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Proactiveinvestors United Kingdom http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk Proactiveinvestors United Kingdom RSS feed en Tue, 22 May 2012 14:49:08 +0100 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Genera CMS action@proactiveinvestors.com (Proactiveinvestors) action@proactiveinvestors.com (Proactiveinvestors) <![CDATA[News - Tuesday's most followed: Ithaca Energy, Bellzone Mining, African Copper, Baltic Oil Terminals, Max Petroleum, HomeServe, Yell Group ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43147/tuesdays-most-followed-ithaca-energy-bellzone-mining-african-copper-baltic-oil-terminals-max-petroleum-homeserve-yell-group-43147.html  

Oil and gas group Ithaca Energy (LON:IAE) showed upon the list of top searches on Google Finance and was among the most actively discussed companies on bulletin boards due to persistent takeover speculation.

Investors noted that the group said earlier this month that it was in talks with potential suitors and had set a deadline for final bids, adding that it expected to provide an update within four weeks.

Speculation that an update on takeover talks is due imminently coupled with expectations of first oil from the Athena field drove shares up from below 150 pence to 173 pence yesterday, putting it among the top risers in the oil and gas sector.

Today’s top risers included Bellzone Mining (LON:BZM), whose shares jumped 26 percent to 23 pence in morning trade after the mining group secured regulatory approval to start commercial production from the Forécariah operations.

The company plans to initially mine and export two million tonnes of high grade material identified by internal resource modelling during the first year of operations, aiming to reach the design capacity of four million tonnes per annum by the end of the year.

Post the initial two million tonnes, the low grade oxide will be upgraded to produce a 58 percent Fe product.

Bellzone added that it is currently in talks over off-take agreements.

“The ability to bring a greenfield asset into production, build a trans-shipping port and haulage road in under 15 months is a significant achievement,” said chief executive of Bellzone Nik Zuks.

“The JV will continue to grow the resources and its production capacity as an operating entity.

“Bellzone now has a significant interest in an operating entity combined with a globally significant resource under development at our flagship Kalia iron mine.”

In contrast, African Copper (LON:ACU) dipped 12 percent to 1.88 pence after it was revealed that an equipment failure has forced it to halt copper production at the Mowana mine in Botswana.

The failure, which occurred over the weekend, has rendered the facility inoperable until a new pinion shaft is installed.

The mill is expected to be out of operation for at least 12 days, while other mining activities including drilling, load and haul, and ore transportation are expected to continue to plan.

The crushing sections at the Mowana mine facility will continue running with the aim of filling both the coarse and fine product stockpiles with the higher grade Thakadu ore, with a view to building the ore stockpiles in front of the mill.

This will allow the plant to run at a higher throughput once the mill is repaired, added African Copper.

The update from African Copper was on the list of the most read RNS statements along with today’s announcements from Baltic Oil Terminals (LON:BTC) and Max Petroleum (LON:MXP), which has spudded another well in Kazakhstan.

Max has started drilling the ASK-J2 development well in the Asanketken field in Block E, which will be drilled to a depth of 1,400 metres, targeting Jurassic reservoirs.

A week ago, the previous well on Asanketken, ASK-J1, reached its total depth with logs indicating 36 metres of net oil pay with excellent reservoir quality.

The ASK-J1 well will be completed and placed on test production.

Meanwhile, BTC has raised£950,000 via a share placing to fund its fuel oil optimisation project at the refined product terminal in  Aabenraa, Denmark.

The project, which has a total budget to €1.2 million, is expected to be completed by the end of the year, while ensuring that present capacity remains unaffected by the modifications and allowing continuity of operations for the rest of 2012.

The shares were placed at a price of 13 pence per share, a 5.5 percent discount to Monday’s closing price.

The group also told investors that its 2011 results are expected to be in line with expectations.

HomeServe (LON:HSV) and Yell Group (LON:YELL) also garnered interest today as shares in both fell sharply after they released full year results.

Yell posted a massive full year loss of £1.4 billion on revenues of £1.6 billion, down 14 percent from the previous year, for the year to end March.

 In addition, the phone directories publisher, which last year launched a four year restructuring programme, told investors that its transition into a predominantly digital business has not progressed as fast as it would like.

HomeServe posted much better full year financial results, which showed that revenues in the year to March surged 14 percent to £535 million and pre-tax profits came in at £138 million, up 2 percent from the previous year as the number of customers increased 14 percent to 2.2 million.

However, shares fell 23 percent to 175.7 pence after confirming it was the subject of a probe by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) over possible mis-selling.

The FSA will investigate “certain historic issues” with the probe expected to take a number of months to complete.

Late last year, the home emergency services provider HomeServe suspended its UK telesales and marketing activities following a review by auditor Deloitte.

In today’s statement, the company said it had identified a number of potential failings in its sales and marketing and complaints handing activities.

“We took swift and comprehensive action to address the issues that we identified in the UK and are totally committed to restoring our customer focus,” said chief executive of HomeServe Richard Harpin.

“We are strengthening our management teams, retraining staff and continuing to make significant investments in customer service.”

The group also noted that it carried out more than 1.6 million repair for customers last year, show it said showed that its products and services “continue to meet real customer needs both in the UK and our International markets”.

 

]]> Tue, 22 May 2012 13:41:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43147/tuesdays-most-followed-ithaca-energy-bellzone-mining-african-copper-baltic-oil-terminals-max-petroleum-homeserve-yell-group-43147.html <![CDATA[News - COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Marks & Spencer, North River Resources, ZincOx, Landore Resources, Caza Oil & Gas, Mariana Resources, Ncondezi Coal ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43123/company-snapshot-marks-spencer-north-river-resources-zincox-landore-resources-caza-oil-gas-mariana-resources-ncondezi-coal-43123.html  

Investors in London were focused on the retail sector this morning after Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS) released its final results, which revealed the first decline in its annual profits in three years.

In the year to end March, revenues rose two percent from the previous year to £9.9 billion, but pre-tax profits dipped 16 percent to £658 million, while earnings per share declined to 32.5 pence from 38.8 pence.

The group left its full year dividend unchanged at 17 pence per share.

“Whilst the economic environment has deteriorated since we first set out our strategic plans, we have made significant progress,” said chief executive of Marks & Spencer Marc Bolland.

“Our UK pilot stores are delivering good results, which has given us the confidence to launch phase two of the programme.

“We are well on track to become a truly international multi-channel retailer. By the end of this year we will be transacting from 10 websites worldwide and opening around 100 international stores per year.”

Investors also had a bath of full year reports from small caps including North River Resources (LON:NRRP), Silvermere Energy (LON:SLME) and ZincOx (LON:ZOX) to digest.

North River said it made a “great deal of progress” last year with exploration across its Namibian assets.

The company is now in a strong position to advance development activities at two of its assets, the previously producing Namib lead-zinc project and the Malachite Pan copper deposit.

North River said its conceptual production rates of 250,000 tonnes of ore per year from the Namib mine and production rates of 8,000 tonnes of copper per year from Malachite Pan as “credible target production levels”.

Oil and gas group Silvermere called 2011 a “transformational” year for the company as it saw the acquisition of a 33.3 percent working interest in the Mustang Island gas and condensate field in Block 818-L in the Gulf of Mexico.

Production is currently expected to start this summer.

“The company has come a long way in a short period of time, but much still remains to be done,” said chief executive of Silvermere Energy Andy Morrison.

“The company will soon be a gas and condensate producer and we look forward to expanding through the identification of at or near production, secondary and tertiary oil and natural gas opportunities onshore or shallow offshore the US.”

Meanwhile, the full year report form ZincOx highlighted the US$50 million loan facility secured form Korea Zinc to fund Phase 1 of the Korean Recyclinc Project (KRP) and the completion of the US$110 million construction of KRP1 after the end of the year.

Production started in May and first production of zinc oxide has been delivered to Korea Zinc.

“We are delighted that our first recycling plant is now in operation and that the process has been successfully demonstrated in Korea,” said executive chairman of ZincOx Andrew Woollett.

“We are excited by the prospect of the full ramp up on KRP1 while we start the development of KRP2 and push ahead with working up projects elsewhere in the world.”

Drug discovery and development company e-Therapeutics (LON:ETX) also released its 2011 report today, saying it expects to see the first findings from its new programme of clinical trials before the end of this year.

By the end of next year, it should have phase II data on one drug and phase I data on two more, it said in its full-year results statement. 

It booked a pretax loss of £3,86 million in the year to January 31 2012 compared with a loss of £2.66 million a year earlier, and the results reflect increasing investment in drug discovery and drug development made possible by shareholders’ support of a £16.7 million share placing in March 2011.

In the meantime, Helius Energy (LON:HEGY) posted revenues of £151,000 for the six month period to end March compared with no revenues a year earlier, while pre-tax losses were reduced to £644,000 from £956,000 in the same period last year.

The biomass energy specialist had £4.3 million in the bank at the end of March.

Helius said it is currently finalising contract negotiations for the construction, fuel supply and electricity offtake for the Avonmouth project.

