Wood Group (J) Share News (WG.)

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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Compass Group, up 3.7%. The food and support services company has jumped to the top of the top of the blue-chip index and trades at an all-time high after it announced a GBP1 billion special dividend. The group also raised its normal interim dividend by 10%, along with posting pretax profit of GBP595 million for the six months to end-March, compared with GBP575 million the prior year, when it booked GBP20 million in exceptional costs relating to a European exceptional and goodwill impairment. The firm said that its expectations for the full-year remain positive and unchanged, notwithstanding the translation impact of ongoing movements in foreign currencies.

Mondi, up 2.6%. The packaging and paper company said its underlying operating profit rose in the first quarter, as restructuring benefits and price increases for some products more than offset higher input costs and lower selling prices for paper in Europe. It was also positive about its outlook, citing its investment programme and discussions it is having about some more product price increases. The group said its underlying operating profit, which excludes items including restructuring costs and asset impairments, was EUR183 million in the three months to end-March, up from EUR162 million a year earlier and up from EUR161 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. It said sales volumes were broadly in line with the first quarter of 2013, but up from fourth quarter which was impacted by scheduled maintenance shut downs at its plants.

Old Mutual, up 0.9%. The firm said it has chosen two new executive directors, promoting a new finance boss and Chief Operating Officer from within its ranks. It said Ingrid Johnson, the current managing executive of retail and business banking for majority-owned subsidiary Nedbank Group Ltd, will succeed outgoing Finance Director Philip Broadley. It also said it has appointed Paul Hanratty as its new Chief Operating Officer. Hanratty is currently Old Mutual's Group Operating Officer.

BHP Billiton, up 0.8%. The global mining company has announced that it is reviewing its Western Australian Nickel West business. It said the review includes all options for the long-term future of Nickel West, including the potential sale of all or parts of the business, and follows the decision to cease operations in the sub-level cave at Perseverance Underground mine due to safety concerns in December 2013.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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ITV, down 5.1%. The UK television company is a big loser despite reporting higher revenue for the first quarter of 2014 thanks to a continued recovery in advertising revenue, and saying that it expects to get a further boost from its coverage of the football World Cup in June as well as the launch of new TV channels. The upcoming football World Cup is a key driver for the ITV growth model. While this is "quite rock'n'roll," says Jefferies analyst David Reynolds, it's a one-off event and the market may be looking for more drivers ahead. Moreover, the stock traded fairly strongly into the update, having risen more than 7% over the past two weeks.

J Sainsbury, down 3.5%, Aberdeen Asset Management, down 2.7%, Kingfisher, down 1.9%, Glencore Xstrata, down 1.7%, Barclays down 1.39%, and Royal Dutch Shell, down 1%. The companies are some the heaviest fallers in the blue-chip index after going ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout.

GlaxoSmithKline, down 0.8%. The pharmaceuticals giant said it was taking allegations raised by Chinese authorities very seriously and continuing to co-operate with investigations, after the Chinese authorities accused a British Glaxo executive of ordering staff to bribe hospital officials to use its products. Glaxo also has gone ex-dividend Wednesday.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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3i Group, up 4.1%. The group said its fiscal year profit rose by almost a third, driven by higher gains on its investments and narrowed operating expenses achieved under cost cuts set out in its strategic plan two years ago. The company said it made a GBP470.0 million pretax profit in the year ended to end-March, compared with GBP358.0 million a year earlier. Gross investment return rose to GBP665.0 million, from GBP598.0 million a year earlier, while operating expenses narrowed to GBP136.0 million, from GBP170.0 million.

Partnership Assurance Group, up 3.5%. The specialist annuities provider said it has taken immediate action to manage costs as it said a key indicator of potential future individual annuity sales has shown a sharp drop since the UK government's shake-up of the pensions industry was unveiled in March. It said its actions to manage costs include a freeze on recruitment, removing contractors where possible and requiring approval from Chief Financial Officer David Richardson for all capital spend.

