WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Rio Tinto Up On Plan To Return Sale Proceeds

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Rio Tinto, up 1.9%. The miner intends to return its coal disposal proceeds to shareholders through a USD3.2 billion share buyback programme. The programme will combine an off-market buyback tender targeting up to 41.2 million shares, of around USD1.9 billion, and on-market purchases. Details of the on-market purchases will be set out following the completion of the off-market buyback, which is expected on November 12. The disposal proceeds come from the completed sales of Hail Creek, Valeria and Kestrel, all located in Australia.----------ITV, up 0.4%. Panmure upgraded the media company to a Buy rating from Hold.----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Kingfisher, down 0.7%. The home improvement and garden centres retailer recovered from closing down 6.3% on Wednesday, as a result of a profit drop. For the six months to July 31, Kingfisher posted pretax profit down 30% to GBP281 million from GBP402 million a year ago. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit also fell, by 18% to GBP323 million. Meanwhile, revenue increased 1.2% to GBP6.08 billion compared to GBP6.01 billion a year prior.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------AVEVA Group, up 3.7%. Barclays upgraded the industrial software firm to an Overweight rating from Equal Weight, and also raised the target price to 3,150 pence from 2,800p. AVEVA shares are currently trading at 2,950p. ----------Kier Group, up 4.8%. The infrastructure services swung to a pretax profit of GBP106.2 million in the year to the end of June, swinging from a loss of GBP14.2 million a year earlier as revenue improved by 5% to GBP4.5 billion from GBP4.3 billion. This was due to substantially reduced one off costs to GBP30.7 million from GBP140.3 million the prior year, when the group conducted a portfolio simplification, involving the closure of its Hong Kong and Caribbean operations. On an adjusted basis, pretax profit rose by 9.0% to GBP136.9 million from GBP126.1 million the prior year.----------Weir Group, up 3.0%. Morgan Stanley upgraded the engineering company to an Overweight rating from Equal-Weight, but lowered its price target to 2,120 pence from 2,240p. Weir shares are currently trading at 1,797.0p.----------Inmarsat, up 2.5%. The satellite communications provider agreed a strategic collaboration with Panasonic Avionics Corp to offer broadband in-flight connectivity to the commercial aviation industry, over an initial ten-year period. Under the terms of the agreement, Inmarsat will become Panasonic's exclusive provider of Ka-band in-flight connectivity for commercial aviation, enabling the company to offer high-speed connectivity.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------IG Group Holdings, down 8.8%. The online trading platform provider said revenue in the three months to the end of August declined by 5% to GBP128.9 million on weak performance in the UK and Europe, the Middle East & Africa regions, where revenue fell by 8% and 12%, respectively. The result was hit by a reduction in client numbers. In the UK, the number of clients fell by 13% to 34,000, while the Europe, the Middle East & Africa saw a 10% decrease in client numbers to 27,200.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Adept4, up 34%. The IT as a Service provider said it as settled its legal dispute with the vendors of Adept4 Managed IT Ltd, with the verdict being that Adept4 will not pay the deferred payment of GBP1.0 million or the contingent payment of GBP1.5 million to the vendors. In fact, the vendors will pay a cash sum to Adept4 in November, which is expected to result in a small cash flow to the company.----------Lansdowne Oil & Gas, up 18%. The oil and gas company said it has signed a binding farm-out agreement with APEC Energy Enterprises Ltd over the Barryoe oil accumulation, offshore Ireland, With an enhanced multi-well drilling programme of five firm wells and two option wells, preparation work is expected to start immediately, with first drilling expected in the second quarter of 2019. ----------Crimson Tide, up 38%. The company, which provides a workforce management software application called mpro5, signed its first subscription agreements in the Middle East with two clients. "Both companies will be completing maintenance, engineering, and health & safety workflows on mpro5 and the company is hopeful of more wins to come," Crimson said. Furthermore, it announced a contract win with an unnamed USD20 billion US pharma company to provide a patient portal for an anti-cholesterol drug.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------N4 Pharma, down 38%. The pharmaceutical company, following a strategic review made the decision to close its Genetics division, following a full data report of the clinical trial for the sildenafil reformulation, identifiying that the risk reward profile in reformulate the drug would be too great. As a result, N4 Pharma will focus all its efforts on its Vaccine division, particularly the product Nuvec.----------Minoan Group, down 23%. The travel agency has continued to implement its cost reduction programme, the latest step being the agreement to sell its travel & leisure unit Stewart Travel Ltd to its primary lender Zachary Asset Holdings Ltd for GBP6.6 million in order to reduce debt. However, the group will still need additional funds to pay back its debt to Zachary, which is expected to be GBP900,000 once the sale is completed.----------Petro Matad, down 22%. The Mongolian oil explorer said it has drilling the Snow Leopard-1 well to a total depth of 2,930 metres, however the deeper objective of the well revealed no oil or gas shows, with subsequent logging showing the sediments to be water bearing instead. The Snow-Leopard-1 well will be plugged and abandoned, and the rig used will be moved to the Wild Horse 1 location, which is target 480 million barrels of oil.----------