Ascent Resources Share News (AST)

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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Wm Morrison Supermarkets, up 2.9%, J Sainsbury, up 2.6%, and Tesco, up 1%. The supermarkets are among the leading risers in the blue-chip index after Belgian food retailer Delhaize Group and Dutch supermarket chain Koninklijke Ahold agreed to combine their businesses in a deal that will create a chain of more than 6,500 stores, sparking thoughts of M&A activity in the UK sector. The deal is expected to close in mid-2016. Additionally, Societe Generale has updated its view on Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons, with the broker expecting Morrisons to continue to underperform the other two in terms of like-for-like sales growth. SocGen has raised Sainsbury's to Buy from Hold, lifting its price target to 315p from 260p, but has retained its Sell stance on Morrisons, cutting its price target to 150 pence from 160p. The broker has maintained its Hold recommendation and price target of 235p on Tesco. Shares in Morrisons are currently quoted at 185.00p, while Sainsbury's shares are quoted at 276.10p with Tesco's at 218.40p.

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' shares, up 1.9%. Deutsche Bank has upgraded the oil and gas company to Buy from Hold following a "torrid" start to the year that has seen the company's share price significantly underperform its peers. "For Shell's share price, the past six months have proven particularly torrid, notably so in relative terms with the shares ceding 15% against the European peer group," analysts at Deutsche say. Deutsche has a 2,425 price target for the company. Shell's 'A' shares are currently quoted at 1,890.50p. Shell's 'B' shares are up 1.8% at 1,921.50p.

Next, up 1.5%. Barclays has upgraded the fashion retailer to Overweight from Equal Weight, raising its price target to 9,000 pence from 7,400p, saying that its analysis suggests the market under-appreciates the company's growth opportunities in both its Retail and Directory divisions. Through an efficient and well-invested operational model, Next can benefit from a positive UK macro environment, while incurring minimum capital expenditure, which justifies a sector premium value, says Christodoulos Chaviaras, an analyst at Barclays. Next's shares are currently quoted at 7,585.00p.

BHP Billiton, up 0.8%. Credit Suisse has upgraded the miner to Neutral from Underperform.

Glencore, up 0.5%. The company said its subsidiary has executed a share sale agreement with an affiliate of Indophil Resources to sell Glencore's remaining stake in the Tampakan project in the Philippines. Glencore held a 62.5% stake in the Tampakan copper-gold project with Indophil holding the remaining 37.5% stake. Glencore said it executed the share sale agreement with the Indophil affiliate following on from its divestment from Indophil back in January. The share sale agreement includes "a number of conditions" which must be completed before June 30, and further details will be released once the completion date has passed, Glencore said.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Barratt Developments, down 2%, Taylor Wimpey, down 1.8% and Persimmon, down 1.4%. The housebuilders' fall comes after the Financial Times reported late Tuesday that Bank of England policymaker Martin Weale said that the UK's central bank should be ready to raise interest rates as early as August.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Capital & Counties Properties, up 1.3%. Exane BNP Paribas has upgraded the stock to Outperform from Neutral, lifting its price target to 500 pence from 430p. Shares in Capital & Counties Property are currently quoted at 419.00p.

Vectura Group, up 0.9%. The company said it has appointed James Ward-Lilley as its chief executive officer and executive director. Ward-Lilley will take over from Chris Blackwell, who it set to leave the business at the end of this month. Trevor Phillips will act as interim chief executive of Vectura until Ward-Lilley starts on October 1. He will join the company, which makes products to treat airways-related diseases, from FTSE 100-listed pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, where is currently works as vice-president for its respiratory, inflammation and autoimmunity franchise.

