WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Vectura Shares Rise After Skyepharma Tie Up

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 3.2%, Prudential, down 3.0%, Schroders, down 2.9%, Standard Chartered, down 2.9%, Standard Life, down 2.7%, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group, down 2.5%. Financial stocks were the most hit amid a general risk aversion attitude in the market. The yield of the UK benchmark 10 year gilt fell to a record low on Thursday, dampening sentiment across investors among fears about the state of the global economy. "The low yield on government bonds paints a pretty pessimistic picture of the global economy, and suggests we are set for an extended period of low or negative inflation, and weak economic performance," said Hargreaves Lansdown senior analyst Laith Khalaf.

Tesco, down 1.9%. The supermarket chain said it sold its 95.5% stake in Turkish supermarket chain Kipa as well as its UK restaurant chain Giraffe. The disposal of Kipa will result in Tesco receiving cash proceeds of around GBP30 million, which the grocer said will contribute to Tesco's goal of reducing debt by around GBP110 million. It is being sold to Swiss retail company Migros. Meanwhile, Giraffe is being sold to Boparan Restaurant Holdings for an undisclosed amount. The sale includes 54 standalone restaurants, of which 12 are franchise sites and three restaurants within Tesco stores. Shore Capital reiterated its Hold rating saying, "more structurally we feel we need a little more visibility and progress on core chain margin profiling and deleveraging before we become more fundamentally positive."
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Vectura Group, up 1.6%. The all-share merger between Vectura Group and Skyepharma was completed Friday, as the scheme of arrangement regarding the terms of the merger became effective. Skyepharma's shares were cancelled from trading, and shares in the merged entity were admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market on Friday morning. The merger was cleared by the UK Competition & Markets Authority in May.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Hays, down 5.1%. The recruiter was downgraded to Sell from Hold by Deutsche Bank.

Essentra, down 5.2% at 569.50 pence. The plastic and fibre products company was continuing its losses from Thursday after issuing a profit warning for 2016, following a deteriorating in trading in its filter products business. Consequently CitiGroup lowered its price target on the stock to 730p from 950p and JPMorgan cut its target to 693p from 926p.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Metminco, up 30%. The miner's shares were higher after being suspended in Australia ahead of "price sensitive information" concerning its Los Calatos copper project in Peru. "The ASX trading halt was requested due to the company becoming aware that price sensitive information concerning advanced, but incomplete, negotiations regarding the Los Calatos partnership process may be in the public domain," said William Howe, managing director. "The company notes that its shares will continue to trade on AIM throughout the period of the ASX trading halt," he added. Metminco revealed it was talking to a number of interested parties about partnering on the project way back in October last year after it released a mining study for the project in September, and the news suggests at least one is imminently about to join Los Calatos.

Nostra Terra Oil & Gas Co, up 23%. The oil and gas company said it has reduced its overheads by 40% after completing the cost-cutting initiative that was launched in the middle of 2015 in response to the downturn in the market caused by the fall in world oil prices. The overall 40% fall in combined running costs was made primarily by reducing operational overheads by just under half and cutting corporate costs by a tenth, as well as from the savings generated by the company's board and management, which agreed to take a 25% cut to their salaries. Nostra Terra said the voluntary wage cut that was accepted by its leadership team was a "core component" of the overall savings achieved, adding the reduction in salaries was suitable following the "significant declines" in share prices across the wider oil and gas market.

Wandisco, up 11% at 172.50 pence. The big data and public software provider proposed raising USD15.0 million by issuing a considerable amount of shares through a subscription and placing priced at a premium in order to support its ongoing activity levels. The company has proposed issuing 6.5 million new shares in the business priced at 160.0 pence each to raise a total of USD15.0 million before expenses. Some of the new shares are being issued to certain existing shareholders and a subscription has also been conducted simultaneously, with the total shares being offered representing 17.76% of WANdisco's enlarged issued share capital.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Eagle Eye Solutions Group, down 11%. The retail and hospitality digital marketing platform said that, whilst it expects to report an around 34% jump in revenue for its full year, this is lower than its expectations. The company said it expects to report revenue of GBP6.5 million for the financial year to end-June, up 34% from GBP4.9 million the year before. This falls short of its previous expectations, Eagle Eye said, due to the timing of contracts with customers going live, and in turn a hit to its ability to drive fast-moving consumer goods brand campaigns through those customers. In addition, its messaging business generated lower than expected revenue.

SThree, down 8.8%. The recruiter said the uncertainty created by the upcoming European Union referendum has led to a slowdown in its UK business, as it saw "mixed trading conditions" in its first half. In a trading update, SThree said group gross profit rose 6% at constant currency in the half year to end-May from a year before, as it saw continued strong growth across its ICT business, and a continued strong performance from Continental Europe. However, this was offset by falls in Banking and Finance, which Sthree attributed to the EU referendum, and in Energy. Excluding Energy, gross profit rose 11% year-on-year.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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