UK WINNERS & LOSERS: AstraZeneca Falls On Pfizer Rejection

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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EasyJet, up 1.5%, and International Consolidated Airlines Group, up 0.7%. The airline companies are both big risers after Irish low-cost airline Ryanair Holdings predicted that its passenger numbers and revenue will rise in the current financial year, providing a boost to the whole sector. Despite reporting a decline in fiscal 2014 profit, Ryanair said it expects traffic to increase 4% to over 84.6 million in fiscal 2015 as load factors increase by two percentage points to 85% and with the addition of some limited new route and capacity growth. The company also expects fares to rise by up to 2% in the new year, following a decline last year. Ryannair shares are up 7.9%.

Shire, up 0.7%. The pharmaceutical company said late on Friday that it plans to submit a New Drug Application for lifitegrast as a treatment for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease in adults. It said that the new submission should take place in the first quarter of 2015, after it completes certain chemistry and manufacturing work. Additionally, Citigroup has increased Shire's price target to 4,200.00 pence from 4,100.00p Monday.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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AstraZeneca, down 13%. The pharmaceutical giant has rejected a final GBP69 billion takeover proposal from Pfizer Inc, potentially ending the US company's interest in its British rival for the time being after Pfizer pledged not to go direct to AstraZeneca's shareholders with a hostile offer. Pfizer raised its approach to GBP55.00 a share, from GBP50.00 previously, and also sweetened the proposed cash and shares deal with a higher cash component. However, AstraZeneca said it still felt that undervalued the company. It left the door ajar for an improved bid from the US drugs giant, saying that it might be prepared to recommend a bid that was more than 10% above the new proposal.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group, down 1.3%. The bank said on Sunday that it is winding down its interest-rate trading operations due to tougher capital requirements under regulators' efforts to make banks safer. The move affects the state-controlled bank's prime broking and over-the-counter clearing businesses for rates.

Intertek, down 1%. The company has extended the losses it posted on Friday following a raft of negative price target revisions. Exane BNP Paribas has lowered its price target on the company to 3,600.00 pence from 3,700.00p, JPMorgan Cazenove has cut its target to 3,033.00p from 3,165.00p, Goldman Sachs has cut its target to 3,325.00p from 3,475.00p, Barlays has lowered its target to 3,300.00p from 3,370.00p, Berenberg has cut its target to 2,900.00p from 3,000.00p, and Societe Generale has cut its target to 3,200.00p from 3,300.00p. Morgan Stanley, however, has increased its price target to 3,400.00p from 3,300.00p, while UBS has removed Intertek from its Least Preferred list. Monday's decline comes after shares fell 3.2% on Friday after it said that variable market conditions, weaker-than-expected activity in its energy infrastructure market, and the appreciation of sterling hit its first quarter revenues.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Alent, up 3.6%. The group said its outlook for 2014 is unchanged after trading so far was in line with its expectations, with a slight increase in demand in its main principle electronics and automotive end-markets. It said its net sales value was GBP98.9 million in the first quarter of the year, down from GBP101.8 million in the first quarter of 2013. It said net sales value would have been up 6.5% at constant exchange rates. It said higher demand was being driven by higher car production, while improving consumer confidence around the world was helping electronics demand.

Micro Focus International, up 3%. The software company said it expects to report revenue growth at constant currencies at the upper end of its 3% to 6% guidance range for its last financial year, while its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation will be in line with market expectations. The company, which expects to report full results for the fiscal year to April 30 on June 19, said net debt stood at USD261.0 million at the end of that year, which it said demonstrated further good cash generation. The company's adjusted figures exclude exceptional items and amortisation.

Domino Printing Sciences, up 1.9%. UBS has upgraded Domino Printing Sciences to Buy from Neutral, retaining its 840.00 pence price target, following recent share price weakness. The group's shares dropped 4.4% last week alone, and are currently 14% below their 2014 high. "Although weakness has been seen across the small-cap universe, we believe Domino’s lack of large end-market dependence and the importance of regulation and new products will drive relative outperformance as earnings growth comes through," says UBS analyst Robbie Capp.

