HSBC Holdings Share News (HSBA)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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HSBC Holdings, up 3.5%. The bank is undertaking a review of the best place for its global headquarters, Chairman Douglas Flint told the banking group's annual meeting of shareholders, a move that follows previous criticism from HSBC executives of the UK's increasing levy on banks and comes at a delicate time for UK politicians ahead of the General Election on May 7.

BAE Systems, up 3.0%. The defence and aerospace group said it has started a review of part of its US Intelligence and Security business after seeing a number of expressions of interest in the unit. The company said its manpower and services businesses within the US Intelligence and Security arm, which spans technical, mission and IT support services and which predominantly serves the US government, has generated external interest and a number of enquiries.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group, up 1.5%. The bank has been upgraded by Numis to Add from Hold.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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AstraZeneca, down 2.8%. The pharmaceutical giant maintained its full-year guidance, as the strong dollar hit its revenue in the first quarter of 2015, and it posted a decline in core earnings per share and operating profit due to continued investment in its pipeline. AstraZeneca posted a pretax profit of USD678 million in the quarter, up from USD638 million in the same period a year before, as a decline in revenue of 6% to USD6.06 billion from USD6.46 billion was offset by lower cost of sales and a boost from product disposals, including rare metabolic disease treatment Myalept for USD193 million and the US rights to beta-blocker Tenormin. Revenue growth was hit by the strength of the dollar. At constant currency revenue rose 1%.

Merlin Entertainments, down 1.5%. JP Morgan has cut the attractions and theme parks operator to Neutral from Overweight.

Randgold Resources, down 0.6%. Credit Suisse has initiated the miner with a Neutral rating and a 5,050.00 pence price target. The stock currently trades at 5,000.00p.

Pearson, down 0.9%. The publisher has reiterated its full-year earnings guidance as the strong US dollar helped boost sales in the first quarter of 2015, and Chairman Glen Moreno announced his intention to step down in the next year. Moreno has been chairman for more than nine years. A committee headed by Independent Director Vivienne Cox will seek a successor for Moreno.

Reckitt Benckiser Group, down 0.6%. The consumer goods company is trading down despite reporting a growth in like-for-like sales across the business of 5% in the first quarter on a year earlier, with solid performances in its health and hygiene franchises slightly offset by like-for-like sales declines in its home and portfolio brands businesses.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Acacia Mining, up 3.8%. Credit Suisse has initiated the miner with an Outperform rating and 370.00p price target. The stock currently trades at 291.20p

Provident Financial, up 2.1%. Barclays has raised the consumer lender's price target to 3,100.00p from 2,750.00p. The stock currently trades at 3,074.00p.

Phoenix Group Holdings, up 1.7% and Just Retirement Group, up 3.7%. Phoenix, the closed life fund consolidator, said it is on track to meet its financial targets over the short and medium term, as the company reported a fall in first-quarter cash generation. Phoenix reported cash generation of GBP87 million in the three months ended March 31, compared with GBP235 million in the corresponding period of the prior year. In addition, Phoenix said it has agreed a wider partnership with annuities provider Just Retirement to give more options to its customers amid new pension freedoms recently introduced by the UK government. Just Retirement confirmed that it will provide an advice service to Phoenix's retiring pension savers.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Petra Diamonds, down 2.1%. The diamond miner said it will launch a USD300 million note issue in order to fund the construction of a processing plant at the Cullinan mine in South Africa. The company said it will issue USD300 million in senior secured lien notes due 2020. Petra's lender group has also agreed, in principle and subject to the closing of the note issue, to increase its debt facilities by around USD81.6 million to USD302.4 million.

Rotork, down 2.0%. The manufacturing company said its order intake dropped in the first quarter on the back of the challenging conditions in oil and gas markets and continued uncertainty in some of its markets, with revenue falling on the back of the slow start to the year and the timing of projects.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Totally, up 67%. The company said it is not aware of any reason for the rise in its share price.

Immedia Group, up 49%. The digital audio content services company said it has secured a 12-month deal with BT Group, under which it will provide a digital radio channel to employees of its Openreach local network business using Immedia's mobile audio streaming platform.

RapidCloud International, up 23%. The IT services company said it has won a new contract with RedBox, the courier service owned by carrier AirAsia. Under the five-year deal, RapidCloud will design, build and operate a cloud-based logistics management system for RedBox. The platform will provide an end-to-end service for monitoring RedBox's entire shipment network.

SyQic, up 13%. The company said its SyQic Capital Sdn Bhd subsidiary has received an offer for a GBP3 million working capital facility and said its cash position has improved following the receipt of payments due from its telecoms partners. SyQic said its subsidiary has received an offer from Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp, a Malaysia-based bank, to provide a working capital facility of up to GBP3 million, including a bank guarantee facility of up to GBP370,000.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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