UK WINNERS & LOSERS: Standard Life Rises After Beating Consensus

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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Standard Life, up 2.5%. The savings and investment company reported a 19% rise in operating profit before tax from continuing operations in 2014, bolstered by rising assets under administration on the back of net inflows, positive market movements, and the acquisition of Ignis Asset Management.

Weir Group, up 2.7%. Goldman Sachs has raised the oil services company's rating to Buy from Neutral.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Kingfisher, down 2.6%. Barclays has downgraded DIY retailer Kingfisher to Underweight from Equal Weight, saying it sees a number of weaknesses in the company's operations in France, the UK and Poland.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Serco Group, up 9.4%. The outsourcing company was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform by Credit Suisse.

Essentra, up 2.4%. The supplier of plastic and fibre products said it has increased its full-year dividend for 2014 after reporting a significant rise in pretax profit, driven by strong revenue growth across most of its divisions. Essentra also announced that it has completed the acquisition of an Australian plastics distributor that is set to "enhance" earnings immediately.

Go-Ahead Group, up 1.9%. Several brokers have raised the company's recommendation, following the bus and train company's interim results release on Thursday. Liberum has raised the transport group's price target to 3,000p from 2,800p, reiterating its Buy rating, while JP Morgan raised the group's price target to 2,734.74p from 2,600p, keeping its rating at Overweight. Meanwhile, HSBC raised Go-Ahead's price target to 2,825 from 2,810, reiterating its Overweight rating.

Man Group, up 1.6%. The hedge fund investment manager confirmed a conditional deal to buy the investment management business of NewSmith LLP, an equity investment manager with USD1.2 billion of funds under management.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Bank Of Georgia Holdings, down 2.3%. The holding company of JSC Bank of Georgia reported a 13% rise in pretax profit for 2014, boosted by strong lending in the fourth quarter. However, Numis and Panmure Gordon have cut its earnings per share forecasts for the company to reflect slower-than-anticipated GDP growth in Georgia.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Tri-Star Resources, up 22%. The antimony development company said Strategic & Precious Metals Processing LLC, of which it owns 40%, has received a provisional environmental permit for its Oman antimony roaster project. This permit allows Strategic & Precious to begin construction activities, and to begin with business activities.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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SolGold, off 15%. The Australian gold and copper minery said its pretax loss widened in the first half on the back of increased costs and said it conducted very limited exploration work during the period. For the six months ended December 31, the group reported an operating loss before tax of GBP1.2 million, wider than the GBP1.0 million it reported in the same period a year earlier.

Pinnacle Technology Group, down 14%. The company, which provides a range of converged managed solutions including managed support services, said it narrowed its pretax loss in 2014 on a fall in impairment charges, amortization and depreciation, but said revenue also fell in the year.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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