WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Investor Relief As Rolls-Royce Keeps Outlook

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Rolls-Royce Holdings, up 13%. The power systems developer left its outlook for 2016 unchanged, cut its dividend and reported a drop in underlying pretax profit. Underlying pretax profit fell to GBP1.43 billion in 2015, from GBP1.62 billion in 2014, coming in ahead of the GBP1.3 billion expected by analysts, as underlying revenue fell to GBP13.35 billion from GBP13.86 billion. Rolls cut its dividend for the year as a whole to 16.37 pence from 23.10p, slightly ahead of the 16.20p expected by analysts. Chief Executive Warren East said the payment to shareholders will be halved at the next half year. Given the five profit warnings over the last two years, some feared the worst for Rolls-Royce Holdings as it reported its full-year numbers, but Liberum said the engine maker's results have paused the downgrade cycle for now.

Standard Chartered, up 7.0%. The emerging markets focused bank was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Investec. "We believe that Standard Chartered's path back to “normalised” returns remains long and deeply uncertain. However, trading at a fresh 21st Century low of 387p...we raise our recommendation to Buy from Hold," said Investec analyst Ian Gordon

Barclays, up 4.7%. Singapore-based DBS Group Holdings and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp have made non-binding bids for Barclays' Asian private wealth business, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Barclays has been looking for buyers of its Singapore-based wealth unit since last year, the report said.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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BT Group, down 1.5%. The telecommunications company's stock was downgraded to Sell from Neutral by UBS.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Berendsen, up 5.0%. Credit Suisse Upgraded the textile services company to Outperform From Neutral.

Investec, up 3.8%. The asset manager was upgraded to Buy from Hold by HSBC.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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SuperGroup, down 6.1%. The fashion retailer and owner of Superdry label said co-founder and Product & Brand Director Julian Dunkerton sold 4.0 million shares in the company at 1,200 pence each via an accelerated bookbuild on Thursday. Following the sale, Dunkerton now holds 22.1 million shares in the company, equivalent to a 27% stake in the company.

Tritax Big Box REIT, down 2.8%. The real estate investment trust said it had "significantly exceeded" its target of GBP100.0 million - not to mention its declared maximum size of GBP150.0 million - in its placing, open offer and offer for subscription of shares. The group, which invests in 'big box' warehouse property, said a total of 161.3 million shares will be issued at 124 pence per share, after having previously said it would issue 80.6 million shares at the same price. The company additionally said it will conduct a tap issue to meet GBP50.0 million of excess demand on equivalent terms to the placing. As a result, the total size of the issue will be GBP200.0 million. Tritax said this was "significantly lower" than the total overall demand.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings), up 17%. The oil and gas company has been awarded a new licensing option in the southern Porcupine Basin offshore Ireland as part of the first phase of the 2015 Atlantic Ireland round. Europa will have a 100% interest in the two-year licensing option, and following the completion of a work programme has the option to apply to the Irish authorities for their consent to convert the licence into an FEL.

NorthRiver Resources, up 19%. The resource company said a drilling campaign at the Namib lead-zinc project in Namibia has delineated additional extensions of known lodes and identified additional high grade targets. The company also said 4,828 metres have been drilled since August 2014, with results giving management confidence in the previously announced JORC compliant mineral resource estimate.

Paragon Entertainment, up 11%. The attractions design, production and fit-out business said it has entered into a joint representation agreement with Latvian-based designer of museums, attractions and heritage-based projects H2E. It will represent H2E in the UK while H2E will represent Paragon in Latvia, the Baltic States, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Scandinavia. The agreement will allow Paragon increased access to regional businesses, local trades and materials and trading licences for projects, Paragon said, while H2E will benefit from Paragon's sales, marketing and presence in the UK and Western Europe.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Motive Television, down 50%. The comopany its shares will be suspended from trading on AIM on Monday following the resignation of its nominated adviser, Sanlam Securities UK. Under AIM rules, a company must have a nominated adviser in order to be traded, and as such, if Motive Television fails to appoint a replacement nominated adviser within a month of Sanlam's resignation, admission of its shares to AIM will be cancelled. Motive develops and distributes technology for the television broadcasting sector.

Argos Resources, down 23%. The oil and gas explorer said Noble Energy, in which Argos has a 5% overriding royalty interest, has declared force majeure after terminating its contract with Ocean Rig UDW. Noble had been planning to drill an exploration well on Licence PL001, which was due to commence shortly using the Eirik Raude drilling rig in the North Falkland Basin. However, due to operational issues with the rig, Noble has cancelled its contract. It then used its rights under the farmout agreement with Argos to declare force majeure. Premier Oil and Rockhopper Exploration said they too have terminated their joint venture agreement with Ocean Rig due to the issues with the Eirik Raude drilling unit. Premier Oil was up 5.3%, while Rockhopper was down 9.3%.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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