UK WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: PetroTal Rises After Lifting Guidance

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

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Burberry Group, up 2.8%. Shares in the luxury goods retailer were higher on a positive read-across from French peer LVMH Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton after LVMH reached an agreement to buy Tiffany & Co. The USD135 per share deal has an equity value of around USD16.2 billion, exceeding the initial USD120 per share bid tabled on October 28 which valued the US jeweller at USD14.5 billion. LVMH, which owns watch brand Tag Heuer and fashion house Christian Dior, expects the deal to "transform" its Watches & Jewellery division, strengthen its overall jewellery position, and increase its US presence. The acquisition has the approval of both company boards and Tiffany's directors recommended shareholders approve the deal. If approved by shareholders, it is set to close in mid-2020. LVMH shares were up 2.1% in Paris.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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Fresnillo, down 1.6%. The Mexican gold miner was tracking spot gold prices lower, quoted at USD1.458.00 an ounce, down from USD1,464.30 late Friday. Midcap peer Hochschild Mining was down 5.5%.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

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Direct Line Insurance Group, up 1.7%. Deutsche Bank raised the home and motor insurer to Buy from Hold.

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NewRiver REIT, up 1.5%. The leisure property investor acquired a Northern Ireland retail park for GBP40 million from Intu Properties. NewRiver bought the Sprucefield Retail Park in Lisburn for GBP40.0 million, equivalent to a net initial yield of 8.7%. The park has 231,000 square foot of retail space as well as a 1,200 spaces car park and 18 acres of development land. The site has as its anchor tenants, the supermarket chain J Sainsbury and do-it-yourself retailer B&Q - owned by Kingfisher. Intu shares were up 0.6%.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

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Petrofac, down 1.8%. The Guardian reported on Sunday that the oilfield services firm is facing a further investigation for corruption. Petrofac, the newspaper reported, has been alleged to have maintained a false set of accounts to hide bribes to foreign government officials as part of an investigation by US regulators into another firm in the sector, Unaoil. This is on top of an ongoing investigation into Petrofac over suspected bribery and money laundering by the UK Serious Fraud Office.

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Softcat, down 1.2%. Berenberg downgraded the IT infrastructure and software group to Hold from Buy.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS

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PetroTal, up 21%. The oil and gas company reported the completion of drilling at its second horizontal well on the Bretana field, Peru, leading to an increased year-end production guidance. The 5H well reached the target Vivian formation at the prognosed vertical depth of 2,696 metres, PetroTal said, and 700 metres of the planned 870 metres horizontal section have been drilled, which is inside the main productive oil reservoir. Based on recent field production experience of production 8,000 barrels of oil per day with a facility having 5,000 bopd nominal capacity, PetroTal expects its central production facilities to be able to handle the order of 15,000 barrels per day. Based on this expectations, and that of the second well performing similarly to the first 4H well on the field, PetroTal has increased its production guidance for the end of 2019 to 11,000 to 13,000 bopd, up from 10,000 bopd.

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Cake Box Holdings, up 6.8%. The eggless cakes maker bumped up its interim dividend by 33% following a solid interim performance. Cake Box is returning 1.60p per share for the six months to September 30, up 33% from the 1.20p paid a year before, with cash generation remaining "strong". The company's pretax profit rose 27% to GBP1.7 million with revenue climbing by 6% to GBP8.8 million. Like-for-like sales growth was 6.9%, accelerating from 4.4% for the same period a year before. Since the half's end, trading has been "encouraging", Cake Box continued, and the company said it is on track for "another" year of growth.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS

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D4T4 Solutions, down 11%. The software firm reported a steep decline in interim revenue, though blamed it on accounting changes and contract timings. D4T4 posted a 37% decline in revenue for the six months to September to GBP8.8 million, with pretax profit slipped to GBP847,000 from GBP3.9 million. D4T4 blamed the fall in revenue on a GBP1.7 million accounting adjustment as well as contract timings, with results for its currently financial year set to be weighted towards the second half. D4T4 said it has a "high level" of contract renewals coming online, as well as strong visibility of new business wins and a "significant" pipeline of further opportunities.

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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

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