The Rothes project is in construction, on schedule and within budget, the company added.

In other news, Landore Resources (LON:LND) reported that the recently completed drilling programme on the eastern section of the B4-7 deposit has significantly enhanced the volume of B4-7 massive sulphide mineralization.

Drilling to date has consistently intersected massive sulphide mineralisation, returning intersections of 30.08 metres grading 0.74 percent nickel, 0.45 percent copper, 0.07 percent cobalt and 20.17 metres at 0.65 percent nickel and 0.62 percent copper.

Drilling continues on the western section of the B4-7 with completion expected in the third quarter this year.

Landore noted that the B4-7 remains open down dip and along strike to the east and west.

Fellow mining company Mariana Resources (LON:MARL), which is focused on precious metals, has kicked off a 3,500 metre diamond drill programme at its flagship Las Calandrias project in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina.

The campaign will test new targets identified adjacent to, below and outside the limits of the current Calandria Sur initial resource estimate.

According to the company, information provided by the results of the programme, will be fundamental in the design of a more extensive drill campaign that will take place in the second half of the year.

“This next campaign follows very encouraging target definition work over the last four months which has defined a mix of both high grade and bulk tonnage style targets,” said chairman of Mariana Resources John Horsburgh.

Orogen Gold (LON:ORE) told investors that the Phase 1 drilling programme at its Deli Jovan project in eastern Serbia has commenced.

The programme, which is expected to last six months, will be carried out to confirm further lateral and depth continuity on the mineralised structures discovered at Deli Jovan.

Finally, Ncondezi Coal (LON:NCCL) said this morning that it has decide to restructure its management team. Michael Haworth has been appointed to the board as non-executive chairman, replacing Richard Stuart, who will continue as a non-executive director.

Meanwhile, Nigel Walls, currently chief operating officer, has been promoted to CEO and will join the board as an executive director. He will be replaced by Paul Venter as COO.

“With the DFS progressing well and on track for completion during the third quarter, now is an appropriate time to restructure the management in preparation of the Company's next phase, the financing and development of the Ncondezi Project to production,” said current CEO Graham Mascall, who will step down and join the board as an executive director.

Back to oil and gas, Rialto (LON:RIA) told investors that the Gazelle-P3 ST well offshore Côte D'Ivoire has encountered “encouraging” hydrocarbon shows in the Lower Cenomanian section in addition to previously reported shows in the Upper Cenomanian.

The well is currently logging the two intervals and fluid and pressure samples will be collected after these logs are completed.

This information is required for a proper evaluation of the shows, said Realto.

Another oil and gas group Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA) revealed today that the Sombrero well in New Mexico is flowing oil.

The WC 35 State No. 1 well is operated by CML and Caza has a 20 per cent working interest for a 17.125 per cent production interest in the well.

The well has been perforated and CML reports that it has good fluid entry. There remains 25 per cent of load left and a frac crew is awaited, said Caza, as it updated inverstors on its Mexican operations.

Elsewhere, at the Bradley "29" horizontal well in Eddy county, drilling has reached the primary target and and operator Mewbourne has begun horizontal drilling and reported good mud log shows.

The Quail "16" horizontal well in Lea county, operated by Fasken Oil is at a depth of 10,787 feet aiming for the main horizontal target of Third Bone Spring sand at approximately 10,965 feet.

Peer Petrel Resources (LON:PET) told investors that its non-executive director Stefano Borghi has resigned to pursue other business interests.

Elsewhere in the markets, TyraTech (LON:TYR) said that it has continued discussions with Terminix and, while it is encouraged withthe ongoing talks and a newly placed order, significant near-term sales are unlikely to occur.

“The company recognises that these talks are part of an ongoing process and both TyraTech and Terminix are committed to continuing discussions and to achieving resolution in the near term,” TyraTech told investors this morning.

In the meantime, the company has been working on advancing its product development pipeline in each of its three key areas of focus including insect control, human health and animal health.

TyraTech said it is currently in discussions with potential partners for its products, including a major global consumer products company and a major US retailer.

In other news, underground coal gasification (UCG) specialist Wildhorse Energy (LON:WHE) has completed a £7.6 million fund raise that will initiate a bankable feasibility study at its Mecsek Hills project in Hungary.

The funds will also be used to help Wildhorse negotiate with the Hungarian authorities over further development of the uranium deposit at Mecsek Hills.

Wildhorse raised the money through a two-tranche placing at 5 pence that raised £5.6 million and a share purchase plan, also at 5 pence, that raised a further £2 million.


 

]]> Tue, 22 May 2012 08:03:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43123/company-snapshot-marks-spencer-north-river-resources-zincox-landore-resources-caza-oil-gas-mariana-resources-ncondezi-coal-43123.html <![CDATA[News - MARKET PREVIEW: FTSE 100 seen higher after US and Asian stocks climb ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43111/market-preview-ftse-100-seen-higher-after-us-and-asian-stocks-climb-0000.html

UK stocks are expected to rise this morning, pacing overnight gains in Asian and US markets. The FTSE 100 is set to open at 5,342, up 38 points (0.7 percent) from Monday’s close.

Demand for equities was lifted by reports in Chinese media that the country has decided to expedite the approval of infrastructure projects to support economic growth. Copper prices rose on the news, which should prop up mining stocks.

In the meantime, traders are looking to tomorrow’s EU summit in Brussels, hoping that French President Francois Hollande will press for common euro zone bonds.

“Trend followers would have had a field day recently. They will be hoping we either see an escalation of the crisis, or some sort of radical headline to stem the bleeding and turn things around,” said chief market strategist at IG Group Chris Weston.

“It looks as though consolidation is on the cards over the next few days.”

Today’s macroeconomic calendar includes US existing home sales for April and updates on UK consumer and retail price inflation.

Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rallied 135 points (1.1 percent) to close at 12,504 and the broader S&P 500 index tacked on 21 points (1.6 percent) to end the session at 1,316.

Likewise, Asian markets were in buying mode today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 advanced 82 points (0.95 percent) to 8,716 and China’s Shanghai Composite Index stood 14.5 points (0.65 percent) higher at 2,363 at the end of today’s session.

]]> Tue, 22 May 2012 07:05:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43111/market-preview-ftse-100-seen-higher-after-us-and-asian-stocks-climb-0000.html <![CDATA[News - PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: Ariana Resources, Stratex International, DiamondCorp, Diageo, Premier Oil, UBM ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43100/proactive-news-summary-ariana-resources-stratex-international-diamondcorp-diageo-premier-oil-ubm-0000.html

Ariana Resources (LON:AAU) stole the limelight today, surging 30 percent after reporting bonanza gold and silver grades from its latest drilling in western Turkey.

The highlight from the Arzu North and South veins in the Kiziltepe sector of the Red Rabbit Project was a 12.1 metre section at 13.1 grams of tonne of gold and 187.6 grams of silver. 

This included 3.2 metres at 38.7 grams of gold and 511 grams of silver and a one metre section at almost 66 grams of gold and 760 grams of silver.

Other intercepts included 34 metres at 1.04 grams of gold equivalent, 7.6 metres at 7.6 grams and 5.8 metres at 5.71 grams.

The City broker Fairfax said: “This is good news for Ariana who are proving up further mineralisation at the Kiziltepe deposit. 

“These high grade drilling results underscore the resource potential at the Red Rabbit project with scope for the JORC resource to expand from the current 448,000 ounces. 

“The company will now be focusing on identifying optimal drilling positions before forestry permits are obtained for a deeper drilling programme in the area.”

The best intercept was from 65-77 metres depth and sits “within a structural jog along the mineralised fault”, Fairfax added. 

The ore shoot has a moderate plunge which would be helpful for open cast mining, it also pointed out.

Managing director Dr Kerim Sener described today’s data as “truly exceptional”.

Proactive Investors also covered today’s news from precious metals miner Stratex International (LON:STI), which said the chip sampling programme at the Pandora gold vein in Djibouti had produced the best results so far seen in the Afar region in the East African country. 

David Hall, executive director for East Africa, said the latest samples confirmed the potential for a high grade gold discovery in the region.

"These extremely exciting results are now the best surface sampling results of any discovery to date in the Afar epithermal province,” he added.

Multi-gramme gold grades showed continuity over more than 1,000 metres of strike, together with well-defined high-grade portions within the structure, he said.

A number of samples returned over 10g/t gold, including a best of 20.35 g/t over 1.9 metres and 12.17g/t over 2.07 metres.

Mineralisation included 13.9 metres at 5.35 g/t, 23.28 metres at 1.52 g/t and 18.31 metres at 1.43g/t.

Stratex is exploring the Afar province with its strategic partner Thani Ashanti, a joint venture between Anglogold Ashanti and Dubai –based Thani.

Another main story by Proactive was dedicated to DiamondCorp (LON:DCP), whose 74 per cent-owned subsidiary Lace Diamond Mines has entered into a loan funding term sheet with the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited (IDC).

The IDC will grant the subsidiary a loan of 280 million Rand, approximately US$33.6 million, subject to due diligence.