Galliford Try, up 3.3%. The housebuilding and construction group said it has made a strong start to 2014 and expects to report pretax profit for its full year above current analysts' consensus of GBP89.7 million and not less than GBP92.0 million. Commenting on 2014 to date, the firm said its construction business saw its order book grow to GBP1.3 billion at the period end, compared with GBP1.25 billion at the end of 2013. Galliford said the division is winning work with "appropriate" margin and inflation protection.

John Wood Group, up 2.8%. The oil services company said its financial performance at its Turbine joint ventures has been adversely hit by delays to its Dorad contract in Israel, but noted that its Engineering and Production Services businesses are performing slightly ahead of expectations in the year-to-date.

UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company, up 1.8%. The healthcare services provider has increased its full-year earnings per share guidance and interim dividend, as its confidence was boosted by its recent acquisition of KnowledgePoint360 Group. It posted a dividend per share of EUR2.69 cents, up from EUR2.61 cents in the previous year. As a result of the acquisition of KnowledgePoint and its current trading, it raised its guidance for earnings per share from a range of 2% to 5% to 5% to 9%. The company posted a pretax profit of EUR17.2 million, declined slightly from EUR17.3 million, as revenue rose to GBP1.04 billion from GBP1.01 billion. The rise in revenue was offset by acquisitions costs and an an exceptional charge of EUR12.2 million relating to the sale of its shareholding in Arjun Products Ltd, Craig & Haywards Ltd and The Specials Laboratory Holdings Ltd.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Renishaw, down 5.6%. The engineering company has reported a lower pretax profit for its fiscal third quarter, although revenue increased thanks to demand for its additive manufacturing, encoder and measurement automation product lines. It reported a pretax profit, excluding exceptional credits, of GBP14.4 million for the three months to the end of March, down from GBP15.9 million a year earlier, even though revenue rose to GBP84.5 million from GBP81.9 million. The company didn't give a reason for the profit fall in its statement, but the profit decline it had reported in the first-half of the year had largely been down to higher costs.

Carillion, down 3.2%, Morgan Advanced Materials, down 2.4%, and Alent, down 1.8%. The three companies are all big mid-cap fallers after going ex-dividend.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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Safeland, up 16%. The property investment group has revealed that planning consent for its housing development on the Chandos Tennis Club in Golders Green, north London has not been granted due to a number of outstanding conditions which have yet to be agreed, but said that it had obtained a residential consent under permitted development right in relation to part of a property in Wimbledon which it acquired in 2013.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
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Enables IT Group, off 22%. The cloud computing services provider has warned that it now expects revenue in the current financial year to be below market forecasts and operating earnings to be slightly negative, after it scaled back its expectations of its UK sales pipeline. The company said revenue in the first half of its year that ends on September 30 was slightly better than it expected at about GBP3.6 million, and its expects revenue in the second half to be broadly similar. However, as a result of a review of its UK sales pipeline, after which it took a more prudent view of the conversion and deliverability of its pipeline and order book, it now expects full-year revenue to be below current market forecasts and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be "slightly" negative. The company had previously said that it expected further sustainable growth in the current financial year with similar growth expectations to those it recorded in the year to end-September 2013.

Borders & Southern Petroleum, down 12%. The oil and gas exploration company said its pretax loss widened significantly in 2013 as a fall in administrative expenses failed to offset a significant drop in finance income and a finance expense charge. The group, which is yet to produce any revenues, said its pretax loss widened to USD3.0 million in 2013 from USD1.1 million in 2012. It said its administrative expenses fell 9.9% to USD2.8 million from USD3.1 million, but said it was hit by a USD207,096 finance expense charge and its finance income fell to USD71,163 from USD2.0 million during the period.
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OTHER AIM - LOSERS
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LZYE Group, down 20%. Shares in the children's educational programme maker have been suspended after they had fallen 20% when the company reported the resignation of a director and its nominated adviser and broker. The company said Director Dominic Yeung had resigned with immediate effect, while Zeus Capital Ltd resigned with immediate effect as its nominated adviser and broker. The company didn't give a reason for either resignation, but noted that it needs to appoint a replacement nominated adviser within a month or its shares could be cancelled from trading on AIM.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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