WPP Share News (WPP)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on the main London indices midday Tuesday.

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

ITV is up 1.4% after GroupM, WPP's media buying unit, said Monday that it expects to see growth of 5% for the UK television advertising market in 2014, following a predicted increase of 7% in 2013. This bodes well for ITV, Liberum Capital says. In fact, the brokerage is confident that ITV can exceed GroupM's forecasts.

Hammerson is up 0.6%. The blue-chip, alongside Westfield, has said that the London Borough of Croydon has resolved to grant planning permission to the Croydon Partnership's outline application for the redevelopment of the Whitgift Centre. The GBP1 billion Croydon Partnership scheme has been created to transform the town centre into a 1.5 million square-foot state-of-the-art retail, leisure and restaurant site, with new car parking and up to 600 new residential units including affordable housing.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

Tesco is down 1.9%. The retailer's third quarter trading statement, due on December 4, is unlikely to be the turning point that the market is looking for, Barclays warns. While there may be some grounds for encouragement in certain markets, with the recoveries in Poland and Turkey expected to continue, there may be further weakness in markets such as Thailand and Ireland. Barclays expects UK like-for-like sales to fall by approximately 1.8% in the third quarter, from flat in the second quarter.

Severn Trent, down 1.7%, is one of the biggest fallers in the FTSE 100. The water provider revealed that its revenue has increased 0.5% to GBP922.4 million, up from a restated GBP917.7 million last year, while pretax profit increased to GBP191.2 million from GBP113.4 million in 2012. Underlying group pretax profit, however, was down 5.8% to GBP141.3 million from GBP150 million the previous year.

Rio Tinto is off 1.6%. The mining giant is expected to begin cutting back on its activities at the Gove alumina refinery in Australia, according to The Australian. The company ended negotiations with the Northern Territory and Commonwealth governments and will now decide how to scale back the refinery and export bauxite rather than refine it into alumina. Government, industry and Aboriginal figures expect a massive blow to the refinery's 1,500 strong workforce, which includes many indigenous employees, the newspaper said. The nearby town of Nhulunbuy, which relies on the refinery for power, housing and employment, also will be hugely affected. These groups expect a USD400 million loss to the Northern Territory economy, The Australian said. The refinery, which refines bauxite into alumina, is losing USD30 million a year.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

BTG, up 12%. The company has announced that it has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its varicose vein treatment Varithena. The healthcare company will launch the project commercially in the US during the second quarter of 2014.

De La Rue jumps 11% after it posted rising pretax profits, boosted by its ongoing cost reduction programme, in the half year ended September 28. De La Rue posted a pretax profit of GBP28.4 million, up from GBP23.8 million in the previous year, benefiting from savings of GBP10 million realised during the period through its cost reduction programme. Operating expenses dropped to GBP199.9 million from GBP216.6 million.

Mitchells & Butlers is up 6.5%. The pub-and-restaurant owner reported a jump in profits for the 52 weeks ended September 28, boosted by new site openings and stronger food sales as it upped its prices. Mitchells & Butlers reported a pretax profit of GBP150 million, up from GBP83 million a year earlier. It reported a net profit of GBP135 million for the year. The group reported basic earnings per share of 32.9 pence, up considerably from 17.1 pence per share a year earlier, due to higher sales, improved operating margins and lower interest charges.

Britvic climbs 3.8% after the company reported higher profits and revenues for the full year ended September 29. Pretax profit of GBP108.1 million was up 28% on an actual exchange rate basis from GBP84.4 million a year earlier. On a constant exchange rate basis, pretax profit rose 27%.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

Essar Energy, down 5%, continues to decline after it Monday revealed that its pretax loss widened in its first half as increased sales could not offset depreciation in the Indian rupee and increased costs. Essar's share price fell 13% Monday.

KCOM Group falls 2.9%. KCOM posted half-year pretax profit of GBP25.8 million, down from GBP26.2 million in the previous year, while revenue declined to GBP185.5 million from GBP188.7 million.

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AIM - WINNERS

Manroy soars 48% after it said it is in preliminary takeover talks with three separate companies. The maker of heavy machine guns, weapon mounting systems, and turrets said it is in separate talks with Belgium's Herstal SA, Italy's Beretta Holding SpA and US Ordnance Inc. The company cautioned there is no certainty at this stage that a deal will be forthcoming.

Cellcast is up 33% on the back of reports that Sony was poised to inject cash into the company. However, following the jump in share price, the broadcasting company has said that there was no foundation in the suggestion that Sony was "about to inject GBP3 million into Cellcast", as reported in an article in The Times newspaper.

Edenville Energy jumps 19% after it said it intends to progress its Rukwa Coal Project towards development with the aim of supporting a 100 megawatt power station supplying energy to Tanzania's proposed new power grid. The energy firm said the development comes after the government of Tanzania showed commitment to begin construction of the country's main power grid during 2014.

Coms is up 8.4%. The cloud-based telephony company has signed a contract to supply a provider with up to 50,000 mobile SIM cards through its newly established Mobile Network. The contract is estimated to earn Coms around GBP20 per user per month, according to the provider, a total of around GBP1 million per month accounting for all 50,000 cards. The SIM cards will be rolled out over two years, with the first order of 10,000 cards to be delivered in early 2014.

VMoto is up 7.7%. The electric scooter manufacturer said it made a profit of AUD192,000 in October, its most profitable month to date, driven by increased sales in China where it has been opening stores and increasing its marketing. The company said it expects to make a maiden annual profit for 2013 of between AUD300,000 and AUD600,000.

Oilex edges up 7.2%. The company has received a balance of USD3.8 million from Magna Energy for the sale of a 10% interest in the Cambay Production Sharing Contract in India. The firm said that the equity sale represents external confidence in assets at the site and should allow for additional production from Cambay. Magna also has the option to acquire an additional 5% participating interest upon payment of an additional USD2 million and Magna has 30 days to exercise this option.

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AIM - LOSERS

Scotgold Resources is down 22% after it said access to funding in order to develop its Cononish gold and silver project in Scotland remains difficult. The company said that since the development plan for Cononish was announced in April, the company has sought a number of alternatives to finance the proposed development of the site and bring it into production within a reasonable time frame. Alongside this, the company said it has requested an extension to its loan facility be made and also Tuesday launched a rights issue to raise further working capital. Scotgold said it will issue 166.2 million new shares at 0.50 cents per share to raise AUD830,871.

Software Radio Technology is down 13% after it posted a pretax loss of GBP434,440, widened from a pretax loss of GBP171,186. Revenue was GBP3.2 million in the half year, down from GBP3.5 million in the previous year. Additionally, administrative expenses rose to GBP1.9 million from GBP1.7 million in the previous year. Software Radio warned that meeting market expectations for full-year results is not certain.

Verdes Management drops 11% after it signed a new convertible loan agreement for GBP275,000. Verdes said that the loan will allow the company to develop its new strategy.

Graphene Nanochem falls 9.5% after it revealed that its loss for the full year is likely to be higher than previously guided due to the company's PlatDrill downhole not being deployed before the end of the year. Additionally, the group will close its palm oil refinery in Lahad Datu, East Malaysia, for a period of routine maintenance during December 2013.

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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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