1st May 2015 10:27
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Friday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Lloyds Banking Group, up 3.5%. The bank upped its guidance for 2015 and said its underlying performance in the first three months of the 2015 was strong as first-quarter pretax profit fell. Lloyds said a GBP660 million net charge related to the disposal of its stake in TSB Banking Group played a big part in causing the group's first-quarter pretax profit to fall to GBP1.21 billion from GBP1.80 billion. On an underlying basis, which strips out costs related to operating and selling TSB and other provisions, first-quarter profit increased to GBP2.18 billion from GBP1.80 billion.
Anglo American, up 4.6%, Rio Tinto, up 3.9%, and BHP Billiton, up 2.9%. Miners are amongst the best performers after a marginal beat in Chinese manufacturing PMI. The manufacturing sector in China continued to barely expand in April, with a manufacturing PMI score of 50.1 that beat expectations for 50.0, and was unchanged from the March reading.
Admiral Group, up 2.7% at 1,600p. Barclays upgraded the motor insurer to Equal Weight from Under Weight, lifting its price target to 1,523 pence from 1,090p.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Esure Group, up 3.9% at 226.82p. Barclays upgraded the motor insurer to Over Weight from Under Weight, lifting its price target to 285p from 211p.
Rentoik Initial, up 2.1%. The business services company, which provides pest control, hygiene services and supplies workwear, said revenue rose in the first quarter, with solid performances in most of its regional operations offsetting continued weakness in parts of Europe. Rentoik said its revenue in the quarter to the end of March was GBP417.8 million, up 1.4% year-on-year. The company said growth in its Emerging and Growth market segments was strong, with revenue in its Manage for Value and Protect and Enhance units both flat year-on-year.
Virgin Money Holdings, up 1.6%. The lender said it mortgage lending grew by about a third in the three months ended March 31, compared with the corresponding quarter of the prior year, equivalent to a 3.6% share of the market. It said its growth took place against the backdrop of a 3% fall in lending in the market as a whole. First-quarter net mortgage lending increased to GBP664 million from GBP365 million. Mortgage balances increased to GBP22.6 billion from GBP21.9 billion over the course of the three months.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Pure Wafer, up 80%. The silicon wafer reclaim services firm announced that it has received a settlement from its insurers following a fire at its Swansea premises last December, which it plans to return to shareholders. Although it said that there are a number of liabilities it will need to negotiate and as a result disclosing the amount of the settlement would be "potentially misleading" at this stage, it said the return to shareholders is likely to be at a value "significantly higher" than the average price of 59.59 pence at which its shares have traded since November 2012. It added that it believes this return is unlikely to be more than 125 pence per share.
PeerTV, up 10%. The television-over-the-internet technology and printed circuit board firm said it is seeing an increasing number of customer enquiries following the deployment of a new assembly line at its Digitek SMY Assemblies business. It said it has seen increased approaches from manufacturers in the military and medical sectors, and that it also has opportunities to generate additional revenues by selling operating time on an hourly basis of its new testing equipment.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Kalimantan Gold Corp, down 11%. The mining exploration company said it faces big uncertainty as it needs additional financing for its operations and necessary capital expenditure. "While the company has been successful in the past in obtaining financing, there is no assurance that it will be able to obtain adequate financing in the future or that such financing will be on terms acceptable to the company," Kalimantan said. The company said its financing will not be limited to equity fundraisings, but it does plan on raising new equity during the next 12 months.
Begbies Traynor, down 10%. The professional services consultancy said it now expects its full-year results to be below market expectations, as acquisitions have only partly mitigated a hit from the declining UK insolvency market. It said the number of UK corporate insolvencies in the first quarter of 2015 was down 11.3% compared to the previous year, and for the year to end-March UK corporate insolvencies were down 14% year-on-year.
By Daniel Ruiz; [email protected]
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