UK WINNERS & LOSERS: Miners Fall As Copper Price Hits Five-Year Low

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Wednesday.
-------
FTSE 100 WINNERS
-------
Tesco, up 2.8%. Exane BNP Paribas has raised the supermarket chain to Outperform from Neutral, with a price target rise to 250.00 pence from 180.00p. The stock currently trades at 217.95p.

AstraZeneca, up 1.0%. The pharmaceutical giant said the PEGASUS-TIMI 54 study has successfully met its primary efficacy targets, with a preliminary analysis showing no unexpected safety issues. In the trial, which involved 21,000 patients, researchers assessed Brilinta tablets administered at either 60mg twice daily or 90mg twice daily, plus low-dose aspirin for the secondary prevention of atherothrombotic events in people who had suffered a heart attack one to three years prior to taking part in the study.

Barratt Developments, up 0.9%. The housebuilder said it is on track for a significant improvement in its full-year results after reporting a rise in total completions, average selling prices and forward sales in the first half. The company said total completions in the six months to the end of December rose 12.5% to 6,971 from 6,195 a year earlier.

United Utilities, up 0.7%. Merrill Lynch late Tuesday upgraded the company to Neutral from Under-Perform, with a price target rise to 945.00p from 820.00p. The stock currently trades at 950.00p.

British Land Co, up 0.1%. British Land Co and Oxford Properties said they have secured a series of new lettings at the Leadenhall Building in the City of London. The two have secured a total of 93,400 square feet of new lettings at the building, nicknamed the Cheesegrater, including Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners, the firm of Richard Rogers, the architect of the tower.
-------
FTSE 100 LOSERS
-------
Glencore, down 10%, Anglo American, down 9.1%, Antofagasta, down 7.6%, and BHP Billiton, down 5.3%. The miners are trading lower following a fall in copper to a five-year low and global growth concerns following a cut in the World Bank's global growth forecast. In its bi-annual report, the Washington-based development institution predicted global growth of 3% in 2015, up from 2.6% last year, but down from its earlier 2015 forecast of 3.4%, saying a strengthening US economy and plummeting oil prices won't be enough to offset disappointing economic prospects in the eurozone, Japan and some major emerging markets.

Standard Chartered, down 2.8%. UBS has downgraded the Asia-focused bank to Neutral from Buy, with a price target cut to 980.00p from 1,120.00p. The stock currently trades at 905.80p.
-------
FTSE 250 WINNERS
-------
SuperGroup, up 8.5%. The owner of the clothing brand SuperDry said it saw a "strong performance" over the peak Christmas trading period, and is comfortable with delivering a profit for the year in the region of GBP60 million to GBP65 million. In a surprise trading update, the company said total retail sales for the 11 weeks to January 10 rose just short of 18%, while on a like-for-like basis sales grew by more than 12%, which it said was against softer comparatives than the first half. The retailer also said it embarked on more discounting over Christmas than previous years, as it needed to clear some of the excess stock it built up during the Autumn months.

Just Eat, up 3.2%. The online takeaway company said it is "highly confident" for its 2014 results, both financial and operational, after it saw a 50% increase in orders during the year. Just Eat said total orders in 2014 increased 52% year-on-year, boosted by the consolidation of orders from its French business in the second half of the year, although it said that excludes any Brazilian orders from November onwards when that business became an associate. On a like-for-like basis, it said orders were up 50%.

Cineworld Group, up 1.0%. The cinema chain posted a rise in revenue for the full year and said it expects its profit for the year to be at the top end of market guidance, as its UK and Ireland business outperformed the wider market. The company said total revenue for the 53 weeks to January 1 was up 5.2% year-on-year, noting this year includes an extra trading week. On a 52-week comparison, group revenue rose 1.7% year-on-year.
-------
FTSE 250 LOSERS
-------
GAME Digital, down 33%. The video game retailer said after the close of London equity markets Tuesday that due to lower than expected margins on its hardware sales, it expects its full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be broadly in line with its previous year's figure of GBP51.3 million. The company said that whilst it saw hardware volume sales up 25% over the Christmas trading period, the eleven weeks to January 10, group sales fell 5.4% at constant currency due to lower selling prices and margins.

Kaz Minerals, down 20%, Vedanta Resources, down 18%, and BlackRock World Mining Trust, down 4.6%. The mining related stocks are down due to the fall in copper prices and concerns about the health of the global economy.

Premier Oil, down 3.1%. The company warned it will be writing off USD300 million worth of value from a number of its assets in 2015 due to the low oil price, despite hedging over 40% of its production, which significantly increased during 2014. Premier Oil said it will be making a material impairment charge in the second half of 2015 on some of its assets to reflect the low Brent crude oil spot price and forward curve price at the year end of 2014. The impairment charge is currently estimated to total USD300 million on a post-tax basis.
-------
AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
-------
Helius Energy, up 20%. The company said it will need to raise additional financing in March if it can not find a partner or buyer to raise funding for the Avonmouth biomass project or generate value from the CoRDe biomass project. The company continues to try and source financing for the Avonmouth project in Bristol. Helius is in "early discussions" with a new potential funder and is expecting some form of development by March. The company said it will not make any capital commitments to the project until a "clear pathway of funding" is sourced.

Christie Group, up 14%. The agency and advisory services provider said it expects to beat market expectations for the full year to December 31 following a strong end to 2014.

Rosslyn Data Technologies, up 12%. The company said its Rosslyn Analytics Inc subsidiary has won a contract from the State University System of Florida. Under the five-year deal, worth USD1 million to Rosslyn, the unit will provide cloud-based analytics to the university system's 12 member universities in Florida.

Victoria, up 9.6%. The carpets and floorcovering company said it has agreed a deal to buy the Whitestone Weavers group of companies for a total of GBP13.7 million. Victoria will acquire Whitestone Weavers Ltd, Carpet Line Direct Ltd, Gaskell Mackay Carpets Ltd, View Logistics Ltd and Thomas Witter Carpets Ltd as part of the deal.
-------
AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
-------
Kea Petroleum, off 28%. The company said it has shut in production at the Puka site in Taranaki in New Zealand. Kea said it has been unable to resolve the mechanical issues it has faced with the Puka-1 well. It had been attempting to fix the problems while continuing production from Puka-2.

Totally, down 18%. The digital healthcare services company issued a warning on its 2014 results, saying its loss will be wider than market expectations due to a fall in revenue caused by contract delays. Totally said it had seen a number of delays in signing new contracts and renewals with a small number of Clinical Commissioning Groups, a Commissioning Support Unit, and a specialist healthcare organisation, all of which had been expected to contribute to its revenue for the year to the end of December.

Deltex Medical Group, down 12%. The company said it expects its loss to be wider than market expectations, as its sales were hit by National Health Service de-stocking in the UK and by contract delays in its international business. Deltex said it expects its losses to be around GBP1.2 million wider than market expectations. According to Morningstar, brokers are forecasting a GBP2.3 million loss for the company at present, suggesting Deltex expects its loss for the year to the end of December to be around GBP3.5 million.

Tungsten Corp, down 12%. The automated invoice processing provider said that putting the foundations for growth in place had taken longer than expected, as it reported a loss for its first half. In a statement, Tungsten said its pretax loss widened to GBP14.8 million in the six months ended October 31, from GBP5.5 million the corresponding period last year.
-------
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.