UK WINNERS & LOSERS: AVEVA Shares Fall 23% After Profit Warning

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Barclays, up 1.9%. The bank has ended months of speculation about its next chairman, saying David Walker will be replaced by John McFarlane at the company's annual general meeting next year. McFarlane will step down from the boards of both Aviva and FirstGroup. McFarlane was appointed to the board of insurer Aviva in September 2011 and became the Chairman in July 2012. During his tenure, Aviva's shares have risen 83%.

British American Tobacco, up 0.8%. Medical devices company Consort Medical said Friday that the Voke nicotine inhaler received market authorisation from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The device was developed by Kind Consumer Ltd, and will be commercialised by British American Tobacco's subsidiary Nicoventures. Consort's Bespak division will manufacture the product. Imperial Tobacco Group, up 1.7%, is also seeing a boost from the increasing trend of authorisation for the new e-cigarrettes.

GKN, up 0.6%. The stock was upgraded to Overweight, from Equalweight, by analysts at Barclays, along with a sizeable price target boost of 35% to 440 pence, from 327p. As a diversified business, GKN is difficult to value, but Barclays believes the group is about to enjoy a rare moment when all of its businesses are in positive earnings trends. The auto businesses are performing better than ever, while rising geopolitical tensions may serve to boost the defence business that has been in hiatus since the wind down of certain military programs, says the bank. Moreover, the recent sharp fall in the value of the pound against the dollar should also help the group.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Whitbread, down 1.4%. The owner of Premier Inn and Costa Coffee suffered a downgrade from UBS to Sell, from Neutral. UBS also cut its price target to 4,200p from 4,450p, suggesting a small downside from Thursday's close of 4,299p.

Anglo American, down 1.1%. The miners shares have suffered following reports that it will suspend its Canadian coal operations at the end of the year due to a continued slump in coking coal prices.

Aviva, down 0.5%. The announcement that John Mcfarlane will step down as Aviva Chair in favour of the same roll at Barclays has hit the shares.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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AVEVA Group, down 23%. The group warned that it now expects its revenue to be between GBP84 million and GBP90 million in the first-half of its current financial year, well below the previous consensus expectation of GBP107 million. AVEVA said results have been hit by the strength of sterling and the timing of key engineering, procurement and construction rental renewals. Analysts say that a huge amount of AVEVA's revenue growth in recent years has been on the back of capital expenditure by the oil and gas majors, something that has been under increased scrutiny recently.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Herencia Resources, up 8.2%. The Chile-focused mining company said it has entered into a memorandum of understanding regarding the negotiation of a toll treatment agreement for the Picachos copper project, and said initial test results at the site indicate the potential for an underlying porphyry system at depth. Herencia said the owners of the Tambillos Processing Plant, located 10 kilometres from the Picachos project, have confirmed the capacity of the plant to treat up to one million tonnes per year mined from the Picachos site.

boohoo.com, up 5.5%. The online fashion retailer said revenue growth accelerated in the second quarter of its financial year, boosted by new website launches as the brand continued to expand its international presence. Revenue in the six months to the end of August increased to GBP67 million, up 31% on a reported basis on last year, and 36% at constant exchange rates. Boohoo said improvements in growth were seen across all regions in the second quarter, with UK sales and the rest of Europe both up 50% on a reported basis, and the rest of the world up 8%.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Naibu Global International, down 41%. The Chinese sportswear manufacturer saw its shares plummet after it posted a drop in first-half profit and said it was not paying a dividend as it needed to conserve cash and it was facing operational difficulties and competitive pressure. The company said it faced increased pressure on costs, resulting in a lower pretax profit of CNY206.5 million for the six months to June 30, compared with CNY214.8 million in the first half of 2013. Revenue in the first-half rose 8.4% to CNY1.03 billion, from CNY950.1 million last year. The company said it will not pay a dividend due to the significant capital investment it is planning in the coming year. Last year it paid an interim dividend of 2 pence a share.

Mariana Resources, down 20%. The South America-focused minerals company saw its shares drop after the group said it got positive new results from its Condor de Oro copper-gold-molybdenum project in Peru but said the targets at the site are likely to prove a better fit for a major company. The company said it has received positive indications from all wide spaced scout holes drilled at Condor de Oro so far, adding the most recent results show a large anomalous area for the current shallow drilling programme which indicates the potential for economic grade at depth within the project. Mariana said it was now evaluating the scope for deeper drilling targets, though it said the targets would be a better strategic fit for a major company.

Univision Engineering, down 17%. The digital surveillance and security systems company said Friday that the arbitration on its Zhongshan Shopping Mall sale has been delayed, due to the death of the legal representative of one of the parties involved.
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By Jon Darby; jondarby@alliancenews.com; @jondarby100

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