UK WINNERS & LOSERS: Oil Stocks, Gold Miners Hit By Price Weakness

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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G4S, up 2.8%. The security company said it swung to a pretax profit in 2014 after 2013 was hit by hundreds of millions of pounds of charges and restructuring costs related to issues with UK government contracts, but Chief Executive Ashley Almanza admitted the company has a lot more to do before it's fully back on track.

Schroders, up 0.9%. Numis has raised the asset manager to Add from Hold, with a price target increase to 3,405.00 pence from 2,955.00p. The stock currently trades at 3,119.00p.

HSBC Holdings, up 0.5%. Goldman Sachs has upgraded the bank to Buy from Neutral.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Tullow Oil, down 6.6%, BG Group, down 4.8%, Royal Dutch Shell 'B', down 3.0%, Weir Group, down 2.8%, and BP, down 2.1%. The oil-related stocks are down following a fall in the price of oil. Brent crude hit a low of USD57.59 per barrel, its lowest level since February 12, while West Texas Intermediate hit USD49.43. Goldman Sachs said Monday that WTI oil prices could reach USD40.00 a barrel and it expects Brent oil prices and timespreads to reverse their recent strength.

J Sainsbury, down 3.2%. The grocer's market share fell to 16.8% in the 12 weeks to March 1, from 17.0% a year earlier, according the latest industry data from Kantar Worldpanel.

Prudential, down 2.4%. The financial services group reported a big increase in profit for 2014, helped by growth in its key Asian markets, the UK and the US, but the results were overshadowed by news that Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam will leave to become the new CEO of Swiss bank Credit Suisse AG.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Inchcape, up 7.8%. The automotive retailer and distributer said its pretax profit declined due to exceptional costs, but the company reported a rise in revenue and hiked its dividend. The company said its pretax profit for 2014 was GBP255.8 million, down from GBP266.1 million last year due to a GBP47.4 million goodwill impairment charge the company booked on its Russian operations. Stripping out exceptional costs, pretax profit rose to GBP303.2 million from GBP274.6 million.

Allied Minds, up 7.1%. The company said it has formed BridgeSat Inc, which will build an optical connectivity system to improve the wireless transfer of data from satellites. BridgeSat co-invented the technology with the US federally-funded Aerospace Corp as part of a commercialisation collaboration.

Unite Group, up 1.9%. JP Morgan has raised its price target for the developer and manager of student accommodation to 670.00 pence from 510.00p, maintaining its Overweight rating on the stock. The group currently trades at 564.50p.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Esure Group, down 8.1%. The insurer reported a fall in pretax profit for 2014, blaming motor insurance market conditions and costs related to the acquisition of the remaining parts of GoCompare. The company said its pretax profit for 2014 was GBP103.3 million, down 13% on the GBP118.4 million posted a year earlier due to the challenging conditions in the motor insurance market and due to costs related to the acquisition of the 50% of price comparison service GoCompare that it did not already own. Gross written premiums fell and the group cut its final dividend.

Premier Oil, down 6.8%, Cairn Energy, down 6.3%, Afren, down 4.2%, and John Wood Group, down 2.8%. The oil related stocks are down on the oil price.

Lonmin, down 6.3%, Acacia Mining, down 4.8%, and Centamin, down 3.5%. The precious metals miners are down due to a fall in the price of gold. The metal fell to a low of USD1,154.60 an ounce, its lowest price since December 1.

