Below are some of the main news-driven share price changes at 3.30pm.
RISERS
African Potash (LON:AFPO) up 18%.The company has signed a deal with Comesa, a free trade union of twenty African countries, to provide 500,000 tonnes of fertiliser over three years. The deal could be worth as much as US$1-3mln worth of revenue from the firm’s initial fertiliser trade deal with Comesa could come through in the next couple of months.
Adgorithms (LON:ADGO) up 15.3%. Shares climbed for a second day after the company reported interim results which showed revenue climbed 80% to US$12.3mln and underlying earnings rose 5% to US$2.6mln.
Smiths Group (LON:SMIN) up 6%. Shares rose amid talk that an activist investor was muscling in as US hedge fund ValueAct took a 5% stake in the company.
FALLERS
Coca Cola HBC (LON:CCH) down 5.1%. Broker Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the stock to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’ and cut its target price to 1,080p.
Morgan Sindall (LON:MGNS) down 3.1%. Delays in completing contracts hit the construction group. Poor performances of older, lower-margin contracts in London and southern England had continued to affect its construction and infrastructure division.
Standard Life (LON:SL. down 3%. It said it expects annuity new business to fall by about GBP10 million to GBP15 million in the wake of changes to UK pensions rules that mean retirees are no longer required to purchase them.
Below are some of the main news-driven share price changes at 1pm.
RISERS
ECR Minerals (LON:ECR) up 27.8%. Shares rose for the second day in a row after it raised £250,000 before costs through a placing and subscription yesterday.
Arria NLG (LON:NLG) up 24.8%. The natural language expert secured a grant for its configurable Microplanner technology, an important part of its software which takes data and uses it to automatically write reports.
Meggitt (LON:MGGT) up 5.7%. Revenues and profits were boosted by growing demand in the aerospace and defence sector. It also inked two deals, one with Lockheed Martin worth £27mln and the other with the MoD worth £10.2mln.
FALLERS
Sefton Resources (LON:SER) down 20.3%. Shares continue to drop after the company said yesterday that the sale of its assets in Kansas has fallen through. The buyer tried to renegotiate a new (lower) deal for its TEG MidContinent and TEG Transmission units but Sefton has rejected it.
Lonmin (LON:LMI) down 7.7%. South African miners were hit today as commodity prices slumped to near 13-year lows. Platinum dropped another US$5 today, its lowest level for six years.
Shire (LON:SHP) down 4.6%. It has made an approach to merge with its US rival Baxalta in a US$30bn (£19.2bn) all-share deal. Shire has proposed an offer of US$45.23 a share, a 36% premium to the group's trading price.
Below are some of the main news-driven share price changes at 9.00am.
RISERS
Byotrol (LON:BYOT), up 10.3%. The specialist anti-microbial technology company has signed an agreement to develop and commercialise long-lasting biocidal products with the listed international chemical group Solvay.
Mediazest (LON:MDZ), up 9.5%. The creative audio-visual company cheered the market with news of contract wins that will bring in more than half a million quid in revenue.
Xtract Resources (LON:XTR), up 8.0%. The company has intersected a second high grade gold reef system at the Colin target at Chepica in Chile. This new find, Reef System B, follows the earlier discovery of a system that graded at 4.2 grams per tonne over a 3.5 metres width and may significantly extend the area’s mine life.
LOSERS
Armour Group (LON:AMR), down 31.6%. The cash shell said its shares will be suspended as from tomorrow, as per AIM’s listing rules, because it has not been able to make the transformation yet to an investment company.
Griffin Mining (LON:GFM), down 8.0%. Profit before tax dipped to US$3.7mln in the first half of 2015 from US$5.8mln the year before on revenue that rose to US$35.2mln from US$33.2mln. Administrative state issues in China outside the company's control continue to delay the grant of a new mining licence over the unmined Zone III deeps, the company said.
Immunodiagnostic Systems (LON:IDH), down 6.9%. The medtech firm’s annual general meeting today could be a downbeat affair, with chairman Dr Burkhard Wittek set to tell shareholders that the start to the current fiscal year has been challenging. First quarter revenues were down 15% year-on-year.