Stagecoach Group, up 0.9%. The transport operator said its pretax profit ticked higher in its 2015 financial year on the back of better revenue and said it would hike its dividend on the back of the results. The company said its pretax profit rose to GBP165.2 million for the year to April 30, up from GBP158 million a year earlier. Revenue for the group increased to GBP3.20 billion from GBP2.93 billion, with a strong performance in its UK rail business and from its Virgin Rail Group joint venture, even as the performance of its bus operations fell slightly below its expectations. On the back of the results, Stagecoach raised its final dividend to 7.3 pence per share from 6.6 pence last year, taking its total dividend for the year to 10.5 pence from 9.5 pence.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Elementis, down 16%. The speciality chemicals company said its earnings per share will miss market expectations for the full year as the group said it was taking a hit from conditions in the oil and gas market, from additives sales in China, and from local currency weakness in Latin America for its personal care arm. It said that a slew of short-term issues it has faced in the second quarter of the year will mean its earnings per share for the full year will fall below market expectations, though it said it remains confident on its medium-term prospects and does expect operating profit for the year to meet its forecasts.

Ladbrokes, down 3.5%. The bookmaker said it is to restructure its international operations, a day after the company revealed it had entered into merger talks with unlisted rival Gala Coral Group Ltd. Ladbrokes said that following the restructuring of the international business, Damien Cope, the managing director of its international arm, will leave the business. A further nine roles in the international team also will be put at risk of redundancy. Existing locally-based management teams will continue as normal, the company said. On Tuesday, Ladbrokes shares rose 15% on the news that it is holding talks with Gala.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Ascent Resources, up 38%. The company said it has received a provisional Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Permit from Slovenia's Environmental Authority for the installation of the Gas Gathering and Separation Station at the Petišovci field. Appeals can be lodged in the next 30 days, Ascent said, but once the permit becomes legally valid, Ascent can start procurement and construction of the station.

88 Energy, up 21%. The company said it has secured a USD50 million funding facility from Bank of America. The funding will be provided, based on securing approval from the lender, to back specific projects 88 Energy undertakes.

Eurasia Mining, up 18%. The company said its mining license application for its West Kytlim project in Russia has been accepted by the authorities, which will now be delivered to the office of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for final authorisation. Eurasia added that all documentation relating to technical, financial and operational features of the project have also been submitted.

Alexander Mining, up 16%. The mineral processing technology company said its subsidiary has been awarded a 20-year US patent for the company's method of leaching copper and molybdenum. It said its subsidiary, MetaLeach, has been awarded the patent which will now form part of the subsidiary's family of core AmmLeach technologies. The patent covers a method for leaching copper and molybdenum from a material in which more than 1% weight for weight of the total molybdenum is present as a sulphide and in which more than 1% weight for weight of the total copper is present as an oxide.

Premaitha Health, up 8.2%. The company said new clinical data on its IONA non-invasive pre-natal test was presented at the World Congress in Fetal Medicine on Monday. Premaitha said the data, presented by Brenda Kelly, consultant obstetrician and fetal medicine specialist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, showed the results from the IONA test were 100% accurate with no false positives.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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KEFI Minerals, off 17%. The company said it has completed the definitive feasibility study for the Tulu Kapi project and said it will try to lower the initial funding cost of the project in the third quarter to " to preserve robust project economics whilst minimising equity dilution". The definitive feasibility study is now being reviewed by the independent technical consultants to the company's financiers, which are aiming to seal an agreement on the development funding for Tulu Kapi in Ethiopia in the third quarter. However, KEFI said it would try to lower the initial funding requirement through the tendering and procurement process, and the refinement and agreement of the funding plan with contractors and financiers. The study has confirmed KEFI needs around USD120 million of initial funding for the project, which will be split into USD100 million of secured debt-based finance and USD20 million of equity finance. The company said it would prefer the equity financing to be at a contractor-funding level, with its second preference being at the project subsidiary level, and its least preferred choice being at the company level, it said in a statement.

Mosman Oil & Gas, down 12%. The company said it has raised GBP400,000 via a placing and subscription at a discount. Mosman said it has raised the funding via the issue of 16 million shares at 2.5 pence per share. The funding is to be used to back a potential acquisition by the company, details on which it has yet to disclose, and to finalise planning for the Te Wiriki-1 well at the Murchison permit in New Zealand. Mosman's shares are currently quoted at 2.74 pence.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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