MITIE Group, up 1.6%. The outsourcing and energy services company said its full-year pretax profit increased by 21% due to a "steady flow" of contracts within its key facilities-management business, but it also incurred significant losses from its ongoing exit from its mechanical and electrical engineering construction business and from the design-and-build element of asset management. It said it made a GBP68.4 million pretax profit in the year to end-March, compared with GBP56.3 million a year earlier. Revenue increased to GBP2.22 billion from GBP2.12 billion, while administrative expenses narrowed to GBP243.2 million from GBP249.6 million.

Grafton Group, up 1.6%. The builders' merchant and DIY company said it has signed new five-year revolving credit facilities totalling GBP460 million, with its relationship banks. It said the increased facilities provide the group with additional financial headroom as it continues to execute its growth strategy. The group said the bilateral multi-currency facilities have a maturity date of May 2019.

Dixons Retail, up 1.5%. The electronics retailer said it is selling off its ElectroWorld business in central Europe. The group, which fell heavily at the end of last week after it agreed to merge with mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse Group, said it is selling the loss-making business to NAY AS, an electrical specialist retailer which operates in the Slovak market, and said it expects to receive a small deferred cash consideration for ElectroWorld, which operates 26 retail stores across Czech Republic and Slovakia.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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Northern Bear, up 35%. The firm said it plans to resume payment of a final dividend for the year ended March 31, after it traded ahead of management expectations during the recent year. The company, which acquires and operates mature building-services businesses based in the north of England, said trading in the second half of the year, which is often hurt by bad weather, showed particularly strong results. The group added that its current order book levels are "very encouraging". It said a strong pipeline of orders, coupled with a bright outlook for both the national and local construction sectors, bodes well for its specialist building and support services businesses.

Blue Star Capital, up 16%. The firm's shares have risen sharply after it said Oak Media Ltd has signed an exclusive agreement with Playboy TV Europe for the marketing and promotion of Oak Media's Gibraltar-registered Red 8 casino on Playboy TV's channel inventory. Blue Star Capital, which owns 65% of Oak Media, said the agreement is structured as a partnership, with both parties sharing in the casino's profits. It also gives Oak Media marketing access to Playboy TV's existing customer database of over 100,000 users who currently interact with the channels.

Mirada, up 13%. The company said it expects to report improved earnings and margins for its recent financial year, and said it had secured its biggest contract to date for its multi-screen product with a Latin American digital TV operator, which it said will boost significantly earnings in the current financial year. It said that despite slightly lower than expected revenues in the second half of the year to end-March, due to investments in Latin America, margins were stronger than expected, and it expects to report an improvements in earnings and net results for the year as a while. Mirada said that the beginning of its current financial year has been positive, underpinned by a new major contract win in Latin America, for its multi-screen product Iris.

ECR Minerals, up 9.3%. The company said it had got positive assay results from surface and underground channel sampling at the Itogon gold project in the Philippines. It said mineralised intercepts by surface channels included 18 metres at 8.006 parts per million gold, 40 metres at 2.338 parts per million and 22 metres at 1.883 parts per million. Sampling within underground workings returned grades of up to 48.4 parts per million of gold, it added. It added that it expects assay results from recently completed drilling at Itogon later this month, which will give it even greater insight into the potential of the project.

Weatherly International, up 8.2%. The miner's shares have jumped after it said that the projected operating costs at its Tschudi copper project in Namibia had been cut and the overall value of the project had been increased. Weatherly said Minxcon (Pty) Ltd, its competent person, had provided a financial update for the Tschudi project, giving it a net present value of USD133 million. The life of mine cash cost for the project has been calculated at USD4,226 per tonne of copper, or USD1.92 per pound, and the breakeven price has been calculated at USD4,675 per tonne of copper, or USD2.12 per pound. Weatherly said the project was 44% complete at the end of April and on schedule to deliver its first copper in the second quarter of 2015.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
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Legendary Investments, off 9.3%. The investment company has raised GBP900,000 before expenses via a placing of 818.2 million new shares at 0.11 pence each with institutional and private investors, funds it said it will use to increase its stake in Virtual Stock Holdings. It said it will apply the funds to exercise options over shares in Virtual Stock Holdings, which would increase its stake to 5.6%, from 2.2%. Legendary Investments' shares are currently quoted at 0.123 pence.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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