UK WINNERS & LOSERS: Mariana Drops As Field Technician Is Abducted

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

Petrofac, up 2.7%. Petrofac shares have been on a downward trend over the last 12-months, but Berenberg believes that the oil-field services firm now has the ability to deliver strong through-cycle earnings growth. As a result, the bank has upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold, increasing its price target to by 27% 1,740p from 1,370p. On Wednesday, Petrofac said its joint venture with Samsung Engineering Co Ltd and CB&I Nederland BV was awarded refinery contract in Kuwait worth USD3.7 billion.

International Consolidate Airlines, up 1.8%. IAG continues to rise, having closed up 2.9% on Thursday, after it said on Thursday that its Spanish airline Iberia had finally agreed, in principle, a new restructuring deal with its pilots' union SEPLA. The deal, which ends years of conflicts between the airline and the union, will mean a pay cut for the pilots, followed by a salary freeze until 2015, and then increases linked to the airline's profitability.

Anglo American, up 1.4%. The mining company swung to a pretax profit in 2013 on the back of improved production and weakening producer currencies. It posted a pretax profit of USD1.70 billion for 2013, compared to a pretax loss of USD171 million in the previous year, with group revenues including associates and joint ventures rising by 0.8% to USD33.06 billion from USD32.79 billion in 2012. Looking ahead, Anglo said that it expects the world economy to strengthen in 2014 and 2015 as it emerges from the global financial crisis, and, with major growth expected in China, the company should continue its development.

Severn Trent, up 1%. The utility company reported that trading from October 1, 2013 to date remained in line with expectations, while operating expenditure continues to be in line with expectations for the year. Furthermore, it said the current flooding in the UK is not expected to have a financial impact on the company.

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

Vodafone Group, down 1.5%. The company has revealed that it has acquired mobile spectrum licenses in India for GBP1.9 billion. The deal enables it to roll out 4G services and bolster its 3G services in key cities like Mumbai and Delhi. However, "at first glance, GBP1.9 billion looks like a lot of money," says Berenberg analyst Paul Marsch.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

Hikma Pharmaceuticals, up 6.7%. Hikma has raised its revenue growth forecasts for 2013, saying that its injectables and generics businesses performed strongly towards the end of the year. The company said it now expects revenue growth of 23% for 2013, up from its previous forecast for 20% growth.

Kenmare Resources, up 5.6%. The titanium producer Kenmare has agreed a restructuring of the project financing for its Moma Mine in Mozambique. It said the deal with its lenders has been designed in a way that will allow Kenmare's project subsidiaries to service the debt in a sustainable manner, and, in due course, accelerate pay down of the debt from available cash while also making distributions to the parent company. The deal also removes the requirement to repay all deferred subordinated debt by August 1, 2015, and instead reschedules all deferred subordinated debt that is unpaid as of July 31, 2015.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

Riverstone Energy, down 1.6%. The energy investment vehicle said it made a net profit in its first financial results since joining the FTSE 250 index. It posted a net profit of USD575,000 for the period from May 23, 2013 to the end of December. The company also said that at the end of December 2013 it had total assets worth USD1.14 billion, based mainly on two key investments, and total liabilities worth USD3.4 million.

PZ Cussons, down 0.6%. The consumer products company's shares have dropped after it announced that it has completed the sale of its home care brands in Poland to Germany's Henkel for GBP46.6 million in cash. Also weighing on the company's share price, Panmure Gordon has cut its price target to 430.00 pence from 445.00p.

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AIM - LOSERS

Mariana Resources, down 8.5%. The exploration and development company said one of its field technicians is believed to have been abducted from near the Condor de Oro project in Peru. The technician was supervising a project to introduce coffee plants to the Los Naranjos community on its site, and is believed to have been abducted by members from the neighbouring community of Supayacu. Mariana, along with its partner Exploraciones Aguila Dorada SAC, provide social programmes to the community in order to maintain good relations as it develops the proposed gold-copper site. Mariana said the incident was immediately reported by EAD to local authorities.

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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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