UK WINNERS & LOSERS: Centrica Shares Tumble On Dividend Cut, Warning

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Thursday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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British Land Co, up 1.6%. Societe Generale raised the company to Buy from Hold late Wednesday.

Sports Direct International, up 1.4%. The UK's biggest sporting goods retailer by revenue reported a 2.6% rise in group sales for the third quarter, and a 7.6% increase in gross profit. The company said it is "very confident" of achieving its full-year internal underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation target of GBP360 million. That would exclude charges for its Employee Bonus Share Schemes, it said.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Centrica, down 8.9%. The British Gas owner reduced its dividend for the full year after swinging to a loss in 2014 on the back of a significant impairment charge, and said it will reduce its costs and capital expenditure budget over the next two years in response to the low oil price. Centrica also said that further reductions in wholesale oil and gas prices in December will mean that the company "needs to plan on the basis that lower wholesale prices will persist for all of 2015 and potentially through 2016 and into 2017," which means cashflow from its energy business will be impacted.

Tullow Oil, down 2.9%, Weir Group, down 2.4%, BG Group, down 2.1%, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', down 1.5%, and BP, down 1.2%. The oil related stocks are down after Brent oil slipped below the USD60 a barrel mark. Brent is currently quoted at USD59.39 a barrel.

AstraZeneca, down 1.7%, GlaxoSmithKline, down 1.6%. The two pharmaceutical giants trade down after going ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest dividend payouts.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Petra Diamonds, up 4.6%. The company said it will pay a maiden dividend of 2.0 pence per share at the end of its financial year after reporting a rise in earnings and profit during the first half, and said revenue and production will increase during the second half. For the six months ended December 31, the company reported a rise in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of USD84.9 million from USD69.4 million a year earlier after revenue increased, it said.

Rexam, up 4.4%. The British drinks can maker said it has reach a deal on the terms of a takeover offer from US rival Ball Corp, in a cash and share deal valuing Rexam at around GBP4.3 billion. Under the terms of the takeover offer, for each Rexam share, Rexam shareholders will receive 407 pence in cash and 0.04568 new Ball shares. Ball said that based on its closing share price of USD74.39 on Tuesday, and the currency exchange rates at the time of the formal offer, the takeover offer represents an indicative value of 628 pence per Rexam share, well above its current share price.

Man Group, up 1.8%. The fund manager has been upgraded by Goldman Sachs to Conviction Buy from Neutral.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Catlin Group, down 3.8%. The specialty insurance company has gone ex-dividend.

Rathbone Brothers, down 1.5%. The investment manager said it is wary of the potential for political and economic uncertainty at home and abroad to hurt the markets, but is keeping a close eye on opportunities to further grow the business. A challenging year did not stop the company from reporting an increase in funds under management and pretax profit in 2014, even with heightened volatility in the second half. The company raised its total dividend for 2014 to 52 pence from 49 pence for 2013.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings), up 19%. The companies involved in the Wressle-1 well on the PEDL180 license in the UK said they have received "encouraging results" from the flow tests being carried out on the Wingfield flags reservoir, and said they will start a production test afterwards. Europa Oil & Gas has a 33.3% interest.

EU Supply, up 15%. The software-as-a-service provider said its partner, Global eSourcing, has won a seven-year service provider deal with the Norwegian Refugee Council and will roll-out its CTM platform in six countries by the end of July as part of the deal. The company said it expects to gradually roll-out its CTM platform across the Norwegian Refugee Council's regions over the next 12 months, and expects full adoption by mid-2016, generating revenue of up to GBP250,000 per year.

Lansdowne Oil & Gas, up 14%. The company said the Irish government has given its consent to the company's November farm-in agreement with PSE Kinsale Energy Ltd. Through the 80% interest and as the operator of SEL 4/07 offshore Ireland, Kinsale Energy will fund all of the costs of drilling a well on the Midleton prospect, Lansdowne said.

Bacanora Minerals, up 7.7%. Rare Earth Minerals said it has increased its stake in fellow London-listed Bacanora Minerals to 14.37% from 13.3%, through further market purchases of GBP547,860. Rare Earth shares were up 1.3%.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Jupiter Energy, off 31%. The company said it will cease all of its production at the beginning of March in response to lower oil prices, and said it will restructure the company to reduce costs until it recommences production. Jupiter's only asset, Block 9 on the Mangistau Basin in south west Kazakhstan, will cease production on March 1, after the company said oil production has become "uneconomic" following the decline of the oil price since the middle of 2014.

Caza Oil & Gas, down 16%. The company said it has secured a USD5 million facility under a convertible unsecured note agreement with YA Global Master SPV Ltd. Caza said it has obtained a USD4 million loan as an initial tranche of a USD5 million facility from YA Global, and said it has immediately drawn down USD1 million of the initial tranche, with the expectation of drawing down USD3 million in the next month, it said.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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