Union Jack Share News (UJO)

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
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Weir Group, up 3.2%. The engineering company leads the FTSE 100 gainers after being upgraded by Credit Suisse to Outperform from Neutral, with a big increase in price target to 3,060 pence from 2,540p. The stock is currently quoted at 2,722p.

BHP Billiton, up 1.4%. The miner has had its price target increased to 2,300p from 2,200p by JP Morgan. The company's shares are trading at 1,931.965p.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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IMI, down 0.5%. Credit Suisse has cut the company's rating to Neutral from Outperform and cut its price target to 1,500p from 1,640p. The company's shares trade at 1,347p.

British Land Co, down 0.4%. The company said Metro Bank has signed for a 5,300 square foot unit on a 25-year lease at its Nugent Shopping Park in Orpington.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Grafton Group, down 1.3%. Citigroup has cut its rating for the company to Neutral from Buy but with a price target rise to 690p from 625p. Grafton's shares trade at 647p.

Playtech, down 0.9%. The company said it has struck a deal to buy video lottery terminal (VLT) businesses Aristocrat Lotteries AB and Aristocrat Lotteries Italia SRL from Australia-based Aristocrat Leisure Ltd. The online gaming and sports betting software provider will pay EUR10.5 million for the Sweden- and Italy-based units, which provide a server-based gaming platform for VLTs and Casino (Class III) markets for two leading retail VLT operators in Norway and Italy under the TruServ brand.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Sefton Resources, up 25%. The oil and gas explorer said it made the required forebearance payment of USD148,000 along with interest payments to its bank, utilising loan funds provided by Hawker Energy LLC, a subsidiary of Sara Creek Gold Corp. Forebearance is an agreement between a lender and a borrower to delay foreclosure. In July, Sefton set up a forbearance agreement with Hawker, in which Hawker would finance its ongoing field operations with the expansion of its previously announced loan to USD1.5 million from USD1.0 million.

Union Jack Oil, up 21%, Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings), up 17% and Egdon Resources, up 7%. The companies said that the Wressle-1 conventional exploration well they are drilling to the east of Scunthorpe had found hydrocarbons. Well operator Egdon said elevated mud gas readings were observed over large parts of the interval from the top of the Penistone Flags reservoir target at 1,831.5 metres measured depth down to the total depth. It added that the well is now being completed with a 4.5 inch liner, which will allow selective and sequential testing of intervals as part of an extended well test, for which it already has planning consent.

DCD Media, up 14%. The company said it has agreed terms to sell its Glasgow-based television production business Matchlight to the unit's management, although the completion of the deal is still subject to a number of conditions it didn't set out. "In the event that the sale concludes, the board expects to maintain a continued strong relationship with Matchlight given DCD Rights will retain a long-term option over Matchlight's distribution rights," it said in a short statement.

Kibo Mining, up 11%. The Tanzania-focused mineral exploration and development company said its review at the Imweru project in Tanzania demonstrated sufficient gold resources at the site to support production and said it has the potential to start producing gold from the site in the near term. It said Imweru has sufficient joint ore resources committee (JORC) gold resources to support production, adding it has a high degree of confidence that additional exploration will be added to the resource inventory and will both supplement existing resources and extend the prospective mine life.

Quindell, up 8.1%. The company said that it is acquiring the RAC's stake in the two companies' telematics joint venture, Connected Car Solutions (CCS), just months after they inked the deal to distribute combined connected car products. It said its net cost of the restructuring is GBP3.5 million, which it will pay in cash over 18 months. However, Quindell said that the restructuring will have no negative effect on its profit expectations, which it said will now be delivered on lower turnover with an improved cash profile, as it will receive all of the profits from CCS.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Vislink, off 15%. The video and data company posted a slight rise in pretax profit on a small fall in revenue for the first half, saying that while it was trading in line with expectations for the year and was optimistic for the future, its was facing an uncertain broadcast market and was hit by delayed surveillance contracts in its hardware division. Pretax profit for the video and data company was up to GBP2 million in the six months to June 30 from GBP1.4 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the period was down slightly to GBP27.1 million from GBP28 million a year earlier. However, the group said its software business is trading ahead of expectations for the year, a performance it expects to continue in the second half.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com

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