7th Feb 2014 11:02
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
Tate & Lyle, up 2.2%. The speciality food and bulk ingredients manufacturer has jumped after JPMorgan Cazenove upgraded its recommendation to Overweight from Underweight, lifting its price target to 900.00 pence from 735.00p.
British Land, up 1.7%. The company said it has ended up with a 57.2% stake in specialist retail park property group Hercules Unit Trust after a scheduled pre-emption process, a deal that will boost its earnings. It said it has agreed to buy GBP66.8 million worth of units at GBP613 each, 3.8% below the latest net asset value per share. It said the purchase represents an initial yield of 6.1%
AstraZeneca, up 1.1%. Liberum Capital says the company is now its top pick among global pharmaceuticals and calls the stock a Conviction Buy. On Thursday, AstraZeneca was the biggest faller in the FTSE 100, dropping 1.6%, after saying that its revenue and pretax profit fell in 2013 as it continued to be hit by the loss of exclusivity on several of its drugs and increased competition from generics. However, Liberum says a turnaround is well underway and although Thursday's guidance was disappointing, pipeline progression is being overlooked by the markets.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
Shire, down 0.8%. The pharmaceutical company has announced that it will abandon clinical development of Vyvanse for the potential treatment of major depressive disorder after it failed late-stage trials. Berenberg said the primary endpoint target in the major depressive disorder studies had been missed by a wide margin. It had previously assumed a 33% chance of success for Vyvanse in this indication and had assumed the company would have received royalties on sales.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
Vedanta Resources, up 5.2%. The company said late on Thursday that Executive Chairman Anil Agarwal recently bought over 1.1 million shares in the company for a total of over GBP9.0 million. Following the deal, Agarwal has a total holding of 182.4 million shares, or 68.37% of the company.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
Imagination Technologies, down 2.7%. After closing as the index's biggest winner Thursday Imagination Technologies has retraced some of those gains to be the heaviest faller Friday. The company jumped 14% on Thursday after it extended a license agreement with Apple Inc.
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AIM - WINNERS
Independent Oil & Gas, up 21%. The company's shares have jumped after it decided to support ATP Oil & Gas UK Ltd as operator of its Skipper and Blythe licences in the North Sea after reaching a deal over the targets for the sites, reversing a decision taken in December to replace the operator. The company said the decision followed extensive discussions with the management of ATP, which reassured IOG that the companies' interests are aligned. ATP UK owns 50% of each of the Blythe and Skipper licences with IOG owning the remaining 50%.
Greka Drilling Limited, up 18%. The group's share price has jumped after it released a statement saying that it is not aware of any reason for the fall in its share price over the last month. The company has witnessed a 25% fall in its share price between the open of trading on January 2 and open of trading on Thursday.
Altona Energy, up 14%. The Australian coal-focused energy company said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Sino-Aus Energy Group and Wintask Group for the development of the Arckaringa Project in South Australia, just days after the company ended a joint venture with China National Offshore Oil Company to develop the site. While the deal is still subject to due diligence and the agreement of the final contract, Altona expects it to be completed on or before May 15.
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AIM - LOSERS
Trinity Exploration & Production, off 10%. The company said its El Dorado well offshore Trinidad has failed to find commercial levels of net oil and gas. The oil and gas exploration and production company said the well was drilled to a total depth of 6,174 feet and intersected a shallow gas sand which held roughly 13 feet of net oil sands and 32 feet of net gas sands. However, Trinity deemed these amounts to not be commercial and now plans to permanently plug and abandon the site.
Origo Partners, down 5.3%. The group said wealth manager Brooks Macdonald Group has raised a complaint, and may even start legal proceedings, over the terms of about GBP30 million in convertible zero-dividend preference shares. Under the current terms, the CPS would be automatically converted into shares in the case of a change of control, but Origo says Brooks Macdonald "contends" the provisions should have included an option to redeem the CPS instead.
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By James Kemp; [email protected]; @jamespkemp
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Related Shares:
AstrazenecaImagination Technologies GroupBritish LandTate & LyleVedanta ResourcesIOG.LShireAltona EnergyTrinity