Gresham Share News (GHT)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Anglo American, up 3.2%. Midcap Indian miner Vedanta Resources is considering a merger with Anglo American's South African assets to create a USD7 billion company, Indian online news agency Livemint reported. It said Volcan Investments, owned by Vedanta founder Anil Agarwal, is thinking about buying Anglo American South Africa through a share swap. Vedanta was up 0.5%.J Sainsbury, up 1.4%. The grocer said it has secured a GBP3.50 billion financing package for its merger deal with peer Asda Stores. Sainsbury's also said it will raise employers pay to an "industry-leading" rate. From September, Sainsbury's will introduce what it has described as "simple, fair and consistent" contract for all employees, including a pay rate increase to GBP9.20 an hour. For the first quarter to June 30, Sainsbury's total retail sales increased 0.8% and were 0.2% higher on a like-for-like basis. However, it was slower compared to the same period a year-ago, with total sales and like-for-like sales of 2.3% and 2.7%, respectively. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Compass Group, down 1.5%. The contract caterer said Johnny Thomson is standing down from his role as group finance director. Thomson will leave by the end of December, the company said, and the search for his successor will be started immediately. "Johnny has played a critical role in Compass' success, both managing regions of our group and as group finance director, and he leaves the business in strong financial health," said Chief Executive Dominic Blakemore.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------TalkTalk Telecom Group, up 3.9%. The home phone and broadband provider's second largest shareholder Toscafund Asset Management lifted its stake to 16.2% from 15.1%. On Friday, TalkTalk shares fell to their lowest level since late February after it agreed not to proceed with the sale its direct B2B business to communications provider Daisy Group.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Nektan, up 26%. The gaming software developer said continuation of strong trading momentum has resulted in a sharp increase in gaming revenue for 2018 financial year. For the year ended June 30, the company recorded a 48% jump in net gaming revenue to GBP19.4 million from GBP13.1 million recorded in the year ago period. Four quarter gaming revenue rose 11% to GBP5.7 million from GBP5.1 million. Nektan said its US subsidiary Rapid Games will go live with its second northern Californian on-premise mobile gaming partner later in July. The company also said it saw interest from new markets in its Metric Gaming's full service Race & Sports offering. Looking ahead, Nektan said it is currently reviewing its strategic options in the US and saw a number of offers to invest in Rapid.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Gresham Technologies, down 18%. The software services firm expects revenue for the six months ended June to be down by 5% compared to the year prior. For comparison, during the six months ended June 2017, Gresham generated GBP1.1 million pretax profit on revenue of GBP9.8 million. This was after non-Clareti revenue is expected to fall 21% due to "lower than expected" bookings from its Australian sub-contracting unit. This is expected to be offset by higher booking in the second half of the year. Contracts delay is expected to impact interim adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation. For the full year, adjusted Ebitda is expected to be "broadly" in line with the year prior. The firm remains confident for its full year outlook.----------