Chief executive Paul Loudon said: ”We are delighted that we and our Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) partners have been able to agree in principle a debt financing proposal from the IDC to provide over 98 per cent of the estimated capital required to establish a block cave development on the 47 level at the Lace mine. 

“This is a significant milestone in DiamondCorp's transition from developer to producer and we welcome the support of the IDC in funding this potentially long-life diamond mine in the Free State Province."

The money will go towards underground development and purchase of mining equipment at the Lace mine.

The term of the loan is expected to be 7 years. 

Subject to completion of due diligence and satisfaction of other conditions, including approval for the upgrade of the electricity supply to the mine by South African utility Eskom, DiamondCorp expects the loan agreement to be finalised by the end of July 2012. 

The group's latest estimate for the total cost of development at Lace is R384 million, around US$46 million, but with revenue expected from diamond sales after 18 months, the peak funding requirement is forecast to be R285 million, or around US$34.1 million.

Proactive also drew investors’ attention to a note from Deutsche Bank, which expects the UK market’s make up and emphasis on oil and gas, mining and pharmaceuticals to give comfort as Europe’s “unfortunate series of events” continue.

Along that theme, the German broker has picked "six of the best" UK companies, which it says can perform in both good and bad times. 

Analyst Mark Braley said: “In the context of Eurozone uncertainty, our theme has been to try to find UK stocks with strong balance sheets and international, non-eurozone, natures.” 

Other than the broker holding a ‘buy’ stance on all six, common traits include dividends and a “fairly modest” performance this year so far.

Drinks company Diageo’s  (LON:DGE) 14 strategic brands account for the majority of group growth and stand it in good stead for the future.

Braley adds that the company has reached a point where gross margin is growing and earnings per share will increase.

Mining giant Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) is undervalued at 2809 pence, with Deutsche's price target 5410 pence.

“We believe that the price does not value the current assets, let alone growth available to Rio and discounts an unrealistic drop in commodity prices,” said Braley.

The broker forecasts that Rio’s current US$ 55 billion investment on five major projects will create an incremental US$43 billion of value and ‘decades of cashflow.’

Premier Oil  (LON:PMO) has underperformed despite a broadly flat oil price and 50 per cent increase in production capability.

Premier, though, is now taking advantage of US$100 oil prices and with the increase in production growth cash generation is rising and adding to its already strong balance sheet.

Biopharmaceutical business Shire (LON:SHP) is included because of its increased market share in the ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, market, expansion in gastrointestinal drugs, and an almost doubling of its human genetic therapies business.

“Shire offers growth rates in earnings and cashflow that are attractive and visible.”

Going forward, strong cashflow should enable Shire to redeem its US$1.4 billion convertible in 2014 and complete more mergers and acquisitions.

Live media business UBM (LON:UBM) also makes the top six  it is "sorely under-rated" as it moves away from data services and print and towards events, which now makes up two thirds of group profits.

Deutsche has a target price of 790 pence, compared to a market price of 514.5 pence.

Finally, commodities giant Tate & Lyle (LON:TATE) makes the grade after selling its sugar division and several other bulk businesses, making it less cyclical and generating higher returns.

]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 16:32:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43100/proactive-news-summary-ariana-resources-stratex-international-diamondcorp-diageo-premier-oil-ubm-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Gold pulls back as Greece concerns linger ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43099/gold-pulls-back-as-greece-concerns-linger-0000.html

Traders were reluctant to buy gold today despite a weaker US dollar, which is seen as an alternative asset to the yellow metal.

Demand for gold was dampened by Germany’s continuing opposition to issuing common euro zone bonds to resolve the debt crisis, which was discussed at the G8 summit that took place over the weekend.

The idea is supported by French president Francois Hollande, who is expected to bring the issue up again at Wednesday’s EU summit in Brussels.

In the meantime, the results of recent opinion polls in Greece provided a little support to the euro, while reducing demand for the safe haven US dollar.

It has been reported that the centrist New Democracy and Pasok parties could secure enough votes in the upcoming election to form a coalition, which increases the likelihood of Greece staying in the monetary union.

Last week, coalition talks that followed the inconclusive May 6 polls ended without an agreement, forcing the debt laden country to hold a new election.

Gold traded at US$1,588/oz this afternoon, down US$4 from Friday’s close. Silver moved in the same direction as gold, slipping 47 cents to US$28.25/oz, while platinum rose US$6 to US$1,457/oz.

Today’s top risers in the sector were:

Ariana Resources (LON:AAU), up 28 percent at 3.19 pence at midday

Mariana Resources (LON:MARL), up 19 percent at 6.1 pence

Central Rand Gold (LON:CRND), up 6 percent at 0.689 pence

Oxus Gold (LON:OXS), up 5.5 percent at 2.45 pence

Petropavlovsk (LON:POG), up 5 percent at 411.2 pence

The top fallers were:

ECR Minerals (LON:ECR), down 9.5 percent at 0.5 pence

Condor Resources (LON:CNR), down 7.5 percent at 3.7 pence

Patagonia Gold (LON:PGD), down 7 percent at 26.75 pence

GoldStone Resources (LON:GRL), down 5 percent at 3.92 pence

Bezant Resources (LON:BZT), down 3.5 percent at 21.75 pence

]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 16:26:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43099/gold-pulls-back-as-greece-concerns-linger-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Oil prices rise as euro zone concerns ease ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43098/oil-prices-rise-as-euro-zone-concerns-ease-0000.html

Oil prices rose in tandem with equities on both sides of the Atlantic today after opinion polls showed that Greek pro-austerity parties could secure enough votes in the upcoming election to form a coalition, which bodes well for the country’s chances to stay in th euro zone.

Last week, coalition talks that followed the inconclusive May 6 election collapsed, forcing the debt-laden country to head back to the polls.

It was reported that support for the centrist New Democracy party has topped 20 percent compared to the 18.9 percent of votes the party secured in May.

In the meantime EU countries seem to be at odds over key issues including common euro area bonds with Germany opposing the idea, while calling for further austerity in the euro zone to resolve the debt crisis.

On Wednesday, the EU will hold a summit in Brussels to discuss the possibility of issuing euro zone bonds, while German finance minister Wolfgang Wolfgang Schaeuble and his French counterpart Pierre Moscovici are set to discuss the issue told.

Schaeuble told the Bild newspaper that Greece’s exit from the monetary union could be prevented and that the country had to comply with the terms of the bailout deal.

In addition to optimism that Greece will stay in the euro zone, oil prices were buoyed by reports that South Korea is set to stop buying crude oil from Iran.

The Reuters said Korean refinery SK Energy will stop lifting Iranian oil in July, while Hyundai Oilbank will stop importing oil from the Middle Eastern country from June. 

US light, sweet crude for July delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), rose 54 cents to US$92.02/barrel in morning trade in New York.

July Brent crude rallied US$1.01 to US$108.15/barrel on the ICE Exchange this afternoon.

Today’s top risers in the oil and gas sector were:

Frontera Resources (LON:FRR), up 18.5 percent at 0.8 pence at midday

Ithaca Energy (LON:IAE), up 16 percent at 173 pence

Cadogan Petroleum (LON:CAD), up 14.5 percent at 32.38 pence

Heritage Oil (LON:HOIL), up 9.5 percent at 125.9 pence

Chariot Oil & Gas (LON:CHAR), up 9 percent at 78.89 pence

The top fallers were:

Petrel Resources (LON:PET), down 10 percent at 4.6 pence at midday

Gold Oil (LON:GOO), down 5 percent at 4.18 pence

Sound Oil (LON:SOU), down 4.5 percent at 1.12 pence

Nighthawk Energy (LON:HAWK), down 4 percent at 3.45 pence 

]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 16:06:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43098/oil-prices-rise-as-euro-zone-concerns-ease-0000.html <![CDATA[News - FTSE 100 closes up, US stocks open higher, but Facebook tumbles - UPDATE ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43094/ftse-100-closes-up-us-stocks-open-higher-but-facebook-tumbles-update-43094.html  

 

UK stocks rallied this morning despite Germany’s opposition to issuing joint euro zone bonds, which are being proposed by France. The FTSE 100 closed at 5,304 up 37 points from Friday’s close.

At the past weekend’s summit at Camp David, G8 leaders said they wanted Greece to stay in the euro zone and called for a balance between growth boosting stimulus and budget cuts.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel again said she wanted Greece to pass more austerity to bring its debt problems under control.

“Too often the markets has seen rhetoric without action and so whilst much of what was said was to be expected, definitive action will be needed before the markets can take this rhetoric in their stride,” said chief market strategist at City Index Joshua Raymond.

“And what’s more, there remains a doubt amongst investors as to whether Merkel would be willing to soften the German stance towards pro-austerity.”

Traders are now looking to today’s meeting between German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his French counterpart Pierre Moscovici. On Wednesday, EU will hold a summit in Brussels with common euro zone bonds among the topics that are expected to be discussed.

Despite the persisting concerns about the possibility of Greece exiting the euro zone, the UK’s blue chip index rose thanks to support from gains in the mining and banking sectors.

