LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Sky, up 1.9%. The company posted a big increase in pretax profit for the first half of its financial year, boosted by a rise in revenue and exceptional gains from the sale of its stakes in ITV PLC and the National Geographic Channel. Profit was boosted by a GBP492 million gain from the sale of its 6.4% stake in ITV PLC and a GBP296 million gain from the sale of its stake in the National Geographic Channel.
Arm Holdings, up 1.6%. The chip designer announced a new suite of intellectual properties that are expected to be launched on mobile devices in 2016, including its ARM Cortex-A72 processor. The group said that in target configurations, the new processor well deliver CPU performance that is 50 times that of leading smartphones from five years ago.
Antofagasta, up 1%, Rio Tinto, up 0.4%, Glencore, up 0.4%, Fresnillo, up 1.3%, and Randgold Resources, up 0.5%, Mining shares are up after China's central bank lowered its banks' reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points in order to support lending. The gold miners are getting a boost from a rise in the gold price to USD1,268.86.
GlaxoSmithKline, up 0.3%. Sky News reported that it has learnt that Glaxo has hired Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as financial advisers on its HIV medicines joint venture ViiV Healthcare. It says the appointment of the banks will fuel the prospect of Glaxo floating the division, which analysts believe could be worth at least GBP17 billion. The shares are up ahead of the company's full year results at 1200 GMT.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Hargreaves Lansdown, down 5.7%. The investment management product provider reported a drop in first-half pretax profit, despite a rise in assets under administration over the course of the six months, in what was described as a "muted" time for stocks and retail investors. The group said pretax profit declined to GBP101.9 million in the six months ended December 31 from GBP104.1 million in the corresponding period last year.
Tullow Oil, down 3.9%, BP, down 1.5% and Weir Group, down 1.4%. A drop in oil prices is dragging down oil-related stocks. Brent currently trades at USD56.44 a barrel. Moreover, Royal Dutch Shell B, down 1.9%, and Royal Shell A, down 1.5%, has suffered price target cuts. Liberum has cut the oil major price target to 2,120p from 2,230p, keeping its rating at Hold, while LBBW has cut the company's price target price target to 2,450p from 2,600p, keeping its rating at Buy.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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BTG, up 1.4%. Panmure has raised the Healthcare company's price target to 1,305p from 800p, keeping its rating at Buy.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Afren, down 7.5% and Premier Oil, down 2.5%. Both oil-related stocks are suffering from the fall in oil prices.
Moneysupermarket.com Group, down 3.9%. Numis said the stock is overvalued against its online listed peers, based on numerous metrics, and the broker would be downbeat on the company at its current share price even without the potential threat posed by Google
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Camkids Group, up 38%. The China-based children's clothing company shares are up, even though it said it expects its results for the year to miss market expectations after a number of orders were cancelled in December, exacerbating existing problems the company was facing from the weaker economic environment in China. Following that warning, certain distributors for Camkids requested the postponement or cancellation of some orders totalling CNY79 million. The company said it thought its shares were being undervalued.
Dillistone Group, up 19%. Recruitment software supplier said it expects its full year results for 2014, excluding acquisition related items, will be at a similar level to 2013, and said it enters 2015 with a stronger pipeline. The company said order intake in its Systems Division rose more than 20% in the fourth quarter of 2014. It said it had won more new business contracts in December than it had in any month of the last two years.
Nostra Terra Oil and Gas Co, up 8.7%. The company said it placed four new wells into production during the fourth quarter which significantly increased production and said although its partners are cutting back on drilling activity, it will take advantage of the low oil price to try and secure further growth opportunities.
Mosman Oil and Gas, up 6.9%. The group said it has started flow testing on the Crossroads-1 well at its Petroleum Creek project in New Zealand and it has now received the technical report on the cores and cuttings from the 2014 drilling programme at Crestal-1 and Crestal-2.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Craven House Capital, off 8%. Investment company said that talks over a potential investment have ended, after it had confirmed last month that talks were ongoing. "The company confirms that these discussions have been terminated," Craven House Capital said.
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By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
28 Jan 2015 12:31
Westhouse downgrades Afren to 'sell', cuts target by 97.8%
Broker Westhouse Securities has cut Afren from 'neutral' to 'sell' and slashed its target price from 90p to just 2p, saying that the risk of owning shares in the struggling oil producer is too high. Afren has had a tough past 12 months: it dismissed a number of top executives due to unauthorised pay
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