WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Poundland Rises On Steinhoff Bid Interest

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Anglo American, up 4.5%, Glencore, up 4.4%, Antofagasta, up 4.2%, Rio Tinto, up 2.5%. Mining stocks were rebounding after being sold in previous sessions. "Asian-focused names such as Burberry and Standard Chartered have been popular this morning after a reasonable session in China and Japan, while the usual catalyst of a lower US dollar, higher commodity prices and thus higher prices for mining shares is in action once again," said IG Group Senior Market Analyst Chris Beauchamp. Standard Chartered was up 3.7% and Burberry Group up 3.0%.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Berkeley Group Holdings, down 1.0%. The housebuilder said both its revenue and pretax profit dipped in its recent financial year, after it sold more homes but at a lower average selling price, due to the higher-end market in the UK being hit by increased transaction taxes and as the country's European Union referendum approaches. The company posted revenue of GBP2.05 billion for the year ended April 30, down from GBP2.12 billion the year earlier. Berkeley's pretax profit slipped to GBP530.9 million for the year from GBP539.7 million the year earlier. Berkeley said it was offering a dividend of 190 pence per share for the recent financial year, compared to GBP180p per share for the year earlier. Peer Taylor Wimpey was down 0.1%.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Jimmy Choo, up 15%. The high-end shoemaker and luxury goods retailer said it has made a good start to 2016 and is trading in line with its expectations, in a statement ahead of its annual general meeting on Wednesday. The luxury shoe and accessories retailer acknowledged "headwinds facing the majority of the sector in 2016" but said the company's "successful growth strategy continues to deliver". Liberum also upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold. The broker said Jimmy Choo's trading statement showed the retailer is showing resilience in a difficult market.

Go-Ahead Group, up 4.4%. The transport company was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral by JPMorgan.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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AVEVA Group, down 13%. The engineering software developer said preliminary talks with French energy group Schneider Electric about a potential reverse takeover of AVEVA have been terminated, just two days after confirming it had renewed talks with the French industrials group. Shares in AVEVA were suspended from trading Monday after it said it had received a conditional proposal from Schneider for a reverse takeover, following a previous reverse takeover deal between the two had collapsed in December last year.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Aureus Mining, up 16% at 3.05 pence. The miner said it has raised USD30.0 million through a private placement to strengthen its balance sheet and provide funding for the restart of operations at the New Liberty gold mine in Liberia. Aureus said it will raise the funds through two tranches, one of 59.5 million shares and another of 331.1 million, all at 3.21p per share. The shares will be placed with MNG Gold, a gold exploration firm with assets in Turkey, Burkina Faso and Liberia. Following the placing, MNG will have a 55% stake in Aureus Mining and will appoint three representatives to the board of the company. MNG executives will take over the running of Aureus.

Severfield, up 11%. The structural steel company said it swung to a pretax profit thanks to one-offs not recurring in the financial year to the end of March, while underlying profit was robust, resulting in a tripling of its payout to shareholders. Pretax profit for the year to March 31 was GBP9.6 million, compared to a GBP191,000 loss booked a year earlier, which had been primarily due to writedowns booked on unprofitable contracts. Underlying pretax profit, which strips out the exceptional items, was up to GBP13.2 million from GBP8.3 million. The group said it will pay a 1.0 pence per share final dividend, meaning its total dividend jumps to 1.5p from 0.5p the year earlier.

Poundland Group, up 6.3%. South African furniture retailer Steinhoff International Holdings said it is considering a possible offer for the discount store chain, which would be Steinhoff's third run at a London-listed company in 2016 so far. No further details on the Poundland offer were disclosed, but Steinhoff said it will make a further announcement when appropriate. Poundland responded, noting Steinhoff's announcement and "strongly" advising shareholders to take no action. "The company will issue a further statement if and when appropriate," Poundland said. "There can be no certainty that a firm offer will be made, nor as to the terms on which any firm offer might be made." Steinhoff unsuccessfully tried to acquire Home Retail Group, the owner of Argos which was sold to supermarket chain J Sainsbury, and electricals retailer Darty. Poundland will report full year earnings on Thursday.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Servelec Group, down 35%. The software company said its operating profit for 2016 is set to significantly miss its expectations amid contract delays in some of its divisions. Servelec said its Social Care and Nuclear & Power businesses have both continued to trade in line, but market challenges facing its Healthcare, Technologies and Oil & Gas divisions will result in operating profit in 2016 being significantly lower year-on-year. "I am disappointed to have to report the difficult trading conditions that have impacted our outlook for 2016. We don't believe that this reflects upon the quality or scale of the opportunities across our target end markets," said Servelec Chief Executive Alan Stubbs.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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