In addition, polls are now showing that parties that support Greece’s membership in the euro zone and further austerity could secure enough votes in the June 17 election to form a coalition.

Vedanta Resources PLC topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard (LON:VED, up 5.2 pct at 1008 pence) after copper prices rose. Also lifted was Xstrata (LON:XTA, down 3.1pct at 943.p).

Meanwhile hedge fund manager Man Group (LON:EMG, up 4.65pct at 78.8p) finished second after acquiring investment group Financial Risk Management (FRM) Holdings.

Other notable risers included engineering group Weir (LON:WEIR, up 2.52pct at 1,503p) and temporary power provider Aggreko (LON:AGK, up 2.5pct at 1,084p).

Banks also were in demand today with Standard Chartered (LON:STAN, up 3.3pct at 1,328.5p) and tax-payer-owned bank Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS, up 4.1pct at 20.8p) showing up among the top risers in the top flight.

Meanwhile, precious metals miners Fresnillo (LON:FRES, down 2.9pct at 1,319p) slid to the bottom of the FTSE 100 pile following a sharp decline in gold and silver prices.

US markets

US stocks were off to a positive start this morning, pacing gains in Asian and European equity markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 35 points (0.3 percent) to 12,405 in early trade and the broader S&P 500 index added five points (0.4 percent) to reach 1,300.

All eyes were again on Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), which started treading on the NASDAQ exchange on Friday following the third largest IPO in history that valued the social network at US$104 billion.

This morning, shares in Facebook dipped 13 percent to US$33.29 each compared to the IPO price of US$38 per share.

Today’s macroeconomic calendar is empty with no notable updates due to be released.

UK corporate news

Back in the UK, other news in the top flight included another contract win by engine giant Rolls-Royce (LON:RR., down 0.4pct at 801p).

The group has secured contracts worth US$136 million to supply technology and long-term services support to Dolphin Energy, which transports natural gas from Qatar to the United Arab Emirates and Oman via a 364 kilometre subsea pipeline.

Under the terms of the deal, Rolls-Royce will supply Dolphin Energy with three industrial Trent gas turbine compression packages.

“I am delighted that Rolls-Royce technology has again been selected to support the Dolphin gas project, one of the largest cross border energy infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the Middle East,” said president for energy at Rolls-Royce Andrew Heath.

Fellow blue chip Barclays (LON:BARC, up 2.2pct at 180p) revealed plans to sell its US$6.1 bn stake in BlackRock.

The disposal is by way of an offering and a related buy-back by the US-based asset manager BlackRock.

BlackRock today unveiled the beginning of a secondary offering of its common stock and said it plans to buy back $1billion of its own stock.

The shares being offered by Barclays will be sold in an underwritten public offering.

In the FTSE 250, food company Cranswick (LON:CWK, up 0.8 pct at 825p) and support services group MITIE Group (LON:MTO, up 1.2pct at 275p) reported higher full year revenues and pre-tax profits.

The figures form Cranswick showed an eight percent increase in revenues to £821 million for the year to end March following a “strong recover in the second half from first half challenges”.

Pre-tax profits reached £48.4 million, up three percent from a year earlier, and earnings per share increased to 72.8 pence from 72.8 pence.

The group added that underlying sales were up 10 percent, reflecting growth across most product sectors.

“Against a background of strong raw material price increases early in the financial year and a continued challenging environment for the consumer, the company recovered strongly during the second half and recorded its highest ever sales and second best trading profit in its history,” said chairman of Cranswick Martin Davey.

The report from MITIE, which also covered the year to end March, revealed an 8.9 percent increase in pre-tax profits to £94.5 million on revenues of £2 billion, up 5.9 percent from the previous year.

MITIE said its organic order book has increased 26 percent to £8.6 billion from a year earlier, while the pipeline of potential bid activity stands at £11.2 billion and the group has already secured 83 percent of the revenue budgeted for 2012/13.

 

 

 

]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 15:20:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43094/ftse-100-closes-up-us-stocks-open-higher-but-facebook-tumbles-update-43094.html <![CDATA[News - Banks and miners lift FTSE 100 ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43093/banks-and-miners-lift-ftse-100-0000.html

UK stocks rallied this morning despite Germany’s opposition to issuing joint euro zone bonds, which are being proposed by France. The FTSE 100 stood at 5,301 at midday, up 34 points (0.65 percent) from Friday’s close.

At the past weekend’s summit at Camp David, G8 leaders said they wanted Greece to stay in the euro zone and called for a balance between growth boosting stimulus and budget cuts.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel again said she wanted Greece to pass more austerity to bring its debt problems under control.

“Too often the markets has seen rhetoric without action and so whilst much of what was said was to be expected, definitive action will be needed before the markets can take this rhetoric in their stride,” said chief market strategist at City Index Joshua Raymond.

“And what’s more, there remains a doubt amongst investors as to whether Merkel would be willing to soften the German stance towards pro-austerity.”

Traders are now looking to today’s meeting between German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his French counterpart Pierre Moscovici. On Wednesday, EU will hold a summit in Brussels with common euro zone bonds among the topics that are expected to be discussed.

Despite the persisting concerns about the possibility of Greece exiting the euro zone, the UK’s blue chip index rose thanks to support from gains in the mining and banking sectors.

In addition, polls are now showing that parties that support Greece’s membership in the euro zone and further austerity could secure enough votes in the June 17 election to form a coalition.

Hedge fund manager Man Group (LON:EMG, up 5.4pct at 79.35p) topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard after acquiring investment group Financial Risk Management (FRM) Holdings.

Other notable risers included engineering group Weir (LON:WEIR, up 2.9pct at 1,508p) and temporary power provider Aggreko (LON:AGK, up 2.4pct at 1,083p).

Banks also were in demand today with Standard Chartered (LON:STAN, up 2.5pct at 1,318p) and tax-payer-owned bank Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS, up 3.4pct at 20.66p) showing up among the top risers in the top flight.

Copper prices rose, lifting mining companies Vedanta Resources (LON:VED, up 4.7pct at 1,004p) and Xstrata (LON:XTA, down 2.1pct at 933.7p).

Meanwhile, precious metals miners Fresnillo (LON:FRES, down 2.8pct at 1,320p) and Randgold Resources (LON:RRS, down 1.1pct at 4,842p) slid to the bottom of the FTSE 100 pile following a sharp decline in gold and silver prices.

]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 14:58:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43093/banks-and-miners-lift-ftse-100-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Monday's most followed: Frontera Resources, Chariot Oil and Gas, Pursuit Dynamics, Torotrak, Cranswick, MITIE ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43090/mondays-most-followed-frontera-resources-chariot-oil-and-gas-pursuit-dynamics-torotrak-cranswick-mitie-0000.html

Oil companies Frontera Resources (LON:FRR) and Chariot Oil and Gas (LON:CHAR) rose sharply this morning as they provided positive operational updates, while Torotrak (LON:TRK) was among the most actively discussed companies on message boards after unveiling a licence deal in Japan.

Frontera Resources topped the list of the most popular searches on Google Finance with investors looking for the reason behind the surge in the share price, which climbed 15 percent to 0.78 pence in early deals.

The Republic of Georgia focused explorer and producer said in a stock exchange statement today that it expects a significant revenues in the third quarter and that it is in negotiations with a strategic partner for the Taribani field.

Since January, oil sales generated average monthly revenues of US$760,000, which is set to increase to US$1.2 million per month with the start of gas sales in the third quarter.

The company expects the planned four well drilling programme on Taribani to add 1,900 barrels of oil per day (bopd) to its production, which translates into revenues of US$5.7 million per month at the current oil price.

Meanwhile, work on the Mtsare Khevi Gas Complex has led to an increase in the area’s estimated gas potential to 1.2 trillion cubic feet (tcf) from 0.5 tcf previously.

In addition Frontera said that it will try not to draw down on its US$35 million standby equity distribution agreement (SEDA) given the downward pressure on our stock price and rely on alternative funding sources including strategic partnerships.

Shares in sector peers Chariot and Matra Petroleum (LON:MTA) also were in demand this morning with the two companies rallying 8.5 percent to 78.25 pence and four percent to 2.7 pence in morning trade respectively.

Chariot has secured the Ocean Rig Poseidon drill ship to drill the Kabeljou well on the Nimrod prospect offshore Namibia.

The Poseidon is anticipated to arrive on location in July this year and the drilling operations will begin shortly thereafter with the well expected to take two months to drill.

This is the second well to be drilled in Chariot's four to five exploration well programme in Namibia.

The Nimrod prospect is located in the Orange Basin in Southern Block 2714A, where Chariot has a 25 percent interest.

Peer Matra got a boost from the appointment of former deputy CEO of Russian major TNK-BP Maxim Barskiy as its new chief executive, lifting its share price up four percent to 2.7 pence in morning trade.

Barskiy has been on board since April when he bought 575 million new shares in the company at 0.8 pence per share worth £4.6 million, giving him a 29.8 percent stake.

