WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Victoria Shares Rise On Interfloor Purchase

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS
----------
Rio Tinto, up 2.6%, Anglo American, up 2.5%, Antofagasta, up 2.1%, Glencore, up 1.9%, BHP Billiton, up 1.5%, Randgold Resources, up 1.3%, Fresnillo, up 1.2%. Miners were all trading higher following the losses suffered on Thursday when the sector was hit by more poor economic data from China.

Kingfisher, up 1.8%. The DIY retailer was upgraded to Buy from Neutral by UBS, which also raised its price target to 400 pence from 360 pence. UBS said Kingfisher's new management team is planning to simplify the business in terms of structure and the number of products it sells, which should generate significant savings and boost the group's profit out to 2018.
----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS
----------
Associated British Foods, down 1.7%. The group was trading lower despite reports of a successful launch for its first Primark store in the US. The discount retailer opened its first US store in Boston on Thursday, and The Times said large crowds were gathered outside ahead of the doors opening.
----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS
----------
Regus, up 3.2%. The office space provider's shares were up following a report in the Daily Mail which suggested it may be the subject of bid interest from private equity suitors. The Daily Mail said it understood Mark Dixon, the company's chief executive, recently turned down a GBP3.0 billion offer from a private equity company, rumoured to be US group Blackstone. But the paper said he has apparently indicated that the group would be open to a bid valuing the company closer to GBP4.0 billion, which would represent a 40% premium to Regus's current market cap of GBP2.83 billion. The stock is up 46% in the 2015 to date.
----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS
----------
Drax Group, down 3.1%. The biofuels electricty generator was downgraded to Sell from Neutral by Goldman Sachs, which also cut its target price on the stock to 230 pence from 300.
----------
MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
----------
Victoria, up 13%. In a literal move toward vertical integration, the carpets company said it has agreed to buy carpet underlay manufacturer Interfloor Group of the UK for GBP65.0 million in cash. "We believe that Interfloor, as the market-leader, will be an excellent addition to the group, bringing the complementary established underlay brands of Tredaire and Duralay in alongside our growing portfolio of well-respected carpet and hard-flooring brands. In the UK, Interfloor and Victoria share many of the same customers and there will be significant opportunities to capitalise on this," Chairman Geoff Wilding said in a statement.

Rosslyn Data Technologies, up 7.4%. The software company said it has secured a GBP400,000 contract with an unnamed global mining company. The contract, awarded to its Rosslyn Data Analytics unit, will see it deploy the RAPid platform to help the client manage its data.

Great Western Mining, up 13%. The miner said the M5 prospect in Nevada in the US may contain disseminated gold and has the potential to develop into "one or more very attractive drill targets". Great Western said it compiled and compared assay results from five rock chip samples and 17 soil samples from the prospect which suggested the prospect holds epithermal or Carlin-style disseminated gold.
----------
MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
----------
Redhall Group, down 38% to 6.29 pence. The manufacturing and specialist services company said it has launched a placing and open offer to raise up to GBP5.8 million to cut its debt pile. Redhall said it will raise the funding by issuing 115.3 million shares at 5.0p per share, a significant discount to its 10.125 pence closing price on Thursday. Redhall said the placing and open offer, together with a debt conversion it has agreed with Henderson and HSBC Bank, will result in its group debt being reduced by up to GBP8.3 million.

Sula Iron & Gold, down 15%. The miner said it has identified new iron ore targets at the Ferensola project in Sierra Leone which may yield up to an extra 150 million tonnes of iron mineralisation. "It should be noted that these tonnages are conceptual in nature and indicate an order of magnitude and that they do not currently meet the criteria of a mineral resource," it said.
----------
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.