LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
Randgold Resources, up 2.1%. In a difficult environment for gold miners, the company managed to achieve record production and costs in line with guidance during the year and maintained its annual dividend of USD0.50 per share. Randgold said its full-year production increased 15% to 910,374 ounces of gold from 794,844 ounces the previous year and its quarterly production increased 31% to 281,477 ounces in the fourth quarter compared from the same quarter in 2012. The company also announced a full-year 2014 production target of between 1.13 million and 1.2 million ounces, which is an increase of 24% to 30%. Despite this, the company said pretax profit and total revenues fell, due largely to the decline in gold price.
Rexam, up 1.7%. The packaging company said it will return about GBP450 million to shareholders once it receives the USD805 million cash proceeds from the proposed sale of most of its healthcare packaging unit, a move that will leave it focused on drinks cans.
GlaxoSmithKline, up 1.2%. The pharmaceuticals giant will this week announce plans to launch late stage clinical trials on ten new drugs over the next two years, the Daily Telegraph reported, without saying where it got the information. Alongside this, the company has received Breakthrough Therapy designation for its bone marrow disorder treatment Promacta/Revolade from the US Food and Drug Administration. Breakthrough Therapy designation is used to speed up the development and review of drugs that treat serious or life-threatening medical conditions.
Smith & Nephew, up 1.1%. The group said it will acquire Texas-based medical devices company ArthroCare Corp for USD1.7 billion, paying USD48.25 per share for the firm. Smith & Nephew expects cost and revenue synergies from the acquisition of around USD85 million to its annual trading profit in the third full year.
Sainsbury, up 0.8%. The company reported that its GBP248 million deal to buy up the remaining 50% stake in Sainsbury's Bank from Lloyds Banking Group was completed on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
Lloyds Banking Group, down 3.3%. The bank revealed it has set aside new provisions of GBP1.8 billion for PPI and GBP130 million relating to the sale of interest-rate hedging products, the complex financial products which were widely mis-sold by high street banks to small-and-medium-sized businesses.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
BBA Aviation, up 2.4%. The group is considering returning some cash to shareholders after it completed the sale of its APPH operations for USD128 million in cash, a move that disposes of most of its manufacturing operations, leaving it focused on airport and airline services. Jefferies analyst Joe Spooner said the deal was positive as it streamlines the business and BBA has achieved a good price. He also noted latest US data showing an 8% increase in business jet movements in December, which should be good news for BBA.
Mitie Group, up 0.8%. The firm said it has experienced "good" organic growth since the start of October last year, driven by new and expanded contracts. The outsourcing company said it is continuing its move to target higher growth and profit margin businesses, as it turns its long-term strategy towards growing its core markets of facilities and property management.
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AIM - WINNERS
Ormonde Mining, up 21%. The group said it has received formal written notification granting the Environmental Impact Declaration at its Barruecopardo tungsten project in Spain. The company said the EID is, in effect, the environmental permit for the site without which the mining concession cannot be granted.
Energy Technique, up 19%. The company's nine monthly pretax profit was ahead of management expectations. It said pretax profit increased to GBP414,000 during the nine months ended December 31, a near five-fold increase on the GBP85,000 in pretax profit it achieved in the previous year's nine month period. The company's sales increased 31% to GBP7.0 million during the period, from GBP5.4 million the previous year.
Nostra Terra Oil & Gas, up 15%. The oil and gas producer has entered into a USD25 million credit facility with Texas Capital Bank in order to fund growth without diluting its shares, while it also said it expected to have its largest working interest yet at a new well in the Chisholm Trail Prospect.
Alexander Mining, up 13%. The mining and minerals company has signed a major commercial licence, financing and consultancy agreement with hedge fund Ebullio Group. It will receive cash proceeds totalling GBP2.5 million royalties as it licenses its AmmLeach technology to Ebullio Commodities Ltd, part of the Ebullio Group, for use as it develops a large mining portfolio in Turkey.
Oxford Advanced Surface, up 11%. The company said it has entered into a project with Sun Chemical Ltd, supported by a total grant of GBP179,000 from the UK's innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board. The two companies are working in partnership to create a novel radiation curable coating platform than can bring differentiation to ink-jet printable inks for the graphic signage and packaging market areas.
Hummingbird Resources, up 9.8%. The gold exploration and development company said that it has received further positive results from its infill drilling programme at its Tuzon deposit. The company said it will be commencing further drilling at the Dugbe F Resource imminently.
Iofina, up 9.5%. The iodine maker said the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation in the US state of Montana has given positive feedback on the company's non-core water rights application. The DRNC determined that the requested amount of water is both physically and legally available, and said there would be no adverse affect at the point of diversion due to the engineering and design consideration outlined in the study.
Blinkx, up 9%. The firm has agreed a partnership with Crown Media Family Networks, which owns the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel, to provide targeted advertising using Crown Media's original content. Blinkx will use its AdHoc platform to place relevant advertising against Crown Media's content, with resulting revenue shared between Crown Media and itself.
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AIM - LOSERS
Rurelec, off 25%. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague confirmed a finding in favour of the company with regards to its Bolivian compensation claim over the weekend. Rurelec spent 2013 fighting to get compensation after the Bolivian government nationalised its 50.001% stake in subsidiary Empresa Guaracachi, by force, in 2010. The court granted immediate compensation of USD35.5 million to Rurelec, higher than the GBP20.6 million paid to acquire its controlling stake in Guaracachi in 2006, with a further USD5.5 million due to be paid back to Rurelec by Guaracachi itself. This, however, was well short of expectations. In April 2013, the company's independent valuation experts said the return from the expropriation claim could have been as large as USD142.3 million, while Chief Executive Peter Ear has often mentioned the figure of USD75 million, excluding costs and interest.
Scotgold Resources, down 17%. The company said it is evaluating its options for a smaller project at the Cononish Gold and Silver Project in Scotland. It said it made the decision as continued global economic uncertainty and volatile metal prices meant the funding for mining projects remains difficult.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp
Copyright 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
20 May 2015 15:16
