UK WINNERS & LOSERS: CSR Shares Rise By A Third As It Considers Sale

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Thursday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Wm Morrison Supermarket, up 1.3%. The company continues to make gains following the Kantar Worldpanel grocery market share report published on Wednesday. Morrisons has since had its stock rating raised to Hold from Sell by Deutsche Bank, with a price target of 190 pence. The company's share price is 186.785p.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Antofagasta, down 2.2%. The mining company is one of the top fallers in the blue-chip index. Investec has expressed concern that the low price of copper will affect the miner's ability to pay out special dividends in the future.

Tesco, down 1.1%. The supermarket continues to fall following the Kantar report. The company has since had its rating cut by Deutsche Bank to Hold from Buy and price target cut to 280p from 313p. Tesco's shares trade at 246.60p.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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CSR, up 32%. The Financial Times reports that the chip maker is exploring a possible sale, after receiving takeover offers from various rival semiconductor manufacturers. The company has hired bankers to sound out offers and assess the merits of a sale, the newspaper said, quoting people familiar with the matter and saying the business could fetch as much as USD3 billion, a hefty premium to its current market cap of GBP1.2 billion, or about USD2.0 billion. Following the FT report, CSR said Thursday morning it has rejected a takeover approach from US-based semiconductor manufacturer Microchip Technology Inc because the proposed price was too low, but it is considering its options for the company.

Playtech, up 7.3%. The online gaming software supplier expressed confidence in beating market expectations for the full year and raised its interim dividend as adjusted profit rose in the first half. The company proposed an interim dividend of 8.9 euro cents, up 14.1% from 7.8 euro cents the year before. It posted a pretax profit of EUR76.9 million in the half year to end-June, down from a pretax profit of EUR414.8 million a year earlier when it booked a gain on the sale of its 29% share in William Hill Online to William Hill.

IP Group, up 2.1%. The company reported an increase in the fair value of its investment portfolio over the course of the first half of the year, amid a flurry of activity. It said the fair value of its investment portfolio at the end of June was GBP319.6 million, up 12% from GBP285.9 million at the end of 2013. The value of its ten largest holdings increased to GBP233.9 million from GBP225.2 million over that period. Net assets increased to GBP528.6 million from GBP336.6 million over the same period.

Hunting, up 1.7%. The international energy services group said that stronger trading in its second quarter boosted its first half and that activity returned to management-anticipated levels with pretax profit and revenue up after adverse weather hit its first quarter. The company upped its interim dividend. In its half-year results for the six months to June 30, Hunting said pretax profit rose 15% to USD69.1 million from the USD60.0 million reported last year. Revenue also was higher, up 4.8% to USD687.5 million from USD655.7 million in the comparable period. The company said its half-year results were buoyed by a strong performance in its second quarter after the first quarter was hit by severe weather across North America, with activity returning to levels which management anticipated at the beginning of the year as its Titan and Subsea business report revenue and profit growth and "good trading momentum" was seen across its divisions.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Xaar, down 26%. The company has lowered its revenue expectations for the full year due to softening demand in the Chinese ceramic tile decoration market, and it posted a lower pretax profit for the first half of the year. Demand for ceramic tile decoration has weakened in the third quarter due to slowing construction activity in China, Xaar said, and the company lowered its full-year revenue expectations to GBP115 million to GBP125 million, from a forecast of about GBP130 million it gave in July. Xaar posted a pretax profit of GBP15.3 million for the six months to June 30, down from GBP23.4 million a year earlier, as revenue declined to GBP60.4 million from GBP70.2 million.

Afren, down 2.9%. The oil and gas explorer and producer said it has temporarily suspended associate directors Iain Wright and Galib Virani. The company said that during a review into the matter by law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher (UK) LLP, Wright and Virani made the Afren board aware that they have received payments which are linked to the previously identified unauthorised payments for the benefit of the CEO and COO. The payments were not made by Afren, it said.

BTG, down 2.4%. The healthcare company's shares are down despite saying that Chinese regulators have approved the registration of the DC Bead liver cancer treatment it will distribute through Chinese partner SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. In a statement, the companies said the China Food and Drug Administration has approved the registration of DC Bead for the embolisation of malignant hypervascularised tumours.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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MBL Group, up 8.3%. The company reported a 10% increase in revenue from its remaining businesses in its last financial year, while investments it made in its garden and leisure operations meant profit was flat. It added that sales in both its remaining businesses are satisfactory and in line with its own expectations so far in the current financial year. It reported a pretax loss of GBP0.8 million for the continuing operations in the year to March 31, flat on the loss it made a year earlier, as the investments it made into the garden and leisure business and a lower margin in the remaining home entertainment business offset a rise in revenue to GBP12.5 million, from GBP11.3 million.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Amur Minerals Corp, off 11%. The company is down despite saying its reserve statement for the the nickel and copper sulphide deposits at the Kun-Manie deposit in Russia has been upgraded by a quarter, and there is the potential for a further increase after infill drilling of inferred resources. It said the proved and probable reserve has increased to 39.2 million ore tonnes containing 219,000 tonnes of nickel and 58,100 tonnes of copper, making the deposit one of the largest nickel sulphide projects in the world.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com

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