Wood Group (J) Share News (WG.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices late-morning Friday.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Tullow Oil, down 4.3%, Royal Dutch Shell 'B', down 2.2%, and Royal Dutch Shell 'A', down 2.1%. The companies are down due to the falling Brent oil price, which hit its lowest level since November 2010 at USD88.06 a barrel this morning.

Separately, Tullow Oil said its partner in the Arouwe block offshore Gabon hit non-commercial oil when it was drilling the Sputnik-1 well, a find that Tullow described as "encouraging". The Vantage Tungsten Explorer drill ship drilled Sputnik-1 to a final depth of 4,868 metres in water depths of 1,023 metres, but encountered non-commercial hydrocarbon pay in up to 300 metres of net sandstone reservoir, Tullow quoted partner Perenco as saying.

Old Mutual, down 2.5%. The insurer is in advanced discussions to buy Quilter Cheviot, one of the UK's biggest independent wealth managers, for about GBP650 million, Sky News reported. The report indicated that Old Mutual is closing in on an agreement to buy Quilter Cheviot after sweetening its offer for the company by about GBP50 million. A deal could be struck within a few weeks, Sky News said.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Telecom Plus, up 7.2%. The utilities provider, which trades under the Utility Warehouse brand, is by far the best performer in the mid-cap index after saying it expects to post first-half adjusted pretax profit and earnings per share "significantly ahead" of the previous year, leaving it comfortable in meeting market expectations for the full year. The company also said it will appoint Nick Schoenfeld as chief financial officer in the new year. Telecom Plus said it expects to increase its interim dividend for the six months to end-September by 19%, reflecting its confidence in achieving expectations of nearly 50% growth in adjusted pretax profit to GBP63 million for the year. The company added that it had seen customer numbers rise by 34,733 in the half year, taking its total customer base to 565,372. It is on track for its target of 70,000 new customers for the full year. It also increased its total number of partners by over 2,00 during the half year, boosted by an introductory offer in April.

UDG Healthcare, up 0.5%. Berenberg has initiated coverage on the company with a Buy rating and 390.00 pence price target, citing the company's transformation from a drug wholesaler into a high-growth, higher-margin pharma outsourcing company. UDG shares trade at 319.10p.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Afren, down 8%, Ophir Energy, down 7.7%, Cain Energy, down 5.8% and John Wood Group, down 3.8%. The companies are down as oil prices fell to their lowest level in almost four years. John Wood Group was downgraded to Hold from Add by Numis as a direct consequence of the oil price drop. Numis says that the lower price environment is likely to lead to reduced capital expenditure by the oil producers, particularly in the onshore US market where Wood Group is active.

Vedanta Resources, down 7.9%. The company said its overall oil and gas production decreased in the first half following planned maintenance work on its operations, partially offset by increased production at its Cambay site in India. It metal production increased from the first quarter, but was down on the previous year. Oil and gas production decreased 3% in the first half ended September 30 to 206,125 barrels of oil equivalent per day, from 212,873 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the same period in 2013. The decrease in production was due to its planned maintenance at its Rajasthan facilities and a suspension of gas sales from the Ravva block.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Tavistock Investments, up 16%. The company said it is in an "increasing number of discussions" which may lead to further expansion in coming months, while recent trading has been buoyed by acquisitions. The company said that Tavistock Wealth has developed and launched a discretionary fund management service predominantly for use by clients of the advisory business. It said that since launching the discretionary funds management service in early August, more than 1,300 clients have appointed Tavistock Wealth as their DFM, and said it expects more to follow suit in the coming weeks.

Outsourcery, up 6.1%. The cloud service provider said Encore Capital Group Inc has invested GBP1.0 million in the company through the subscription of 5 million new shares, or a 10.6% interest in its enlarged issued share capital. The subscription price was 20 pence per share, which Outsourcery said its a 21.2% premium to its closing price of 16.50 pence Thursday. Shares in Outsourcery are trading up 9.1% at 18.00 pence Friday morning.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com

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