IP Group, down 4.5%. The intellectual property company said it is planning to raise GBP128 million via a share placing, as its pretax profit for 2014 fell substantially and it appointed a new chairman. It said it intends to raise GBP128 million by issuing 56.9 million shares at 225 pence per share, a 6.6% discount to its closing middle-market price of 240.9 pence on March 9. The stock currently trades at 230.02p.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Optare, up 82%. Shares in the bus maker hit an 11-month high after it got a GBP7.3 million order for its Solo single-decker buses from Stagecoach Group in the UK. Optare said it expects to deliver the Solos with Euro 6 emissions standards by the end of this year, although it didn't say how many. It said the order is in addition to five fully electric vehicles that it will deliver this month

AFC Energy, up 22%. The industrial fuel cell power company said it has signed a formal project development agreement with Samyoung Corp and Changshin Chemcial Co, two South Korean companies, to work together to deliver an initial 50 megawatts of fuel cell generation capacity, which will generate USD1 billion in revenue over 10 years. AFC will hold a 40% stake in the project, with Samyoung holding a 45% stake and Changshin holding the remaining 15% interest.

IGas Energy, up 19%. The company said it has signed a farm out and purchase agreement with Swiss chemicals company INEOS. Under the deal, INEOS will acquire an interest in certain licences in the North West and East Midlands from IGas, along with its participating interest in the acreage held under the PEDL 133 licence in Scotland. IGas will get GBP30 million in cash for the sale, plus a funded forward work programme of up to GBP138 million gross, of which IGas' share will be fully funded by INEOS. IGas' share of the programme is expected to be around GBP65 milllion.

STM Group, up 18%. The financial services group reported that its 2014 operating earnings more than doubled on strong growth in pensions revenue driven by the investments it made in expanding its network in recent years. Those investments had been driving revenue growth but meant profitability was lagging. That situation ended in 2014.

Bango, up 10%. The mobile payments company said its pretax loss widened in 2014 due to its switch to a subscription model, but reported a leap in end-user spend and set out its guidance for future developments. End-user spend, a closely watched measure of how many business transactions are made through Bango's platform for app stores, rose to GBP25.2 million from GBP15.6 million in 2013.

Sunrise Resources, up 9.1%. The mineral exploration and development company said it has signed a lease agreement on additional claims at the Bay State silver project in Nevada and said it has generated a new project in the US state. Sunrise Resources said it will lease a further two patented claims, called Battery and Sanchez. The agreement also gives Sunrise the option to buy the claims.

InterQuest, up 6.5%. The recruitment company said its 2014 pretax profit more than doubled on the back of its acquisition of ECOM and as the recruiter focused on filling difficult specialist roles that command higher margins. The company's pretax profit rose to GBP2.9 million in 2014, from GBP1.4 million in 2013, as revenue jumped to GBP150.6 million, from GBP114.9 million, and its net operating margin rose to 21.1% from 14.4%. It said ECOM, which it bought in November 2013, performed ahead of its expectations.

Airea, up 6.4%. The floor coverings maker reported higher profit and revenue for the first half of its financial year despite challenging markets in the UK retail sector and in mainland Europe. Airea reported an operating profit of GBP700,000 for the six months to end-December, up from GBP222,000 a year earlier, as revenue rose to GBP13.5 million from GBP11.6 million. Its pretax profit rose to GBP486,000 from GBP24,000.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Beowulf Mining, off 19%. The mining company said it has raised GBP350,000 via a discounted share placing. Beowulf said it placed 29.2 million new shares at 1.2 pence per share. "We are pleased to deliver a capital raising in a tough market for junior mining companies. The capital raise comes on top of the GBP150,000 injection announced earlier in the year," said Beowulf Chief Executive Kurt Budge. The stock currently trades at 1.262p.

Collagen Solutions, down 11%. The company said it expects its full-year revenue to be below market expectations due to contract delays, though the company still thinks its earnings will meet the market view. Collagen said it has seen some "slippage" in revenue for the year to the end of March, with the company to take a GBP360,000 hit from contract delays.

Allergy Therapeutics, down 9.7%. The pharmaceuticals company said it has conditionally raised GBP20.8 million via a share placing. The company, which focuses on allergy vaccines, said it placed 94.1 million shares at 22.1 pence per share with institutional and other investors.The proceeds of the placing conducted by Panmure Gordon are to be used to fund the clinical development of its Pollinex Quattro Grass product.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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