14th Mar 2016 10:21
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Miners - Glencore, up 4.5%, Anglo American, up 3.4%, BHP Billiton, up 2.0%. "Glencore shares are faring best thanks to a jump in copper prices close to March highs, with the commodity outperforming peers in response to a surging rebound in Japanese machine orders, as well as continued faith in more Chinese stimulus being forthcoming," commented Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets. Core machine orders in Japan surged 15.0% on month in January, the Cabinet Office said - coming in at JPY934.7 billion. The headline figure far exceeded forecasts for an increase of 1.9% following the downwardly revised 1.0% gain in December, originally 4.2%. Meanwhile, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said Saturday that China can achieve its recently set economic growth targets for this year and until 2020 without further monetary stimulus. "China will stick to a prudent monetary policy," told reporters on the sidelines of the annual parliament session in Beijing. Zhou said the focus should be on creating growth without employing extra monetary measures.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Admiral Group, down 2.1%. The insurer was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral by Merrill Lynch and to Hold from Buy by HSBC, according to traders.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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St Modwen Group, up 6.1%. The property company was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Liberum. "Steadily improving regional conditions enhance St Modwen’s opportunity to extract value from its significant regeneration pipeline and sustain attractive total returns," Liberum said.
NMC Health, up 4.8%. The private hospital group gave a positive outlook for the year ahead, expecting strong growth from its enlarged network, as it reported a rise in pretax profit for 2015. In addition to operating hospitals in the United Arab Emirates, NMC provides fertility treatments in Spain through its subsidiary Clinica Eugin, which it acquired in February 2015.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Stagecoach Group, down 5.8%. The transport company was downgraded to Reduce from Hold by HSBC.
Spire Healthcare Group, down 0.8%. The healthcare company said Chief Executive Officer Rob Roger plans to leave the company to take up a role as chief executive of a large privately financed property business. Details of this new appointment will be announced shortly, Spire said. Roger will stay in his position until the end of June to manage the presentation of the company's full year results, due to be released Thursday, and to ensure an orderly handover. Spire noted its 2015 results are expected to be in line with market guidance.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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LGO Energy, up 15%. The oil and gas explorer said it is starting to increase investment into its producing Goudron field in Trinidad in an attempt to increase production by around 200 barrels each day. The decision follows on from the company's commitment to begin investing funds in the field once oil prices began to stabilise. LGO's local subsidiary, Goudron E&P, has the Altech Rig 2 currently carrying out a programme over the next "two to three weeks" to restore production from a number of existing wells on the field in an attempt to boost daily production by around 100 barrels.
Kellan Group, up 8.0%. The recruiter said it swung to profit in 2015 thanks to lower administrative costs from the restructuring actions it undertook in 2014, while revenue ticked higher. Kellan said its pretax profit rose for 2015 was GBP426,000, compared to a GBP55,000 loss a year earlier. The turn to profit was driven by lower administrative costs in the business, following the restructuring of its small business-focused RK division in 2014.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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MX Oil, off 33% at 0.750p. The oil and gas company said said it has raised GBP2.5 million through a share placing and has issued further warrants. MX Oil said it has issued 333.3 million shares at 0.75 pence under the placing. The funds from the placing, which was oversubscribed, will be used to make what the company expects to be the final payment in connection with its investment in Nigeria prior to oil production starting. In addition to the placing, MX Oil will issue 66.7 million warrants to its broker and certain other parties.
Trinity Exploration & Production, down 20%. The oil and gas explorer said it has terminated the deal that was set to lead to the sale of a string of producing assets in Trinidad, because they offer the lowest cost of production from the company's portfolio. Trinity has decided to retain the assets after experiencing a steep drop in production during 2015, with production falling even further since the start of 2016, but has to find another source of funding as it remains reliant on its lender granting numerous extensions to its loan repayments.
Raven Russia, down 7.8%. The Russia-focused property investment group said it was continuing to "batten down the hatches" as it continues to suffer from the downturn in the Russian economy caused by western sanctions imposed on the country and other economic problems. The Russian market has been under significant pressure, first due to economic sanctions placed on the country by western powers over Russia's actions in Ukraine, but also due to the sharp decline in the world oil price, a major part of Russia's economy. Raven made a pretax loss of USD205.1 million in 2015, compared to a loss of USD98.0 million a year earlier, most as a result of the group booking a USD251.2 million loss on the value of its investment portfolio.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; [email protected]; @ArvindBhunjun
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