UK WINNERS & LOSERS: Oil Producers Rise As Brent Recovers

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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BP, up 3.0%, Tullow Oil, up 1.6%, Royal Dutch Shell 'A', up 0.5%, and BG Group, up 0.4%. The oil producers are trading higher as the price of oil has come back from its recent lows. Brent oil currently trades at USD49.98 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate trades at USD48.05 a barrel.

BT Group, up 1.5%. SocGen has upgraded the company to Buy from Hold, with a price target increase to 480.00 pence from 245.00p. The stock currently trades at 406.30p.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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AstraZeneca, down 1.8%. Barclays has downgraded the company to Underweight from Equal Weight, saying that while pipeline optimism is likely to buoy the shares in the near-term, it will also result in R&D expenditure remaining high, approximately 20% of sales.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Afren, up 9.9%. The oil and gas company trades higher after news on Thursday that suitor SEPLAT Petroleum Development Co has secured a refinancing deal which includes an option to increase the facility by GBP700 million to back acquisitions. Afren and SEPLAT have both confirmed the pair are in "highly preliminary" talks over a possible bid for Afren by SEPLAT.

JD Sports Fashion, up 6.0%. The sports clothing and equipment retailer upgraded its guidance for the full year on the back of a jump in sales over the Christmas period. The company said like-for-like sales rose 12% in the five weeks to January 3 against strong comparative figures in the year-earlier period. As a result, cumulative like-for-like sales growth in the 48 weeks to January 3 is now at 12%, JD Sports said.

Spectris, up 4.7%. The instrumentation and controls company said it expects its adjusted operating profit to be around GBP198 million for 2014, in line with previous guidance, as sales rose 5% in its fourth quarter on both a reported and constant currency basis. Spectris said that excluding a boost from acquisitions and foreign currency exchange movements which had a negative effect of 5%, reported sales for the full year were down 2% compared with 2013.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Dignity, down 4.5%. Berenberg has cut the funeral services company to Hold from Buy.

Countrywide, down 3.7%. Barclays has cut the estate agency to Equal Weight from Overweight.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Character Group, up 7.6%. The company said it expects to "at least" meet market expectations for its current financial year to end-August, following encouraging trading in the run up to the 2014 Christmas season. Character Group said its sales in the current financial year to date are up around 28% compared with the previous year, with strong sales at the consumer level ahead of its expectations in the Christmas season.

Software Radio Technology, up 7.3%. The company said it has signed a deal with an unnamed partner for the supply of its GeoVS maritime display system for a major port in Malaysia. The system includes GeoVS HUB and VIEWER products, with a further 15 AIS AtoN Express products also being supplied to allow buoys to receive AIS messages and move waterway navigation safety and efficiency, Software Radio said.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Pure Wafer, off 11%. The company said it doesn't expect full-scale production at its Swansea facility to restart for up to 12 months following the fire at the plant in December. Pure Wafer, which provides silicon wafer reclaim services to semiconductor companies, said metallurgical testing at the plant found elements of the building, including parts of the structural steel framework, were compromised in the fire and will need to be replaced.

London Capital Group Holdings, down 11%. The online provider of spread betting and contracts-for-difference said the impact from the Swiss National Bank's unexpected removal of the ceiling for the Swiss franc against the euro will be up to GBP1.7 million.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com

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