Matra said his involvement was expected to ‘significantly enhance’ the new venture opportunities available to Matra including potential acquisition opportunities in Russia in the short term and potential expansion internationally in the medium term.

Since Barskiy’s appointment to the board, Matra’s share price more than doubled from 1.1 pence per share.

Speaking of share price movements, while the three oil groups did very well, Pursuit Dynamics (LON:PDX) was the heaviest faller in London  markets, seeing three quarters of its value wiped out after announced that its full year revenues will be materially below forecasts.

This comes after consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble decided against a technology tie-up with PDX, prompting it to speed up a strategic review.

The two companies were in discussions over an exclusive licensing agreement for Pursuit’s technologies to improve industrial production processes.

“We are obviously extremely disappointed with the decision by P&G.  Although the resulting revenue shortfall will constrain growth we will continue to pursue a range of commercialisation opportunities while we conduct the strategic review,” said PDX interim CEO Jeremy Pelczer.

Moving to Torotrak, the maker of transmission systems announced a cooperation and licence deal with Univance Corporation, a Japan based manufacturer of passenger and industrial vehicle transmission units and other automotive parts.

The agreement enables Univance to make and supply core variator components and variator assemblies to Torotrak licensees.

Torotrak will provide its engineering support and intellectual property in return for a revenue share on all sales of Torotrak related parts or sub assemblies.

The two companies have been working on a shared cost basis over the last two years to develop production processes for the manufacture of discs and rollers.

“Engaging a component manufacturer of Univance's calibre and market reach is a significant step for Torotrak in our strategy to bring our technology to market,” said chief executive of Tototrak Dick Elsy.

“Ensuring a high quality and reliable production source for our key parts, discs and rollers, is essential to building confidence in our technology.”

In the meantime, food company Cranswick (LON:CWK) and support services group MITIE Group (LON:MTO) were among the most followed stocks in the FTSE 250 after both reported higher full year revenues and pre-tax profits.

The figures form Cranswick showed an eight percent increase in revenues to £821 million for the year to end March following a “strong recover in the second half from first half challenges”.

Pre-tax profits reached £48.4 million, up three percent from a year earlier, and earnings per share increased to 72.8 pence from 72.8 pence.

The group added that underlying sales were up 10 percent, reflecting growth across most product sectors.

“Against a background of strong raw material price increases early in the financial year and a continued challenging environment for the consumer, the company recovered strongly during the second half and recorded its highest ever sales and second best trading profit in its history,” said chairman of Cranswick Martin Davey.

The report from MITIE, which also covered the year to end March, revealed an 8.9 percent increase in pre-tax profits to £94.5 million on revenues of £2 billion, up 5.9 percent from the previous year.

MITIE said its organic order book has increased 26 percent to £8.6 billion from a year earlier, while the pipeline of potential bid activity stands at £11.2 billion and the group has already secured 83 percent of the revenue budgeted for 2012/13.

“We have made excellent progress on all of our key strategic objectives, achieved sector-leading organic growth and been awarded a number of significant contracts that are enhancing our business,” said MITIE chief executive Ruby McGregor-Smith.

“Financially robust, we have a clear strategy for the development of our business, supported by a buoyant sales pipeline and an order book that stands at record levels.”

]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 13:31:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43090/mondays-most-followed-frontera-resources-chariot-oil-and-gas-pursuit-dynamics-torotrak-cranswick-mitie-0000.html <![CDATA[News - COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Ariana Resources, ECR Minerals, Stratex International, Metals Exploration, New World Oil & Gas, ReNeuron ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43061/company-snapshot-ariana-resources-ecr-minerals-stratex-international-metals-exploration-new-world-oil-gas-reneuron-0000.html

This morning, gold miners Ariana Resources (LON:AAU), ECR Minerals (LON:ECR) and Stratex International (LON:STI) had positive new to report to investors including bonanza grades from Ariana’s Red Rabbit gold project in Turkey.

The result from the Kiziltepe sector of Red Rabbit included the highest grades ever recorded from the deposit.

The grades included 13.1 grammes per tonne gold over 12.1 metres and 187,6 g/t silver including an interval of 3.2 metres grading 38.7 g/t gold and 511 g/t silver and one metre at 65.9 g/t gold and 760 g/t silver.

Exploration drilling has also determined that the Arzu North vein system extends to the southeast beneath cover.

These new results highlight significant potential within the "gap zone" – and the company is now planning a follow-up deeper drilling programme.

“The scale of the project continues to grow with further zones being identified that will only improve the economics of the project which we are advancing towards production,” said managing director of Ariana Kerim Sener.

“The fact that these results derive from an area of cover along a strong geophysical anomaly corridor suggests that there is significant potential in this zone.”

The result presented by ECR confirmed the presence at depth of high grade gold mineralisation within quartz veining over a 500 metre strike length at its El Abra prospect within the Sierra de las Minas gold project in Argentina.

The company added that the mineralisation remains open along strike and down dip.

“Further drilling is merited at El Abra in order to better define the mineralisation encountered and, dependent on the success of such drilling, to obtain sufficient data to complete an initial resource estimate,” said managing director of ECR Patrick Harford.

The “promising” results reported today included intersections of 3.9 metres grading 11.6 g/t gold, three metres at 11.1 g/t gold and one metre at 20.5 g/t gold.

Peer Stratex said the results from its on-going channel-chip sampling on the Pandora epithermal gold vein in Djibouti were “extremely encouraging”.

The highlights included intersections of 1.9 metres at 20.35 g/t gold, three metres at 11.66 g/t gold, 2.6 metres at 11.91 g/t gold and 13.9 metres at 5.35 g/t gold.

“The continuity of multi-gram gold grades now exists over more than 1,000 meters of strike, together with well-defined high-grade portions within the structure,” said executive director for East Africa David Hall.

The next key milestone is to commence drilling before the end of the year, and investigate the potential for continuity of these grades at depth.

Fellow precious metals focused group Vatukoula Gold Mines (LON:VGM) told investors that cash generation from operations jumped 57 percent to £4.38 million during the six month period to end February, during which it defined an inferred resource of 142,000 ounces of gold.

The company has discovered a new high mineralised system during exploration drilling, the most significant intersection from which was 124.7 g/t gold over 0.46 metres.

Revenues during the period reached £30.4 million, up 21 percent from a year earlier, while gold productio0n was flat at around 30,000 ounces.

“Our focus remains on building towards long-term cost effective sustainable gold production, at a target level of 100,000 ounce gold per annum, and we are pleased with the steady progress we have made toward that goal in the six months under review,” said chief executive of Vatukoula David Paxton.

Elsewhere in the mining sector, chairman of Metals Exploration (LON:MTL) I R Holzberger said he was pleased with the progress made by the company last year.

The full year report highlighted the approval of the Declaration of Mining Project Feasibility (DMPF) for the Runruno gold-molybdenum project in the Philippines by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

This has enabled FCF Minerals Corporation to move into the design, development and construction phase of Runruno.

New World Oil & Gas (LON:NEW) also released its full year report this morning, calling 2011 a year of “outstanding progress” at both an operational and a corporate level.

The said it has exceeded objectives set out in its AIM admission document by progressing two oil and gas projects within two months of listing and completing a third in proven hydrocarbon regions.

The company’s Blue Creek project in Belize currently has unrisked prospective resource of 294 million barrels of oil with an estimated net present value of US$7.1 billion.

New World also has two projects in Denmark, one of which has recoverable resources of 1.4 trillion cubic feet of gas.

“All of the investments made during the year satisfied these criteria and we are very pleased with our progress over the period,” said chairman of New World William Kelleher.

“We feel that the potential of Blue Creek may be significant, in that it lies in close proximity to and displays structural similarity to the recently discovered and producing Spanish Lookout and Never Delay fields.”

Other news in the oil and gas sector included an operational update from Trinidad from Leni Gas & Oil (LON:LGO) and an update from Red Emperor Resources, which has decided to participate in the Shabeel North well in Puntland, Somalia.

The Shabeel North well is set to spud in the first week of June and will follow the Shabeel-1 well.

The company made the decision was made after reviewing final logs from Shabeel-1.

As a result, Red Emperor will maintain its 20 percent stake in the in each of the Dharoor Valley and Nugaal Valley production sharing agreements.

In the meantime, LGO has mobilised a workover rig to start field operations on the re-development of the onshore Goudron Field in Trinidad.

The company has previously said that it plans to re-develop the Goudron oilfield in partnership with state owned company Petrotrin.

Re-development will start with the working over of up to 50 existing wells and will be followed by the drilling of additional wells.

The field currently has a proved and probable (2P reserves) estimate of eight million barrels including 1.9 million barrels in the proved category.

“We are confident that with an increased level of investment and the application of new technologies we will be able to raise production substantially, which will contribute directly to the Ministry of Energy's immediate objectives of increasing oil production in Trinidad,” said chief executive of LGO Neil Ritson.

Away from mining and oil and gas, ReNeuron (LON:RENE) announced that chief executive Michael Hunt will present to the World Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine Conference in London today.

