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LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
British Sky Broadcasting Group, up 3.8%. UBS has upgraded the company to a Key Call Buy from Neutral, increasing its price target to 1,100.00 pence from 880.00p, saying that its growth opportunities have been overlooked. UBS believes that investors have overlooked significant growth from the company's new initiatives such as Adsmart, NowTV, Sky Go Extra and Entertainment Extra+, which could add GBP212 million to profits by 2018.
AstraZeneca, up 1.9%. The pharmaceutical company said that it expects revenues for 2017 to be roughly in line with 2013, and that it believes it will return to growth earlier than analyst consensus currently forecasts. Alongside this, the company reported that it had made good progress with accelerating and replenishing is portfolio in its three core therapeutic areas: oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic disease, and respiratory, inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
Balfour Beatty, up 2.6%. The infrastructure group said that overall trading in its continuing businesses remains in line with expectations, although its order book has been hurt by negative foreign exchange movements and a continuing shift in the mix of its construction order book from the UK to the US. The company expects its year-end order book from its continuing businesses to be broadly in line with the GBP13.5 billion it had at the end of 2012.
Cobham, up 1.2%. The firm has announced that Richard Tyson, President of its Aerospace and Security Division ,is resigning from the company. Tyson has accepted a new role as CEO of TT Electronics PLC and will soon depart from his role at Cobham.
IG Group Holdings, up 0.7%. The financial spread betting firm said its pretax profit in the first-half rose by 17% as its revenue increased on the back of strong client activity in the early part of the reporting period. The company said it made a GBP95.1 million pretax profit in the six months ended November 30, compared with GBP81.1 million for the corresponding period last year. IG's revenues rose by 8% to GBP203.8million.
Unite Group, up 0.7%. The company said it plans to acquire a student accommodation development project in Newcastle city centre from an unnamed firm, subject to achieving planning consent. Although the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Unite said the 200,000 square foot scheme will have a total development cost of GBP31 million and is expected to deliver a 9.5%-10% yield on cost, in line with its target returns.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
Ashmore Group, down 11%. The company revealed that it recorded a USD3.5 billion net outflow in the second-quarter, as it was hit by investor uncertainty over emerging markets. Ashmore said the net outflow meant the assets it manages shrunk to USD75.3 billion at the end of December, compared with USD78.5 billion at the end of its fiscal first quarter.
Countrywide, down 4.4%. The company's share price has dropped despite it saying that its fourth quarter continued to show strong growth, with total income up 25% compared with the previous year. Chris Millington, an analyst at Numis, believes that the fall can be attributed to traders looking to take some profit on the back of a strong run in the build up to the release. He also notes that some investors may have been hoping for more substantial upgrades.
Michael Page International, down 3.5%. Shares in the firm have dropped after gross profit for the fourth quarter fell 1.2%, while full-year gross profit was GBP513.9 million, down 2.5% from GBP526.9 million on a reported basis and down 2.7% on a constant currency basis.
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AIM - WINNERS
Wildhorse Energy, up 17%. The company has announced that the Hungarian Parliament has approved a modification of the Mining Law, which now includes underground coal gasification as a regulated mining method. Wildhorse's most advanced UCG asset, the Mecsek Hills UCG Project, is located in Hungary.
SolGold, up 14%. The company has reported strong porphyry copper gold results from the first 845 metres of a fifth hole it is drilling at its Cascabel Project in northern Ecuador. The company said the results from the drilling done so far indicate it has discovered a large, high-grade copper gold porphyry system.
Volga Gas, up 12%. The oil and gas company said that production for the full-year was up 46% on 2012, with second-half results boosted by its operating subsidiary, OOO Gaznefteservice, gaining regulatory approval for upgrade works on the Dobrinskoye Gas Processing Plant. Production for the year to end-December was approximately 8.9 million cubic feet per day of gas and 1,400 barrels per day of oil and condensate, a total of approximately 2,922 barrels of oil equivalent per day, a 46% increase on 2012.
Orosur Mining, up 8.6%. The company has reported higher profit and gold production for its second quarter and raised its production guidance for the whole year while also reducing its cost guidance. Orosur reported a net profit of USD3.5 million for the three months to November 30, 2013, up from USD1.2 million a year earlier, as production rose 6% on the year to 14,829 ounces. The mining company has raised its fiscal 2014 production outlook to between 55,000 and 60,000 ounces, from 50,000 to 55,000 previously.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
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