Britain’s leading indexes followed on from their solid finish on Monday, climbing higher in trading Tuesday morning, boosted by miners, financials and a solid trading update from supermarket group Morrison (LSE: MRW). The FTSE 100 climbed around 25 points or 0.6% to 4469 by 11am.
How the UK markets will end the day will rely heavily on several economic reports due out of the US this afternoon, and a speech by Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke. US futures are currently pointing to a flat start.
Commodities
Precious and base metal focused stocks rallied this morning, buoyed by yesterday’s strong rise in copper and gold spot prices, not to mention other metals. Oil producers slipped slightly however.
After yesterday’s strong performance in metals, most commodities pulled back slightly this morning.
Copper trimmed recent gains, slipping 0.5% to $2.42/pound, nickel retreated 1% to $7.27/pound, while zinc and lead both fell 1-2%. Brent Crude closed last night at $64/barrel. Gold, silver, platinum all slipped on profit taking, falling to US$948/ounce, $13.60/ounce and $1175/ounce respectively.
Despite the lacklustre performance from precious metals this morning, yesterday’s strong gains fed through to miners this morning in London.
Platinum miner Lonmin (LSE: LMI) rose 2.1% to 1168 pence, Aquarius Platinum (LSE: AQP) rose 1.6% to 225 pence. A disappointing update from Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT) sent it the opposite direction, down 0.6%.
Gold and silver producers were more mixed. Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS) climbed 0.1%, Yamana Gold (LSE: YAU) was little changed, but Peter Hambro Mining (LSE: POG) rose 5.7%.
Junior Gold companies were also mixed. Kryso Resources (AIM: KYS) held steady, Medusa Mining (AIM & ASX: MML) slipped 2%, Pan African Resources (AIM: PAF) and Patagonia Gold (AIM: PGD) saw no change, but Oxus Gold (AIM: OXS) climbed 7.5%. Cluff Gold (AIM & TSX: CLF) rose 5.7%.
Silver producers Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) and Hochschild Mining (LSE: HOC) added 2.8% and 0.2% respectively.
The big diversified miners helped lift the FTSE 100. BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT) climbed 1% and Anglo American (LSE: AAL) rose 1.7% while Xstrata (LSE: XTA) rallied 2.8% and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) moved 0.4%.
Copper focused miners mostly rose. Vedanta (LSE: VED), Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ) Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO) all rose 1-2%, but First Quantum Minerals (LSE & TSX: FQM) was flat.
Coal producer Eurasian Natural Resources (LSE: ENRC) fell 0.5%.
Oil & Gas producers were mostly weaker. BP (LSE: BP.) and Shell (LSE: RDSB) both fell less than 1%, Cairn Energy (LSE: CNE) rose 1%, but Dragon Oil (LSE: DGO) fell 2.3% on a disappointing production update. Dana Petroleum (LSE: DANA) rose 1%.
Insurance, banks, private equity rise
Following the lead from the US last night, most general financial shares performed well this morning. The extreme volatility seen in the banking sector seems to be in the past now, with financials putting in more normal movements rather than the huge swings witnessed in 2008.
RBS (LSE: RBS) and Lloyds Group (LSE: LLOY) both rose 3%, though Barclays (LSE: BARC) and HSBC (LSE: HSBA) slipped less than 1%, while Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN) climbed 1%.
Insurance groups performed well. Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) rose 1.7%, Prudential (LSE: PRU) climbed 3.2% and Aviva (LSE: AV.) rose 2.5%. Old Mutual (LSE: OML) rallied too.
Private equity group 3i (LSE: III) also basked in the sun today, climbing 3.5%.
Other notable risers included Hammerson (LSE:HMSO) which jumped 4.5% and Morrison’s (LSE: MRW) which rose 6% after releasing better than anticipated first half update. Next plc (LSE: NXT) went the opposite direction, down 2.6% despite upping its profit guidance for the first half and full year results.
Large Caps News
Platinum refiner and precious metals group Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT) issued an interim management today, saying revenue in the first quarter was 21 percent lower and pretax profit before amortisation was also 21 percent below the previous first quarter.
Mid-tier oil and gas producer, Dragon Oil (LSE: DGO) reported an 11% increase in average daily production of 42,808 barrels of oil per day for the first half of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. The production update was part of a wider operational and financial update.
The lift in production was largely due to two new wells coming on stream in May at combined rates of 3,554 barrels of oil per day and 2,628 barrels of oil per day. An additional two wells are due for completion by the end of July.
Shares in supermarket group, Wm Morrison Supermarkets (LSE: MRW) jumped 6% in early deals after the company reported better than expected trading for the first six months of 2009.
High street clothing and home furnishings retailer, Next plc (LSE: NXT), reported better than expected profits and margins for the first half of 2009, largely thanks to good weather which lifted sales of its summer lines. The FTSE 100 constituent brought forward its trading update by one week after its End of Season Sale saw better than anticipated clearance rates.
Spread-betting business IG Group Holdings (LSE: IGG) said current trading is strong as it reported a 40 percent rise in revenues for the full-year and raised the total dividend by 25 percent to 15 pence a share. Revenues in the year top end-May 2009 rose to £257.1 million from £184.0 million a year earlier, while pretax profit rose to £111.3 million from 97 million.
Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE:AU) announced its content management technology has been chosen by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to power its internal information portal. The Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) will now be utilized by the NATO to index and structure external open source information from websites and news agencies, keeping the organization’s experts up to date and making it easier for them to analyze information and keep track of the news.
Small Cap News
Marketing software specialist smartFOCUS Group PLC (AIM : STF) expects to report results for the half year ended 30 June 2009 ahead of the board's expectations with strong growth in revenue and profit compared to budget.
In a pre-close trading update, the group said, revenues are expected to be up approximately 13 percent and profits significantly ahead of the previous first half. Cash flow in the period remained strong, with cash balances as at June 30 2009 of £1.5 million, the same as at end-December 2008.
West Africa focused Cluff Gold PLC (AIM: CLF; TSX: CFG) said it has now fully commissioned the Kalsaka gold mine in Burkina Faso, noting that this is, however, merely stage one and that it plans to expand the mine’s capacity and resource base.
West African Diamonds (AIM: WAD) today released an update on the operations on its wholly owned Bomboko alluvial diamond mine in Guinea. The company said it has sold a 433 carat sample parcel of diamonds for USD 50,270, averaging USD 116 per carat. The largest 16.27 carat stone was sold for USD 1,000 per carat, with the remaining 416.73 carats sold for USD 34,000, or USD 80 per carat.
Daisy Group PLC (LSE: DAY), formerly Freedom4 Group PLC, said 255,493,395 ordinary shares in the group have today been admitted to the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
Plus Markets advisory business St Helen's Capital PLC (AIM: SHCP) lost nearly a third of its value after announcing signing heads of agreement regarding its sale to Whim Gully Capital LLP and the subsequent acquisition of Whim Gully by Evolve Capital PLC (AIM: EVOL).
IT services and consultancy group Microgen PLC (LSE: MCGN) released results for the first half of 2009 ended June 30 ahead of schedule. Group revenues fell to £16.5 in the first half of 2009 compared to £16.9 million for the first half of 2008. However, adjusted basic earnings per share excluding exceptional items improved to 2.8p from 2.4p. This enabled the company to increase the interim dividend to 0.8p per share from last year’s 0.7p - a 14 percent increase
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