Hunt will provide a summary of the company’s stem cell technologies and its ReN001 stem cell therapy targeting stroke disability. 

The group also noted that Osiris Therapeutics’ stem cell treatment for graft versus host disease, Prochymal, gained marketing approval in Canada last week, marking the world's first marketing authorisation for a manufactured stem cell drug.

“We believe that this is a defining moment, opening up the therapeutic paradigm of stem cell treatments of this kind,” said Hunt.

“Our own stem cell treatments are also off-the-shelf in nature, so it is particularly reassuring to see that this completely new approach to medicine is being increasingly endorsed by regulatory authorities around the globe.”

]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 08:03:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43061/company-snapshot-ariana-resources-ecr-minerals-stratex-international-metals-exploration-new-world-oil-gas-reneuron-0000.html <![CDATA[News - MARKET PREVIEW: FTSE 100 seen flat after G8 summit ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43049/market-preview-ftse-100-seen-flat-after-g8-summit-0000.html

Financial bookmakers are expecting a flat start in London markets today. The FTSE 100 is set to open at 5,265, down only three points from Friday’s close.

The meeting of the Group of 8 that took place over the weekend fell short of calming jittery investors. G8 leaders said they wanted Greece to stay in the euro zone and that Europe has to find a balance between austerity and stimulus.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted that Greece and other debt laden countries should reduce budget spending to resolve their fiscal problems.

Traders are now looking to the next EU summit, which will kick off on May 23.

“The G8 summit over the weekend failed to provide any guidance for investors, with those in attendance simply repeating well used comments about keeping the Eurozone intact and ensuring Greece doesn’t fall off a cliff,” said analyst at forex.com Chris Tedder.

“It now appears the countries in attendance are renewing calls for the larger and healthier Eurozone nations, like Germany, to assist their struggling neighbour countries, which comes at a time when debt markets appear to be questioning the health of Italy and Spain.”

Asian markets were in buying mode today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index climbed 17 points (0.2 percent) to 8,628 and China’s Shanghai Composite Index tacked on 14.5 points (0.6 percent) to reach 2,359.

]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 07:03:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43049/market-preview-ftse-100-seen-flat-after-g8-summit-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Gold posts weekly gain despite stronger US dollar ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43043/gold-posts-weekly-gain-despite-stronger-us-dollar-0000.html

Despite a surge in the US dollar, gold managed to post a weekly gain of over US$10 per barrel thanks to support from speculation that the Federal Reserve is considering introducing further stimulus to support the economic recovery in the US.

Minutes from the latest meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) released this week showed that several policymakers said they would be in favour of further stimulus if the recovery lost momentum.

More stimulus from the Fed would weaken the US dollar and lift demand for gold, which is seen as an inflation hedge and an alternative investment to the greenback.

In other news, the World Gold Council said gold demand from China surged 10 percent to a record 255.2 tonnes in the first quarter.

The WGC added that China will soon become the world’s biggest consumer of the yellow metal.

Meanwhile, demand from the current largest buyer of gold India slipped 29 percent to 207.6 tonnes year on year during the quarter.

Gold ended the week at US$1,592/oz, up US$12 from a week earlier. Silver fell to US$28.72/oz from US$28.89/oz and platinum declined to US$1,451/oz from US$1,461/oz.

Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) rose to 4,894 pence 4,851 pence over the past five days of trading, while fellow FTSE 100 constituent, silver miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES), dropped to 1,358 pence from 1,417 pence.

In the FTSE 250, platinum miner Lonmin (LON:LMI) slipped to 778 pence from 900.5 pence and gold producer African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG) declined to 338.3 pence from 348.9 pence.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 16:05:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43043/gold-posts-weekly-gain-despite-stronger-us-dollar-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Oil falls on euro zone worries, rising inventories ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43042/oil-falls-on-euro-zone-worries-rising-inventories-0000.html

Oil prices fell sharply this week with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark and Brent crude shedding over US$4 per barrel under pressure from the political turmoil in Greece and rising inventories in the US.

Early in the week, emergency coalition talks between five parties called by president Karolos Populias failed to result in an agreement and the debt-laden country will hold a new election on June 17.

There are concerns that anti-austerity parties could secure enough votes in the next election to form a government and renounce the country’s commitments under the bailout deal, which could force it out of the euro zone.

Late in the week, Moody’s slashed its ratings on 16 Spanish banks including major Santander, while Fitch reduced Greece’s credit rating to CCC from B-minus.

Fitch also warned that it could downgrade all euro zone members if Greece exits the monetary union.

In other news, GoldmanSachs now expects the Chinese economy to expand 8.1 this year compared with 8.6 percent previous, while the forecast for the current quarter was reduced to 7.9 from 8.5 percent.

China is currently the world's second largest consumer of oil behind the US.

Speaking of the US, the Department of Energy reported this week that America’s crude stocks added 2.1 million barrels last week to reach 381.6 million barrels, which is the highest level in more than two decades.

Demand for oil futures was also hit by comments from Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi.

He said last weekend that oil supply in the global market currently outstrips demand by between 1.3 and 1.5 million barrels per day and that demand would increase in the second half of the year.

According to the minister, Saudi Arabia wants oil prices to fall to US$100 per barrel.

The kingdom, which is currently the world’s largest exporter of crude oil, increased its output by 0.2 million barrels to 10.1 million barrels per day in April, the highest level in three decades.

US light, sweet crude for June delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), ended the week at US$91.48/oz.

July Brent crude closed at US$107.14/barrel on the ICE Exchange on Friday.

BP (LON:BP.) dropped to 391.5 pence from 415.5 pence over the past five days of trading and fellow supermajor Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) declined to 2,044 pence from 2,132 pence.

Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) pulled back to 1,336pence from 1,463 pence, while BG Group (LON:BG.) fell to 1,245 from 1,336.5 pence a week ago.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 15:27:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43042/oil-falls-on-euro-zone-worries-rising-inventories-0000.html <![CDATA[News - FTSE 100 news summary: ICAP, G4S, HSBC, Barclays, Tullow Oil, Antofagasta, Polymetal, Evraz, Serco Group ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43041/ftse-100-news-summary-icap-g4s-hsbc-barclays-tullow-oil-antofagasta-polymetal-evraz-serco-group-0000.html

On Friday, interdealer broker ICAP (LON:IAP) confirmed it is acquiring PLUS Stock Exchange, the smaller company equity exchange, for £1 in cash subject to PLUS Markets Group (LON:PMK) shareholder consent and approvals from the Financial Services Authority.

Early in the week, PLUS said it was to wind-down and close after failing to find a buyer or new funding.

PLUS is one of only five RIEs (Recognised Investment Exchange) in the UK. 

It provides listing and quoting services to around 140 companies and generates revenue of approximately £3 million a year. The business is presently loss making.

PMK had announced earlier this week it was to wind down and close after it failed to find a buyer or new funding.

In a statement, ICAP said it operates regulated platforms running the world's largest electronic trading platforms and also operates 10 multilateral trading facilities.

In addition, ICAP already acts as a broker in exchange products and is a full member of the world's largest exchanges.

Other new sin the top flight included security services group G4S (LON:GFS) expects to achieve further growth this year after seeing revenues climb 7.5 percent in the March quarter.

Excluding the impact of the contract to provide security at the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in London, revenues were up six percent from a year earlier.

At the secure solutions business, which accounts for the bulk of group sales, organic revenue growth reached seven percent including a strong performance in the UK, which got a boost from the £200 million Olympic Games deal.

The cash services division achieved revenue growth of four percent including a ten percent jump in developing markets revenues.

In the banking sector, HSBC (LON:HSBA) is on track to meet targets for its 3-year turnaround plan, it announced at its group strategy investor day.

It revealed it made US$2 billion in cost savings after the first year of the programme through radical restructuring.

The company plans to save US$3.5 billion by the end of 2013.

Europe’s biggest bank says it will focus on the regions with the best growth prospects, which will in turn make the company easier to manage and control.

“We will continue to simplify HSBC, enabling us to integrate systems and operate to high global standards internationally,” said chief executive Stuart Gulliver.

“We will continue to run off our legacy assets, including the U.S. consumer and mortgage lending book.”

UBS this week issued a note on sector peer Barclays (LON:BARC), whose share price has suffered in recent weeks due to concerns over its exposure to Spain.

Since it reported first quarter results last month, the share price has plunged around 20 per cent, which the broker says makes it an attractive investment.

As a result, it is upgrading its recommendation to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’.

However, UBS has also cut its target price for UK bank to 215 pence from 272 pence.

UBS analyst John-Paul Crutchley said: “Recent share price retrenchment has largely been driven by concerns over Barclays exposure to Spain where we think a more realistic approach to impairment over the last few years should limit the impact of higher provisioning from the proposed Royal Decree to between £50-£70m.”

In oil and gas, Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) this week confirmed that a drill ship has been contracted to begin work next month on further exploration of the Zaedyus discovery in French Guiana.

It follows the drill success late last year. The plan initially is to appraise the Zaedyus-1 well and explore for deeper objectives. This will be followed by an exploration wildcat well.

