a "dramatic" placebo effect, and said it will now be considering the implications of the results across its allergy portfolio. The company said it will now review its full dataset to "understand the detailed results and assess whether any other confounding factors affected the outcome, as well as the implications for its allergy portfolio". Until then, Circassia said it will stop the recently initiated registration study of its grass allergy treatment and the preparatory work for a dose-ranging study of its ragweed allergy therapy. The stock set a new 55-week low of 89.0 pence. Cantor Fitzgerald said the failure of Circassia Pharmaceuticals' cat allergy treatment is a "major disappointment" and calls into question the entire immunotherapy approach the company has followed,
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Verona Pharma, up 30% at 3.68 pence. The respiratory drug development company after the London equities close Friday said it will raise GBP44.7 million through a share placing, with shares to be placed at 2.876 pence per share and funds to be used for a clinical trial of its RPL554 drug, as well as for additional Phase 2 studies. The respiratory drug development company said it has secured funding commitments to raise the proceeds, through a conditional placing with new and existing investors, including with a number of specialist US, UK and European healthcare funds. It will raise the proceeds through the issue of 1.56 billion units at a price of 2.873p per unit, Verona Pharma said, with one unit comprising of one placing share and one warrant.

EnQuest, up 13%. The oil and gas operator denied reports over the weekend that it was in talks with the body that regulates the UK oil and gas industry about possible contingency planning. A report in The Daily Telegraph suggested the Oil & Gas Authority was mulling plans to provide support to EnQuest, which is developing the Kraken field in the East Shetland basin. EnQuest said in May it was holding talks with lenders on possible asset sales and cost-cutting measures as it seeks to cut its debt pile. EnQuest responded to the article and said it routinely engages with the Oil & Gas Authority, and with the UK and Scottish governments on industry matters, but was not involved in any "company-specific discussions such as were implied by the article".

Filtronic, up 11%. The microwave electronic products manufacturer said its revenue for the year to the end of May fell despite a significant improvement in trading in the second half. The company said revenue for the year to May 31 was GBP13.6 million, down from GBP17.5 million a year earlier. Revenue for the second half, however, more than doubled to GBP9.1 million from GBP4.5 million. Wireless sales dipped to GBP9.0 million from GBP10.3 million, while Broadband sales were down to GBP4.6 million from GBP7.2 million, hit by weaker legacy product sales.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Trinity Exploration & Production, down 14%. The upstream oil and gas company said it has secured the 36th extension to the moratorium on repayments relating to its outstanding debt balance of USD13.0 million with its lender Citibank. The new extension will run to Friday, having been due to expire last Friday. Last week, Trinity Exploration said it had held "detailed stage discussions" with a number of parties that are interested in purchasing certain assets owned by the company and said it expects to make a further update in the near future.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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