WPP Share News (WPP)

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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Smith & Nephew, up 1.8%. The medical technology company is once again the biggest riser in the blue-chip index, having ended been the leading winner for three days last week. Although the group's shares fell at the beginning of this week, they are up again Wednesday. In a note to clients, Berenberg said that a takeover offer for Smith and Nephew by Stryker of the US would make "both strategic and financial sense at up to, and possibly exceeding, GBP12 per share". However, the bank believes that there are currently "notable anti-trust" concerns, and therefore does not expect a bid in the near term. The group jumped 9.8% over three sessions last week after the Financial Times published an article last Wednesday that suggested that Stryker was about to make an unquantified takeover bid for the company, even though the US maker of hip implants and knee replacements quickly denied the rumours.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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National Grid, down 4.6%, and WPP, down 1.6%. The two companies are big fallers after going ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payout.

J Sainsbury, down 2%, Tesco, down 1.2%, and WM Morrison Supermarkets, down 0.8%. The supermarket chains are all down after Tesco reported a sharp drop in sales in the first quarter of its new financial year, saying that it was hit hard by deep price cuts across the business and by the acceleration of its store refit programme, while also warning of more UK sales declines in coming quarters. Tesco posted a 3.3% like-for-like decline in sales including petrol for the quarter ended May 24, and a 3.2% fall excluding petrol. It was hardest hit in the UK, where like-for-like sales in the business were down 3.8% including petrol, and 3.7% excluding petrol.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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RPC Group, up 2.7%. The European rigid-plastic packaging supplier has reported a 22% increase in its full-year pretax profit, as revenue growth more than offset an increase in operating costs, boosted by its acquisitions of M&H Plastics and Helioplast. It said it made a GBP59.0 million pretax profit in the year to end-March, compared with GBP48.2 million a year earlier. Revenue grew to GBP1.05 billion, from GBP982.3 million, while operating costs increased to GBP973.7 million, from GBP920.3 million, resulting in a stronger operating profit.

Workspace Group, up 4.6%. The provider of office space for new and small companies said its pretax profit for the year to end-March rose to GBP252.5 million from GBP76.4 million in the previous year. Workspace delivered a 43% increase in its net asset value per share over the 2014 full-year to 496 pence from 348 pence in the 2013 full-year. Liberum Capital said the level of growth is "outstanding," beating the brokers forecast by 6%. Moreover, the company picked up significant momentum in the second half of the year, meaning it's "only now hitting its late-cycle sweet spot," said Liberum analyst Michael Burt. Management also announced a 10% dividend increase to 10.63 pence, up from 9.67 pence paid last year.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Evraz, down 3.7%, Laird, down 2.5%, Debenhams, down 1.3%, Cineworld Group, down 1.3%, and Brewin Dolphin Holdings, down 1%, are five more companies that have gone ex-dividend.

Ophir Energy, down 2.4%. The oil and gas company's shares have fallen despite reporting successful results from its Taachui-1 and subsequent Taachui-1 ST1 well in Block 1, Tanzania, resulting in a new gas discovery with a net pay of 155 metres. The well was sidetracked for operational reasons and was drilled to a total depth of 4215 metres measured depth. The well encountered gas in a single gross column of 289 metres within the targeted Cretaceous reservoir interval. Net pay totalled 155 metres, said Ophir Energy. While Goldman Sachs has maintained its Buy recommendation on Ophir, it has lowered its price target on the company to 337.00 pence from 355.00p.

Synergy Health, down 1.1%. The group has reported a full-year pretax profit of GBP42.9 million, up from GBP38.0 million, as revenue rose to GBP380.5 million from GBP361.2 million, driven by new contract wins. New contracts added GBP500 million to the company's forward order book, which now stands GBP1.5 billion when including contracts at the preferred bidder stage, Synergy said. While the profit figures were broadly in line with expectations, revenue growth was 2% lower than consensus forecasts. The group noted "challenging economic conditions," but made no change to its 15% per year revenue growth target.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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Rare Earth Minerals, up 19%. The rare minerals investment and development company said that the mineral resource at its Sonara Lithium Project in Mexico has been increased, and subsequently has been upgraded to the indicated category from inferred. Drilling results indicated a total of 3.28 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent from the project, which it said was an increase of 37% from previous estimates.

Richland Resources, up 17%. The gemstone company has exercised its option to fully acquire the Nardoo Sapphire project in Queensland, Australia for AUD1.2 million, plus 18 million new shares to issued after a three-month escrow period. Shares in the company are currently quoted at 2.20 pence, making the share portion of the deal worth GBP396,000. The new shares are approximately 8.3% of Richland's enlarged share capital. Richland said the acquisition will allow it to establish a major sapphire hub in Australia.

Leni Gas & Oil, up 12%. The oil and gas exploration and development company has terminated negotiations with Pansoinco srl over a possible partnership in Leni Gas & Oil's oil and gas assets located in northern Spain. It said that it is no longer actively seeking further expressions of interest in the partnership though did not rule out strategic alliances in the Spanish market in the future.

Camco Clean Energy, up 11%. The company said its subsidiary Renewable Energy Dynamics Technology Ltd has entered into a manufacturing agreement with Jabil Circuit Inc to accelerate REDT's development towards commercial sales of its flow batteries in the near future. REDT, which has developed a flow battery for energy storage, is 49% owned by Camco, a developer of emissions reduction and clean energy projects. Under the agreement with Jabil, REDT will be provided with a scale manufacturing capability that enables it to speed up its market deployment plans and it expects to be in a position to start commercial sales in the near future, with Jabil starting production of the REDT Vanadium Redox Flow Battery.

Tungsten Corp, up 9.9%. The company's shares have jumped after it said that Tungsten Network, its e-invoicing platform, has been accredited as a supplier of the UK government Crown Commercial Service, G-Cloud 5 framework.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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