WINNERS & LOSERS: Playtech Falls After Plus500 Acquisition Agreement

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Lloyds Banking Group, up 1.4%. UK Financial Investments said it has extended the trading plan under which it is selling the UK government's stake in Lloyds Banking Group back to the market by a further six months, as the government confirmed that a further 1% stake in the bank has been sold. The UK government also confirmed that Lloyds shares will be sold to retail investors "in the next 12 months". Further details will be set out in due course, it added.

AstraZeneca, up 1.1%. The pharmaceutical giant on Sunday announced preliminary efficacy and safety data for AZD9291 in the first-line treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor mutation positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The company reported that the data showed that 81% of patients on a once daily dose of AZD9291 were progression free at nine months; overall response rate was 73%. The most common adverse events in both cohorts included rash and diarrhoea.

British American Tobacco, up 0.4%. The tobacco company said it has stuck a EUR550 million deal to acquire TDR doo and other tobacco and retail assets from Adris Grupa dd to expand its central European operations.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Ultra Electronics Holdings, up 2.6%. The group, which provides electronic and software technology to the defence, security, transport and energy industries, said it has struck a deal to acquire the electronics products division of US-based radio frequency and microwave systems supplier Kratos Defense & Security Solutions for USD265 million.

Synthomer, up 2.2%. JP Morgan has upgraded the specialty chemical company to Neutral from Underweight.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Playtech, down 1.3%. The gaming software development company said it has reached an agreement to acquire troubled online contracts-for-difference trading platform Plus500 Ltd in a GBP459.6 million deal, a deal which comes after Plus500 shares plunged after the company had to suspend some of its UK customer accounts to address its anti-money laundering processes. Playtech, which has recently moved into the foreign exchange trading sector, will pay 400 pence per share for Plus500.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Sunrise Resources, up 43%. The company said it will refocus its drilling programme at the Bay State silver project in the US state of Nevada onto the Chihuahua vein after the latest test results produced "bonanza" silver grades.

China New Energy, up 36%. The company bought a 24% stake in a Hungarian bioethanol project for EUR250,000, and said it could increase its stake further.

Serica Energy, up 17%. The international exploration and production company's shares rose despite its loss widening in 2014 on the back of significant impairments, as the company puts its focus on the Erskine field in the UK North Sea after purchasing an interest in the project from oil major BP in June.

Roxi Petroleum, up 17%. The company said it has cancelled a share subscription deal with BOCO due to the imminent sale of the Galaz contract area in Kazakhstan despite extending the deadline due to the need for Chinese regulatory approval. Roxi said it has also finally cleared the blockage at the Deep Well A5 that was plaguing operations and said it could make a separate discovery at the nearby Deep Well 801 after discovering it does not link up with the A5 well.

Omega Diagnostics, up 10%. The company said its Visitect CD4 infectious disease product appears to be capable of meeting its targets and said it has made progress on its allergy development. Omega said it has now made three pilot batches of the devices, all of which have yielded comparable results and which have demonstrated the product is capable of meeting its performance design targets in comparison to flow cytometry when tested on HIV-positive patients.

Real Good Food, up 10%. The food business said it expects to have made net sales of GBP104 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of GBP5.3 million for continuing operations in its recently-ended financial year, an improvement on the year, and said current trading is doing well.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Frontier Resources, off 24%. The oil and gas company said that the GBP1.7 million subscription agreement with AGR Energy Ltd No.II will no longer proceed. Frontier said it has now started discussions regarding potential alternative funding for its immediate working capital requirements.

Starcom, down 19%. The wireless services company said it has conditionally raised GBP475,000 via a share placing, funds to provide additional working capital for the business, and said its finance director has stepped down.

Circle Oil, down 19%. The company said it swung to a substantial pretax loss in 2014 after it booked impairments and write-offs related to its operations in Oman and Egypt and the fall in oil prices. It reported a pretax loss of USD53.9 million in 2014, compared with a USD28.9 million profit in 2013, after revenue fell to USD84.6 million from USD93.3 million and it booked exploration write-offs totalling USD57.4 million.

San Leon Energy, down 14%. The company proposed a conditional placing and share capital reorganisation which would significantly enlarge the share capital of the company to raise GBP29 million. It said the proposed placing is subject to shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting that will be announced shortly and will only go ahead if the company undergoes a share capital reorganisation consisting of subdivision and consolidation of the the existing issued share capital resulting in new shares in the company.

Camco Clean Energy, down 13%. The company said its pretax loss narrowed in 2014 despite revenue falling, as a business restructuring improved performance in the US, though this was offset by reduced revenue from realigned African operations. It reported a pretax loss of EUR2.3 million in 2014, narrowing from a EUR3.6 million loss in 2013 despite revenue falling to EUR9.9 million from EUR12.3 million.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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