Union Jack Share News (UJO)

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
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Anglo American, up 1.9%, Rio Tinto, up 1.7%, Glencore, up 1.4%, BHP Billiton, up 0.8%. The mining stocks are all big gainers after a gauge of China's factory activity rose to a five-month high in May, suggesting the world's second-largest economy is stabilizing after a subdued start to the year. The official purchasing managers' index improved to 50.8, from 50.4 in April, its third straight month of improvement.

Shire, up 1.3%. The pharmaceutical company has secured a USD5 billion credit facility from banks including Citigroup to finance a takeover offer for the US's NPS Pharmaceuticals, The Times said on Monday, citing insiders. It is believed to have arranged the deal to buttress its takeover offer for NPS, a developer of drugs for sufferers of a debilitating bowel condition.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Standard Life, down 2.6%. The long-term savings and investments provider is the biggest faller in the blue-chip index following reports in the weekend press that the pension industry will see a further shake up during the Queen's Speech on Wednesday. "It is thought that the Queen's Speech on Wednesday will include news that UK workers will be offered 'collective pension schemes' by 2016, delivering efficiency for the saver, but which would evidently prove less lucrative for providers at a time when opaque financial charging structures are under the microscope," says Michael van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.

Smith & Nephew, down 1.8%. The medical technology company has fallen sharply following a strong share price run, which saw it close the last three trading sessions as the FTSE 100's biggest riser. The group jumped 9.8% in three days after the Financial Times published an article on Wednesday that suggested that Stryker, a US maker of hip implants and knee replacements, was about to make an unquantified takeover bid for the company. While Stryker quickly denied the rumours, Smith & Nephew's shares still benefited from the speculation.

GlaxoSmithKline, down 0.5%. UK-based biotechnology company Adaptimmune Ltd has confirmed that it has entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline worth a potential USD350 million over the next seven years, for its cancer programme. Under the agreement, the two companies will develop and commercialise Adaptimmune's NY-ESO-1 cancer treatment, as well as Adaptimmune's other treatments using its T-cell receptor engineering technology. Separately, on Sunday, Glaxo announced that a late stage study of its two anti-HER2 agents lapatinib and trastuzumab did not meet their primary endpoint of improved disease free survival compared to a treatment of just trastuzumab for HER2 positive early breast cancer.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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St Modwen Properties, up 2.7%. The property company said it still expects to report pretax profit for the first half of its financial year significantly up on the year-earlier period, after it continued to perform "strongly" over the past two months. It said it expects its asset management and added value activities to be reflected positively in half-year valuations, while initial indications point to a rise in market valuations for the first half of the year compared with November 2013, reflecting improvements in the residential and commercial property markets across the UK.

Man Group, up 2.5%. Berenberg has upgraded the hedge fund manager to Hold, from Sell, increasing its target price to 90.00 pence, from 70.00p. After an enormous restructuring effort over the last three years, Man Group looks to be turning a corner as legacy issues associated with its quantitative fund management arm, AHL, are set to gradually ease, said Berenberg analyst Pras Jeyanandhan.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Fenner, down 2.8%. The polymer products maker's shares are among the biggest fallers in the mid-cap index for a second day in a row, having dropped 10% on Friday, after it said on Friday that its underlying pretax profit for the current financial year will come in 10% to 15% below the consensus estimate of GBP77.6 million. Liberum Capital has cut its target price on the company to 345.00 pence from 445.00p Monday, following the warning.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - WINNERS
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Bglobal, up 60%. The company said it had agreed to sell its Utiligroup Ltd subsidiary for GBP16.1 million in cash to private equity company NorthEdge Capital LLP, and plans to return money to shareholders and de-list from AIM once the deal completes. Bglobal said the deal will have to be approved by its shareholders. It said it expects to have cash balances of GBP16.8 million after the deal completes, and is already talking with its advisors about the most effective way of returning this money to its shareholders.

Union Jack Oil, up 42%. The oil and gas exploration and development company said that an independent technical report carried out on its PEDL201 licence in the UK Midlands has confirmed significant shale oil and gas potential at the Widmerpool Gulf region of the site. It said the report has shown mean gross unrisked estimates of 5.4 billion barrels of oil and over 2.7 trillion standard cubic feet of gas in the region.

Leni Gas & Oil, up 30%. The oil and gas exploration and development company said its GY-664 well in the Goudron Field, Trinidad, was brought into production on Friday and has now stabilised at a strong rate of 240 barrels of oil per day, while drilling at its GY-665 well has already found a region of oil-bearing sand. The GY-664 well has achieved a stabilised rate four-times above production assumptions of 60 barrels of oil per day based on historical data from the field. The group also announced that its second development well at the site, GY-665, has now drilled to 1,606 feet on its way to a total depth of 3,500 feet, and it has already intersected a 310 feet region of gross oil sand in the Goudron sandstones formation of the site.

Range Resources, up 23%. The hydrocarbon exploration firm said it has entered into a services agreement with LandOcean Energy Services Co Ltd, coupled with a financing package of USD50 million. It said that as part of a master services agreement, LandOcean will be the preferred services contractor for Range's oilfield services, including geoscience, engineering, procurement and construction. The company said services provided under the deal will be agreed on an individual basis and where services have led to increased production, LandOcean will be entitled to an incremental production bonus share of its costs and capital expenditure. It said the deal will last eight years and could cover a total contract value of up to USD400 million. Range Resources also said that in addition to the agreement, LandOcean will provide the company with an option to take up to USD50 million in financing, primarily for LandOcean's services.

Tanfield Group, up 7.7%. The investment company said it swung to a pretax profit in 2013 due to positive adjustments in the fair value of its investments, and it outlined a new investment strategy and detailed plans to raise money to acquire and fund new investments in the technology sector. It said it made a GBP7.4 million pretax profit in 2013, compared with a GBP13.4 million pretax loss in 2012. Revenue fell to GBP2.2 million, from GBP3.3 million, while staff costs and other operating expenses fell to GBP3.3 million, from GBP4.6 million.

Scancell Holdings, up 6.5%. The cancer treatment developer said the latest results from a trial of its SCIB1 ImmunoBodyÒ treatment on skin cancer had shown further evidence of tumour reduction and disease control, enhanced immune responses and "highly encouraging" survival times. It said the latest result from the continuing phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with Stage III/IV melanoma also showed that SCIB1 is safe and well-tolerated.
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AIM ALL-SHARE - LOSERS
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DQ Entertainment, off 27%. The animation, gaming, live action, and entertainment production and distribution company reported higher profit for its last financial year as revenue was lifted by distribution deals as the company tapped new markets in Latin America, Africa, South East Asia and the Middle East. However, the company also reported provisions for bad debts, a smaller order book, and said it won't pay a dividend due to its negative cash position.
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By James Kemp; jameskemp@alliancenews.com; @jamespkemp

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