“Planning is also ongoing to acquire two large 3D seismic surveys,” Tullow added in a statement this week. 

Shell (LON:RDSB) with a 45 per cent stake in Zaedyus is taking operatorship of the breakthrough discovery, which is a facsimile of the producing Jubilee field off the coast of Ghana.

Tullow is the next biggest shareholder with 27.5 per cent and Total has 25 per cent.

Meanwhile, mining group Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) released its quarterly results.

The mining giant revenues in the first three month of the year reached US$1.76 billion, up from US$1.27 billion a year earlier with the increase reflecting higher copper and gold volumes and prices.

The volume of copper produced during the quarter was 162,900 tonnes, a 25.5% increase on the 129,800 tonnes produced in the March quarter of 2011.

Sector peer Vedanta released its full year results this week, which showed that revenues in the year to end March jumped 23 percent from the previous year to US$14 billion.

However, earnings per share dipped 46 percent to US$1.42 due to lower attributable profit from subsidiaries.

“This has been a transformational year for the group, in which we completed the Cairn India acquisition, announced the consolidation of the group, and delivered strong production growth,” said chairman of Vedanta Anil Agarwal.

After taking into account revenue from acquisitions in 2011 and 2012 including the Moody International acquisition, and a slight positive currency effect, total reported revenue surged 40 percent.

The group added that it has had a positive start to the year with the high single digit organic revenue growth being driven by the four largest divisions.

“We expect our performance this year to be in line with our expectations although we remain alert to any potential rapid change in market conditions which could impact our growth,” said chief executive of Intertek Wolfhart Hauser.

Precious metals miner Polymetal International (LON:POLY) has sold Amikan Holding Limited, which owns the Veduga gold deposit in the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia, to Polygon Gold.

In return for the asset, Polymetal has received US$20 million in cash and 750 shares in Polygon, giving the group an 81.8 percent stake.

Polymetal said it planned to provide certain technical and regulatory assistance to Polygon and may dilute its stake if “external financing is raised”.

Veduga has an open pit reserve estimate – which is compliant with the NI43-101 standard – of 1.05 million ounces of gold at a grade of 5.5 grammes per tonne (g/t).

“We believe this transaction allows Polymetal, through its more than 80 percent stake in Polygon, to benefit from the development of this high-quality asset while preserving management's focus on the company's existing project pipeline,” said chief executive of Polymetal Vitaly Nesis.

Russian steelmaker Evraz (LON:EVR) released an interim management statement this week.

The group told investors that its total steel product sales in the first quarter reached 3.9 million tonnes and revenues were in line with the same period of 2011 as prices were broadly flat.

The group had US$453 million in the bank at the end of March, down from US$801 million at the end of 2011, mainly due to an increase in working capital, which will be revised by the end of the second quarter.

Serco Group (LON:SRP) also updated investors on its performance.

The government services group said its full year guidance remains unchanged and that improving conditions around the globe, if they continue, could lift its organic revenue growth in 2013 as well as result in further improvement into the medium term.

“This would support the continued delivery of strong financial performance by Serco,” the group told investors in the report.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 14:33:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43041/ftse-100-news-summary-icap-g4s-hsbc-barclays-tullow-oil-antofagasta-polymetal-evraz-serco-group-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Mid and small cap news: PV Crystalox Solar, Blinkx, Medgenics, Motive Television, ANGLE, Lamprell, Spirax-Sarco ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43040/mid-and-small-cap-news-pv-crystalox-solar-blinkx-medgenics-motive-television-angle-lamprell-spirax-sarco-0000.html

PV Crystalox Solar (LON:PVCS) was at the centre of attention on Friday after seeing its value more than double after announcing a cash settlement over a terminated wafer supply deal that exceeds its market cap.

The group revealed that it has reached an agreement over the termination of the supply deal and will receive €90 million, which will be recognised as income in the first half this year.

Meanwhile, PV has reduced its first half guidance for shipment volumes to 55-70 megawatts (MW) from 80-100 MW previously, saying it was unable to reach agreement on acceptable wafer prices and volumes for the second quarter with its customers.

This was due to a 70 percent decline in wafer prices over the past year resulting from industry overcapacity and significant inventories.

Video search engine Blinkx (LON:BLNX) also generated interest, reporting that revenue increased 73 percent, year-on-year, boosted by increased advertising streams and the increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets growing online video demand.

Blinkx improved revenue in the year ended March 31 2012 to US$ 114.4 million from US$ 66.1 million, while underlying pre-tax profit increased to US$10.7 million from US$ 8.3 million. 

Chief executive and founder Suranga Chandratillake: “The proliferation of powerful connected devices and high-speed broadband networks has catalysed consumer appetite for web video.” 

During the year the company acquired Burst Media, an online media and technology company and Prime Visibility Media Group, an online and digital advertising agency.

Biopharmaceutical juniors Medgenics (LON:MEDG, AMEX:MDGN) and Silence Therapeutics (LON:SLN) also were among the most followed stocks in London markets this week.

Medgenics achieved a major milestone with clearance to begin a phase IIb trial of EPODURE to treat anaemia in kidney failure patients, while Silence said its lead drug targeting solid tumours has stabilised the condition of a number of cancer patients in early stage trials.

The approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) marks a major moment in the development of the Medgenics’ Biopump technology.

“This timely acceptance of our first Investigational New Drug to the FDA marks a significant milestone for our Biopump protein platform," chief executive Andrew Pearlman told investors.

"We are very pleased with our U.S. regulatory progress and with the interactions with the FDA, allowing us to proceed with the launch of our first US trial.

“This trial is significant for Medgenics as a company as well as for patients with anemia, as we anticipate EPODURE could provide a better treatment for anemia in the future.”

These clinical trials will take place in multiple centres and be the first study in the States using the firm's proprietary Biopum technology.

The Biopump removes the need for hundreds of injections and involves a tiny sliver of the patient's tissue being taken.

It is modified to carry the gene to enable it to continuously produce the required protein to treat the condition.

"Treatment of anemia in dialysis patients with EPODURE is intended to replace frequent injections of EPO or other erythropoietic stimulating agents," the company said on Thursday.

Gene therapy specialist Silence said the results ‘strongly indicate’ disease stabilisation and safety in terminally ill cancer patients using the drug, which is called Atu027.

The drug, which is aimed at treating solid tumours in cancer patients, is currently in phase I clinical trials.

Ten of the thirty-three patients trialling the drug, called Atu027, experienced stable disease after three months.

Tony Sedgwick, Silence's chief executive, said the new data demonstrates that Atu027 can be safely administered at doses above those believed to be effective.

“Moreover, the data also strongly indicate that Atu027 is impacting the disease course and in particular providing disease stabilisation."

Two patients with neuroendocrine cancers had disease stabilisation for nine and 12 months respectively.

One of these patients also experienced partial regression of liver metastases, which shows cancer spread.

Biomarkers that are used to monitor the progression of the disease and  effectiveness of the treatment also showed improvements, while identification of sVEGR-1 as a possible biomarker was also a significant new advancement, Sedgwick added.

Another patient in the study with breast cancer also showed regression of liver metastases.

The study was designed to evaluate up to a total of eleven escalating doses of Atu027 in around 33-36 patients.

On Friday, human tissue specialist Asterand (LON:ATD) said it expects to ask for shareholder approval for the sale of its non-BioSeek Tissue Based Solutions business in the next few weeks.

It is also considering options for its other subsidary, BioSeek which provides cell-based human disease models for drug discovery. 

Asterand said: “The board also continues to explore a number of alternatives in respect of the BioSeek business including the continuation of the business on a stand-alone basis or the sale of the business after the potential disposal of the Tissue business.”

Away from the biotech sector, security group Westminster Group (LON:WSG) said the new academy opened in central England by its subsidiary Longmoor offers ‘tremendous potential’ for the expansion of its training services.

Longmoor, which is the close protection (CP) and risk assessment division of Westminster, has opened the academy in response to the increasing demand for its CP courses.

The new academy will enable it to further expand the range and scope of its courses, both residential and non-residential.

Elsewhere in the markets, Motive Television (LON:MTV) revealed that it is in talks with six English Premier League football clubs over the use of its Video2Go (V2G) product.

V2G provides the ability to load recorded movies and other pre-recorded content to smartphones, iPads and other tablets passively and without the need for an Internet connection. 

This, said Motive, is an opportunity for clubs to “provide a wide range of interesting and useful content to their fans”.

According to V2G distributor Digital Media Europe, several of the major teams have expressed interest in the technology’s ability to help monetise take-away content ranging from game highlights & statistics, player interviews and even digital match programmes.

Technology investor ANGLE (LON:AGL) also had news to report this week. Geomerics, the computer games software associate of ANGLE, has received the final milestone in a £2.3 million corporate partnership deal.

Geomerics’ speciality is Enlighten, a special effect for computer games that enables real-time games to be shown with realistic lighting.

Customers include industry giant Electronic Arts, which used Enlighten in its best seller Battlefield 3.

