WINNERS & LOSERS: Banks Hit By Brazil Investigation

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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British Land Group, up 1.1%. The company is up following its analyst and investor day on Thursday. Panmure Gordon said it believes the property developer's strategy is revealing opportunities in the rapidly changing consumer shopping environment.

BAE Systems, up 0.6%. The defence contractor has been upgraded by UBS to Buy from Neutral. UBS said that despite concerns about the closure of BAE's Williamstown shipyard in Australia and the Eurofighter programme, it thinks the company's valuations looks compelling.

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FTSE 100 LOSERS

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Standard Chartered, down 2.1%, Barclays, down 1.2%, and HSBC Holdings, down 0.9%. Competition authorities in Brazil are investigating fifteen of the biggest banks in the world over allegations that they colluded to influence benchmark currency rates in the South American country, Reuters reported on Thursday. Cade, the Brazilian competition authority, alleged that banks' activity deterred competitors from the market for several years from 2007, the report said.

Rolls-Royce Holdings, down 1.9%. Deutsche Bank cuts its price target on the aerospace and engineering company to 610.00 pence from 645.00p reiterating its Sell rating. The bank has concerns about the Roll-Royce's ability to deliver earnings growth in 2016.

Royal Bank of Scotland, down 1.9%. The bank could face a penalty of as much as USD13 billion depending on the outcome of a US mortgage securities lawsuit, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. According to the report the US Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is suing on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, estimated that amount in a court filing in a related case.

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FTSE 250 WINNERS

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Auto Trader Group, up 4.5%. The digital car retailer has been initiated at Overweight by Exane BNP.

Cobham, up 1.5%. The aerospace and defence manufacturing company has been upgraded to Overweight from Neutral by JP Morgan.

Rightmove, up 0.9%. Investec upgrades the online property portal to Hold from Sell on the back of its market-leading position and robust trading.

ICAP, up 0.8%. The interdealer broker said its electronic broking average daily volumes in dollars were up by 11.9% year-on-year in June and by 3% from May. Statistics published by ICAP, which matches buyers and sellers in the wholesale markets in interest rates, credit, commodities, foreign exchange, emerging markets and equity derivatives, showed that electronic broking average daily volumes in dollars totalled USD511.3 billion in June on a single-count basis.

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FTSE 250 LOSERS

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Zoopla Property Group, down 3.1%. The online property portal has been initiated at Sell by Investec. The broker says the launch of OnTheMarket has exposed the investment case for the company.

FirstGroup, down 3.1%. UBS cuts the public transport company to Sell from Neutral.

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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS

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Phorm Corporation, up 19%. The online advertising platform operator reported higher quarterly revenue and other key performance indicators in Russia, while it also reported on the start of commercial operations in the US. Revenue attributed to Russia was RUB29.0 million in the second quarter of 2015, Phorm reported, almost double the RUB15.7 million in the first quarter.

Optimal Payments, up 13%. The company said it expects its EUR1.1 billion takeover of payments rival Skrill to win approval from UK regulators by the end of July, a move which will enable it to complete the deal, transfer to the London Stock Exchange's Main Market, and seek a place in the FTSE 250 index.

Distil, up 12%. The drinks company said its current financial year has started well, with sales and volumes higher year-on-year. The company, which owns the Blackwoods Gin and Vodka and RedLeg Spiced Rum brands, said it has been boosted by the increased exposure of its brands across distribution channels in the UK and overseas.

PeerTV, up 8.5%. The company said its subsidiary is to provide hardware and software to an international programming distributor after the signing of a deal. The agreement means PeerTV will supply its iQ4 Quad Core Android Set Top Boxes to the distributor.

Outsourcery, up 7.5%. The cloud services company said it has signed an amortising term loan with Vodafone Group Services Ltd, a subsidiary of FTSE 100-listed telecommunications company Vodafone Group. Under the deal, Outsourcery will be given a GBP4 million, four-year loan. In exchange, Vodafone will be granted a warrant over 3 million shares in Outsourcery, exercisable at 30 pence per share. Outsourcery currently trades at 25.795p.

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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS

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Ubisense Group, off 16%. The location intelligence services company issued a warning on its revenue for the full year after saying it has been hit by more contract delays in the first half and said it will restructure its operations to cut costs. Ubisense said that in addition to an anticipated fall in lower-margin Services division revenue and the delays of two contracts into the second half of the year, it has now seen further delays on certain contracts, meaning revenue in its Solutions arm in the first half will be "some way short" of the first half of 2014.

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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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