18th Mar 2019 10:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.----------FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------Rio Tinto, up 2.3%, BHP Group, up 2.1%. Shares in the Anglo-Australian miners were higher after Brazilian iron miner Vale announced an output cut. On Friday, Vale said it was made aware that a Brazilian court ordered it to halt production at another of its iron ore mines. Vale's Timbopeba mine in Minas Gerais state produces 12.8 million tons of iron ore per year, Vale said, adding that it will comply with the court decision. The move further reduced the Brazilian company's output capacity after a deadly dam burst at one of its mines this year increased government scrutiny over its operations. Russian steelmaker Evraz was up 1.8%. ----------FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------Rightmove, down 1.2%. UBS downgraded the property portal to Neutral from Buy. ----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Hunting, up 5.5%. UBS raised the oilfield services company to Buy from Neutral. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Footasylum, up 75% at 81.21 pence. JD Sports Fashion said it has reached an agreement to acquire the footwear retailer for GBP90.1 million. The FTSE 250-listed company will pay 82.5 pence in cash for each Footasylum share, which represents a 77% premium to the closing price of 46.5p per Footasylum share on Friday. JD said it intends to finance the acquisition from its existing cash resources and facilities. Despite Monday's jump, Footasylum shares still remain 54% lower compared to this time a year ago and trade far below their 2017 IPO price of 164p. AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said the offer looks "pretty generous", even if it falls far below Footasylum's IPO market capitalisation of GBP171 million. JD Sports shares were up 0.4%. ----------TomCo Energy, up 20%. The oil explorer said a review of two leases in Utah found a best estimate contingent resource of 131.3 million barrels of oil. The two oil shale leases, ML49570 and ML49571, are located in Utah with TomCo holding a 100% working interest in both. Alongside the contingent resource, the blocks also have a best estimate prospective resource of 442.8 million barrels across the leases. The resource estimate was prepared in accordance with Petroleum Resources Management System guidelines and definitions for the first time, with previous estimates based on JORC standards. The 2012 JORC estimate for lease ML49571 only was 138 million barrels of measured and inferred oil. The broadly comparable 2012 estimate for ML 49571 under PRMS was 153.2 million barrels, consisting of a best estimate contingent resource of 61.9 million barrels and a prospective resource of 91.3 million barrels.----------Maintel, up 16%. The communications service provider reported a rise in profit and revenue in 2018 as it shifted its product focus. In 2018, Maintel's pretax profit increased 38% to GBP2.2 million from GBP1.6 million the year before. The company's revenue increased 7.6% to GBP136.5 million from GBP126.8 million in 2017. Maintel proposed a final dividend of 19.5 pence, 2.1% higher than the 19.1p paid in the final quarter in 2017. As a result, the company's total dividend for 2018 is 34.5p, a 2.1% increase on the 33.8p distributed in 2017. "During the year we have delivered significant increases in all our key financial metrics, notwithstanding the challenging market backdrop, whilst continuing to make progress in our continued transformation to a cloud and managed services business," said Chief Executive Eddie Buxton.----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Allergy Therapeutics, down 43%. The allergy vaccines drug developer said a phase three trial of its birch pollen allergy vaccine did not meet its primary endpoint. The B301 trial found no statistically significant difference between the vaccine and the placebo in terms of a combined symptom medication score, which was averaged over the peak birch pollen season. However, the secondary endpoint analyses of immunoglobin markers did find "highly statistically significant differences" between the placebo and the genuine vaccine, which Allergy Therapeutics said suggested "a strong and sustained immune response to treatment". The trial was double-blind, meaning that neither the researchers nor the patients know if the placebo or the real vaccine were administered, and was designed to test the efficacy of the vaccine in birch-pollen induced seasonal allergic rhinitis. In total, 582 patients were enrolled into the study.----------