Wood Group (J) Share News (WG.)

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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Glencore, up 7.1%. The miner and trading house released a statement noting the higher share price and increased volumes in its Hong Kong-listed shares, saying it knows of no reason for the movement. Glencore shares closed up 18% in Hong Kong. "Having made such enquiry with respect to the company as is reasonable in the circumstances, the board confirms that it is not aware of any reasons for these price and volume movements," Glencore said in a short statement. Glencore added it did not uncover any "information which must be announced to avoid a false market in the company's securities or of any inside information that needs to be disclosed" under Hong Kong laws. Glencore shares lost 2% over the course of a volatile week for the stock last week.

Rolls-Royce Holdings, up 3.6%. The aerospace and engineering group confirmed a press report that it will cut a further 400 jobs in its Marine business by the end of 2016. Rolls-Royce said the job cuts, which are being made in addition to the 600 already announced in the Marine business, were the result of the continued reduced demand for its services and products due to the downturn in the oil and gas market. The group said profit and revenue guidance for the Marine business for 2015 remains unchanged and said the cuts will generate full-year savings of GBP40 million annually, with the majority of the early savings to be re-invested in research and development work.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Allied Minds, up 6.7%. The US-focused science and technology development and commercialisation company said its subsidiary Precision Biopsy has raised USD33.6 million to accelerate the commercial expansion of its ClariCore Biopsy product for prostate biopsy procedures. Allied Minds contributed around GBP16.6 million to Precision Biopsy in the funding. As a result the value of Allied Minds' 68.3% holding in Precision Biopsy has increased to USD61.8 million from USD45.6 million, it said. ClariCore is a device designed to provide accurate real-time classification of prostate tissue during biopsy procedures.

Tullow Oil, up 6.3%, Premier Oil, up 6.2%, Weir Group, up 4.3%, John Wood Group, up 4.2%, Amec Foster Wheeler, up 4.0%, Petrofac, up 3.9%, and Aggreko, up 4.0%. Oil and gas company and service providers to the sector were all trading higher as the Brent oil price rose, up 1.2% in mid-morning trade.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Playtech, down 2.5%. The gaming technology and financial trading company said it has received a letter from the Central Bank of Ireland opposing its proposed USD105 million deal to acquire contracts-for-difference broker Ava Trade. The company said it will be seeking clarification from the Irish central bank and will engage with it to discuss some issues raised in the letter which it believes can be addressed to the central bank's satisfaction.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Xchanging, up 50% to 166.00 pence. The business process outsourcing company confirmed it has received takeover offers from FTSE 100-listed rival Capita and US buyout house Apollo Global Management. After having a couple of bids rejected, Capita has made a final bid of 160p per share for the company, valuing it at GBP396.6 million, while Apollo has made an offer of 170p per share, or GBP421.3 million in total. Capita said it likely would fund the deal, if it progresses, with a share placing. Capita shares were up 1.0% to 1,225.00p.

Legendary Investments, up 45%. The investment company said the founder of personalised greeting cards company Moonpig.com has bought a stake in Virtualstock Holdings, the order management and inventory management software company in which Legendary owns a 7% stake in Virtualstock. It said Nick Jenkins, the founder of Moonpig, has purchased a small stake in Virtualstock at a valuation of GBP58.0 million. He has acquired the stake from Virtualstock's founders, who continue to own the majority of the business. The valuation places a value of just over GBP4.0 million on Legendary's stake in the company, it said.

BMR Mining, up 12%. The miner said it has identified a potential market for its Waelz Kiln Slag assets in Zambia. In the year to the end of June 2014, BMR wrote down the value of its WKS assets by 90% as the product is "brittle and hard", is too low a grade, and too difficult to process commercially. But the company said it has now identified that the WKS could be used in constructing building blocks and it is preparing a submission to seek approval from the Zambian Environmental Management Agency to sell the product for use in block and concrete making. Should that approval be sealed, BMR could start local sales of WKS, which would involve limited costs but which could generate " modest but meaningful" revenue over the next couple of years.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Alexander Mining, down 28%. The mining technology company announced it placed new shares and said it is continuing talks to licence its technology in Australia, Turkey and Mexico. Alexander said it raised GBP420,000 for working capital purposes via the issue of 105 million shares at 0.4 pence per share. Alexander said it is currently waiting to continue talks with Compass Resources in Australia about the use of its AmmLeach technology, which is designed to cut capital and operating costs for miners by improving recovery methods. In addition to Compass, Alexander said it is in talks with several other zinc and copper companies in Australia.

Hargreaves Services, down 11%. The company, which supplies solid fuel and bulk material logistics services, said thermal coal markets remain very weak and said it is set to book small charges from the closure of the steelworks in Redcar and from other plant closures in the UK. Hargreaves said thermal coal markets have remained "very weak" this year, with prices down by around GBP1 per tonne. In addition, demand for thermal coal in the UK is still "exceptionally low" as coal-fired power stations in the country have been operating at low capacity levels in recent months, meaning they currently have stockpiles.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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