WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: PayPoint Sale And Special Payout Lift Shares

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 - LOSERS
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Barclays, down 1.3%. The US Department of Justice filed a civil complaint in the Eastern District of New York against Barclays Bank and several of its US affiliates, alleging that Barclays engaged in a fraudulent scheme to sell residential mortgage-backed securities supported by defective and misrepresented mortgage loans. According to the lawsuit, from 2005 to 2007, Barclays personnel repeatedly misrepresented the characteristics of the loans backing securities they sold to investors throughout the world, who incurred billions of dollars in losses as a result of the fraudulent scheme. Barclays said it rejected the claims made in the complaint. "Barclays considers that the claims made in the complaint are disconnected from the facts. Barclays will vigorously defend the complaint and intends to seek its dismissal at the earliest opportunity," the bank said. Banking peers HSBC Holdings was down 1.1% and Standard Chartered down 1.0%.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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PayPoint, up 2.0%. The payments firm said it has agreed the sale of its loss-making Mobile Payments business and will return proceeds from the divestment to shareholders via a special dividend. PayPoint has sold the business to Volkswagen Financial Services, a unit of German carmaker Volkswagen, for GBP26.5 million in cash. From those proceeds, PayPoint will pay a 38.90 pence per share special dividend to shareholders on January 11. PayPoint said its Mobile Payments arm is currently performing better than previously anticipated, but the sale is in line with its strategy of narrowing its focus on multi-channel payments services in regions where it has retail networks in place.
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Vectura Group, up 1.9%. The respiratory medicines maker said it has signed a development and licence agreement for its VR2076 asthma treatment with European pharmaceuticals firm Mundipharma International Corp. Vectura and Mundipharma signed a feasibility and option agreement in December 2015 and, after successful completion of this agreement, the pair have decided to exercise the option to develop VR2076, initially for asthma. The exercise of the option triggers a EUR1.5 million milestone payment to Vectura.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Vast Resources, up 44%. After the London close on Thursday, the miner said it was granted two new prospecting licences in Romania, expanding its mineral footprint in the country. The two licences, the Piciorul Zimbrului and Magura Neagra licences, are both located in the Bistrita-Nasaud county of Romania. Previous exploration has demonstrated both licences' prospectivity for polymetallic mineralisation, Vast said.
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South African Property Opportunities, up 29%. The property investor said it has agreed to sell its remaining assets and secured the final payment on the sale of its African Renaissance asset, with all funds to be returned to shareholders in line with the fund's winding down. South African Property agreed to sell the African Renaissance Project for ZAR70 million in July 2015. On Friday, it said the final ZAR40.0 million instalment for the sale has been received. In addition, the fund has agreed to sell its remaining assets for ZAR60.0 million to an unnamed buyer. This will be paid in three instalments, with the first ZAR25.0 million already received, ZAR11.0 million due by the end of February 2017, and the final ZAR24.0 million to be paid by the end of June 2017.
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REACT Energy, up 13%. The clean energy project developer reported a wider annual loss but expressed confidence on its outlook after securing financing. REACT reported a pretax loss of EUR1.5 million for the financial year ended June 30, widended from a loss of just EUR91,214 in the prior year. REACT noted post-period it increased and extended its existing loan facility with Spanish-listed industrial engineering group EBIOSS, to a total EUR1.4 million from EUR600,000, in order to cover its working capital requirements. After securing the financing, "the company now has the potential to take advantage of the opportunities presenting themselves in the UK energy from waste market and in turn advance its pipeline of projects throughout the UK," said Gerry Madden, chief executive of REACT.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Graphene NanoChem, down 40%. The graphene products maker returned to trading on AIM after agreeing to issue up to GBP2.5 million in convertible loan notes under an agreement with Darwin Capital. Shares in the firm had been suspended when it delayed publication of its 2015 accounts and underwent a debt reorganisation earlier this year. The notes are convertible at a price of the lesser of 18.40 pence per share or 90% of the average of five daily average share price calculations selected by Darwin from the 20 trading days prior to conversion. Shares in the firm were quoted at 8.839p Friday.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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