Thomas Cook Share News (TCG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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DCC, up 1.0%. The Irish distribution and outsourcing group reiterated its outlook for its current financial year to end-March 2017, saying it expects "another year of profit growth and development". DCC said the UK's vote to leave the European Union is not expected to have any "material direct impact" on its business as it has "relatively little cross-border trade". DCC said its operating profit for the first quarter to end-June was "significantly ahead" of the previous year, and "modestly ahead" of expectations, driven by the performance of its DCC Energy business, which in turn was boosted by acquisitions it completed in the previous year. Davy analysts Allan Smylie and Ross Harvey added even in the event of a UK recession, the group has a "very defensive earnings stream" with the Energy and Healthcare businesses accounting for 83% of group profits.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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easyJet, down 4.0%, International Consolidated Airlines Group, down 1.6%, TUI, down 1.4%, Carnival, down 1.4%. The travel stocks were lower after a terror attack which saw a truck plough through revellers celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France. Several of the casualties suffered gunshot wounds as the driver fired a handgun from the cab late Thursday, news agency AFP reported. Mid-cap travel operator Thomas Cook Group was down 3.0%.

Fresnillo, down 4.0%, Randgold Resources, down 2.4%, BHP Billiton, down 2.2%, Anglo American, down 2.0%, Antofagasta, down 1.8%. The miners were down despite stable growth figures from China. Gross domestic product expanded 6.7% year-on-year in the second quarter, the same rate as seen in the prior period, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. The growth was slightly better than the 6.6% growth forecast by economists and within the government's full year target of 6.5% to 7%. However, analysts at Commerzbank said, "Against the backdrop of a global slowdown, the overall situation remains challenging for China. To bolster the growth in order to achieve 6.5-7.0% growth target, further monetary policy easing is still on the table. The slowdown in M2 growth in recent months hints that the PBoC has room to conduct monetary policy easing."
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Ashmore Group, up 4.0%. The emerging markets-focused asset manager was upgraded to Buy from Neutral by Goldman Sachs and saw its price target hiked by JPMorgan Cazenove. On Thursday, Ashmore said assets under management grew in the fourth quarter to the end of June, helped by positive investment performance and strong returns from emerging markets. The emerging markets fund manager said assets under management at the end of June totalled USD52.6 billion, up from USD51.3 billion at the end of March. Investment performance contributed USD2.0 billion to assets under management, offsetting USD700.0 million in net outflows.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Shanta Gold, up 9.7%. The gold miner said it plans to initiate a pilot production programme at the Singida gold project in Tanzania that will start early next year, whilst the miner progresses other work streams at the asset. Shanta will invest around USD4.0 million from its existing cashflow to set-up the pilot production programme, which will last for "at least two years", with production to be sourced from the Gold Tree 1 prospect. Shanta is expecting the operation to be cashflow positive and produce 800 ounces per month, equal to an annualised rate of 9,600 ounces, suggesting the pilot programme will deliver at least 19,200 ounces over the two-year plan. To put that into some form of perspective, Shanta's flagship asset that is already producing in Tanzania, New Luika, produced 81,873 ounces of gold in 2015 and delivered an average grade of 4.73 grammes of gold per tonne.

Sierra Rutile, up 8.5%. The miner said full-year production is now expected to be at the top-end of its guidance range after the mineral sands producer achieved record production during the first half of 2016. The company said production hit its highest ever level during the first half to June 30 with 61,408 tonnes of rutile being extracted from its operations in Sierra Leone, 15% higher than the 53,275 tonnes produced a year earlier as production increased in the second quarter compared to the first. Although there is still a substantial amount of time left in the current year, Sierra Rutile believes it can hit the top end of its production guidance for the year after receiving very strong demand from its customer base and amid the ongoing ramp-up of production at the new Gangama dry mine.

Polo Resources, up 7.0% at 5.73 pence. The natural resources investment company said it has issued 9.8 million new shares to buy a further 49% stake in Perfectus Management, in a transaction which increases its stake in gold company Blackham Resources. The company first announced it intended to exercise its right to buy the further stake last month for AUD3.0 million, and said it would issue 9.8 million new shares at 15p per share, a price agreed in May 2014, for the 49% stake. The May 2014 deal saw Polo agree to subscribe for a 49% stake in Perfectus for AUD1.0 million in cash and AUD2.0 million in shares, and included the right to buy a further 49% stake within a two-year period, for a total 98% stake from the two transactions.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Faroe Petroleum, down 8.5% at 72.97 pence. The oil and gas company said it has raised GBP62.0 million from the large, discounted share placing announced on Thursday to help fund the acquisition of five producing oil and gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea. After the close on Thursday, Faroe said it had has agreed to pay USD70.2 million to acquire the assets from DONG, which cover five producing oil and gas fields in the Norwegian North Sea. Faroe said the acquisition will add around 19.8 million barrels of oil equivalent to its asset base and will add 8,000 boepd of production in 2016, nearly doubling its total production for the year from current estimates. The company said production in the five months to the end of May averaged 9,500 boepd.

Stanley Gibbons Group, down 7.9%. The collectibles trader said its chief executive and chief financial officer have stepped down from the board as it decided to move management to the UK as part of its ongoing repositioning. The company said that it has already exceeded its planned GBP5 million in targeted cost savings from its rationalisation and repositioning plan, and said that following acquisitions in recent years, it has recognised that the majority of its activities are now in the UK and is now "reconsidering the benefits of off-shore status" for the group as a whole. As such, it has decided that the location of its executive board and management team should have "more UK emphasis" in order to better meet the needs of the company.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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