Last checked at LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices late-morning Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Tesco, up 1.7%. HSBC has raised the supermarket chain to Neutral from Underweight. Also, several big institutional investors in Tesco have signalled to the group that they would be willing to back a capital-raising plan of GBP1 billion to GBP2 billion in order to strengthen its balance sheet, The Times reported.
ITV, up 0.7%. Credit Suisse has added the broadcaster to its 'Europe Focus List' with an Outperform rating.
Royal Dutch Shell 'B', up 0.3%. The company said it has started oil production from the Gumusut-Kakap floating platform off the coast of Malaysia. The platform is expected to reach annual peak oil production of around 135,000 barrels per day once fully ramped up.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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GKN, down 3.6%. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has downgraded the company to Underperform from Buy.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Interserve, up 2.6%. Peel Hunt has raised the company to Buy from Hold. Berenberg has also raised its earnings-per-share forecast for Interserve, saying that the recent weakness in the company's share price is unjustified, although it kept its 750 pence price target with a Buy rating. The company's shares currently trades at 603.00p.
Perform Group, up 0.5%. Access Industries Group's takeover offer for Perform Group is now wholly unconditional, it said, after it got enough valid acceptances that, when combined with the Perform shares it owns, takes its stake to 67.97%.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Spirent Communications, down 7%. Merrill Lynch has cut the company's rating to Neutral from Buy, ahead of the investor day later and after Spirent's profit warning Tuesday.
PayPoint, down 4.9%. Barclays has downgraded the company to Underweight from Equal Weight, saying that PayPoint's focus on increasing its exposure to non-cash transactions and on its mobile and online channels will be gradual and that more attractive growth profiles can be found at comparable valuations.
FirstGroup, down 3.3%. The transport operator confirmed it has not been awarded the new ScotRail Franchise by the UK government, although it stressed that this does not alter its medium-term targets. Separately the company said that its trading in the first half to end-September had been in line with its expectations, and expressed confidence in seeing an improved performance in its second half.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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EMED Mining, up 5.7%. The minerals development and exploration company said its continued to scale up its operations in the third quarter, as it gets closer to achieving production. It said it continues to progress in obtaining its mining permit and final restoration plan, and said it remains confident it will receive the final permits before year end. During the third quarter, EMED said it continued with onsite preparations at the Rio Tinto Copper Project, focusing on ensuring that process plant and infrastructure refurbishment and development continued at pace ahead of the scheduled restart of the mine, which management believes can now be achieved in the fourth quarter of 2015. The company said its close to finalising a comprehensive review of its operating plan and expenditure budget, and said so far it has identified potential start-up capital expenditure savings for Phase 1 of around USD50 million.
GoldBridges Global Resources, up 4.4%. The gold mining and development company said deep drilling results from its Sekisovskoye underground development project in Kazakhstan confirmed its belief in the continuity of the ore body to depth. According to GoldBridges, 103 holes were drilled for a total of 8,786 metres at the Sekisovskoye underground development project from the beginning of 2014 to the end of August.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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London Mining, off 78%. The iron ore miner warned its investors that it thinks there will be little or no value left in its shares and other securities under the proposals currently being discussed for its refinancing. The company had warned in late September that it had entered talks with a potential strategic investor for a dilutive financing package, after it ran out of money to continue trading. At that time, the company had said the talks were about an investment in the form of funding for a life of mine expansion and a material cash injection. It said the deal would result in a significant dilution to its existing equity and a revised capital structure for the company.
Conroy Gold & Natural Resources, down 25%. The company raised GBP750,000 via a discounted, oversubscribed placing and subscription. It issued 750 million shares at 1 pence per share. Conroy shares closed down 8.5% on Tuesday at 1.35 pence. The group said it will use the proceeds of the placing and subscription in order to fund the ongoing work programme at the Clontibret gold target.
Kibo Mining, down 21%. The company said it is raising GBP855,725 before expenses in a share placing, having received commitments for 57 million new shares at 1.5 pence each. In a statement, Kibo said its directors and senior management are participating in the placing for GBP55,725. They will be participating on the same terms as other investors, Kibo added. Kibo shares had closed at 1.9p Tuesday.
Oilex, down 16%. The company said it has faced some issues at its Cambay 77-H well in India when replacing the frac tree with a standard production tree, resulting in a 13-day recovery operation. Oilex said that during the flowback operations for the well, the frac tree was replaced with a standard production tree. As part of this process, two retrievable bridge plugs were set as safety barriers against the well flowing. The first plug on the site did not set and seal property and moved downhole and became stuck, it said. It said the recovery operations for the plug were completed in 13 days.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
20 May 2024 11:27
IN BRIEF: Conroy Gold promotes Cathal Jones to finance chief
Conroy Gold & Natural Resources PLC - Ireland and Finland-focused gold exploration and development company - Company Secretary Cathal Jones joins board as finance director, effective immediately. Jones "as been working in a consultancy role with the company for a number of years assisting with the preparation of financial statements and other corporate finance matters including joint venture negotiations". He has served since 2014 as finance director of Ardilaun Energy Ltd, which acquired San Leon Energy PLC's Irish oil and gas assets that year. He also remains as a founding director of Dunraven Resources PLC, a North Africa-focused oil and gas explorer and developer.
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