In March, ANGLE said three new customers had also signed up to use the product, which is generically known as middleware.

ANGLE, which has a 31 per cent stake in Geomerics, said the corporate partner and Geomerics continue to work closely together.

The name of the Corporate Partner and some of the terms of the deal, which was first announced in July 2010, remain subject to strict confidentiality, it added.

In the meantime, this week’s news in the FTSE 250 included interim management statements from bakery Greggs (LON:GRG) and engineering group Kentz (LON:KENZ).

Greggs blamed wet weather in April and early May for disappointing trading figures released this week.

Britain’s largest bakery chain reported a dip in like-for-like sales of 1.8 per cent in the 19 weeks to 12 May.

Total sales, however, grew 4.3 per cent, boosted by the launch of 25 new stores.

Chairman Derek Netherton said: “The trading environment for all retailers has remained extremely challenging, and high street footfall has remained relatively weak.”

Netherton also launched an attack on George Osborne’s so-called ‘Pasty Tax’, which he claimed is “unworkable”.

The chancellor announced plans at the Budget in March to extend VAT sales tax to freshly baked savoury products that are sold warm.

But Netherton believes that baked savouries that are sold warm but allowed to cool should be exempt from the tax.

Kentz said its full year performance will be slightly ahead of expectations as it continued to grow revenue and backlog in the four months to 30 April.

Current prospects consist of projects with values up to US$100 million while the overall pipeline for prospects stands at US$ 10.8 billion at the end of April 2012.

It added it expects to continue achieving an average natural growth on contracts of 25 per cent in 2012.

Backlog grew to US$2.46 billion in the period from US$2.4 billion in the four months to 31 December 2011.

Chief executive Christian Brown said: "Kentz is pleased to report that the group has experienced good growth in the first four months of the year and anticipates that the full year performance will be marginally ahead of expectations.”

Another FTSE 250 constituent Lamprell (LON:LAM) closed down nearly 57 percent on Wednesday after issuing a profit warning.

The firm, which provides services for offshore and onshore oil firms, said it expected that a delay in  revenues, along with added costs would mean it would post a small loss in the first half of this year.

"During the year to date the group's financial performance has been adversely affected mainly by progressive delays in key specialised vendor equipment deliveries for new build jackup projects together with the progressive slippage in the timing of expected new project awards and delayed client deliverables," it told investors.

In addition, the FTSE 250 firm said it had recognised further costs linked to the final specialised equipment commissioning on two wind farm projects - both of which are due for delivery in the second quarter.

Another midcap, peristaltic pump specialist Spirax-Sarco Engineering (LON:SPX), announced that unfavourable exchange movements have taken the shine of good organic growth since the start of the year.

In an interim management statement, the company reported organic growth of 6 per cent year-on-year during the period from January 1 to April 30 2012.   

However, total sales increased 3 per cent due to unfavourable exchange movements, particularly in recent weeks, that reduced sales on translation by 2 per cent, and due to the impact of two small business disposals in mid-2011.  

At constant currency, operating profit was modestly ahead of the comparable period in 2011. 

This reflected the contribution from the higher sales, largely offset by higher material costs - the effects of which are expected to reduce in the second half of the year-, lower volumes in its main European factories and the impact of the economic downturn in Latin America, the company said.

In the meantime, Renishaw (LON:RSW) told investors that its full year profits are set to be ahead of the 2010/11 financial year.

Investors cheered the update, sending shares in the measuring and medical device manufacturer up 12 percent to 1,500 pence in early deals, valuing the engineering group at £1.1 billion.

Revenues for the first three months of 2012, which is the third quarter of the group’s financial year, reached £81.6 million, up four percent from a year earlier, taking the overall revenues for the nine months of the year to £228.8 million.

This was nine percent ahead of the £210.6 million revenues posted for the first nine months of the previous year.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 13:57:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43040/mid-and-small-cap-news-pv-crystalox-solar-blinkx-medgenics-motive-television-angle-lamprell-spirax-sarco-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Oil and gas news summary: Range Resources, Cove Energy, Chariot Oil & Gas, Enegi Oil, Genel Energy, Tethys Petroleum ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43039/oil-and-gas-news-summary-range-resources-cove-energy-chariot-oil-gas-enegi-oil-genel-energy-tethys-petroleum-0000.html

Range Resources (LON:RRL) and partner Red Emperor Resources (LON:RMP) this week updated investors on their closely followed exploration campaign in Puntland, Somalia.

On Thursday, the companies told investors that drilling at its highly anticipated Shabeel-1 well in Puntland, Somalia had been suspended for further testing.

Operator Horn Petroleum said the drill had reached a total depth of 3,470 metres, having encountered a metamorphic basement at 3,430 metres. The original target for the well was 3,800 metres.

Keith Hill, chief executive of Africa Oil, which has a 60 per cent stake in Horn Petroleum, said: “We are very encouraged by the results of the Shabeel well which appears to have confirmed oil bearing sands in two zones.

“This has very positive implications for the prospectivity of the basin."

A day later, Managing director of Range Peter Landau said Shabeel-1 could produce up to 130mm barrels of recoverable oil.

He added that based on Range's internal technical team's review of the net pay zone and results to date, a successful flow test could result in 70 to 130mm barrels of recoverable oil from the well.

Of that, 14 to 26mm bbls would be attributable to Range.

“The zone needs to be commercially flow tested and this will be undertaken after the completion of the second well, Shabeel North, which will spud early June,” he said.

“It is also important to remember that this is the first hydrocarbon well drilled in the Dharoor Valley for over 50 years and it is a massive credit to all involved, namely Horn Petroleum, the Puntland Government and the local Puntland communities that the well has been successfully drilled to date,” he said in an interview with Open Briefing.

Earlier in the week, Cove Energy (LON:COV) announced a major new discovery off the coast of Mozambique.

It follows some spectacular results from the Golfinho exploration well in the now world class Rovuma Basin, which point to a recoverable resource of 17 to more than 30 trillion cubic feet of gas. 

Golfinho, which is 20 miles north-west of the existing Prosperidade Complex, tested at around 100 million cubic feet a day.

Anadarko is the operator of Area 1 Rovuma Offshore, which hosts Golfinho, with a 36.5 per cent stake. Cove, meanwhile, is one of the lesser shareholders with 8.5 per cent.

However the figures involved with this discovery are so large that this week’s announcement is bound to have a material impact on Cove’s valuation. 

Chief executive John Craven said: “We are thrilled at the success of the Golfinho exploration well, our eleventh successful well offshore Mozambique. 

“This new gas accumulation is independent and separate to the Prosperidade gas complex and with successful appraisal could be advantageously developed, given its close proximity to shore and the fact that it completely enclosed in Area 1".

On Monday, peer Chariot Oil & Gas (LON:CHAR) saw its shares fall almost 40 percent in early trade after it plugged and abandoned the Tapir South exploration well, off the coast of Namibia.

Hydrocarbons were discovered, but not in sufficient quantities to be commercial.

Chief executive Paul Welch said: “Whilst the results of the Tapir South well are disappointing, this is the first well of a longer term drilling campaign within a frontier region and only the second well ever to have been drilled in the Namibe basin. 

“Our understanding of this basin is rapidly improving and we expect this well to provide more information on the character and maturity of the potential source rocks when we carry out detailed analyses on the recovered samples. 

“These analyses will provide invaluable information for improving the assessment of source risk on other prospects in close proximity whilst also furthering our knowledge of the region.”

Enegi Oil (LON:ENEG) did better on Monday, seeing its shares shoot up 30 percent after it said its Garden Hill South discovery in Canada is larger than first thought.

It follows the latest results from well PaP#1-ST#3, which were independently assessed by McCaffrey Consulting Services.

McCaffrey said it is yet to see pressure depletion from PaP#1-ST#3, suggesting the reservoir is larger than first estimated.

There are also knock-on implications for daily flow rate, which is also expected to increase.

A 2007 competent persons report suggested GHS estimated there were 61.5 million barrels of oil in place as well as 117 BCF of gas.

Ophir Energy (LON:OPHR) also had positive news to report to investors this week. The company and partner BG (LON:BG.) have made another major gas discovery offshore Tanzania, the fifth consecutive hit on their blocks in the region.

The Mzia-1 well in Block 1 intersected a 178m gas bearing column and 55m of net pay in the Upper Cretaceous, Ophir said.

The mean average resource was estimated at 3.5 TCF with "significant" potential upside.

BG and Ophir had already discovered an average 7 TCF of gas from their first four wells of the offshore Tanzania programme, but said this week the Mzia-1 result will add substantially to this total as well as opening the Rovuma Delta Upper Cretaceous intraslope play.  

Ophir holds 40 per cent of Blocks 1, 3 and 4; BG operates the blocks with a 60 per cent stake.

In other news in oil and gas, Kurdistan–focused Genel Energy (LON:GENL) sharply increased production in its latest quarter and expects output to stay at the higher level over the remainder of the year.

Net production for the first quarter of 2012 averaged 45,500 barrels daily, 27 per cent higher than a year ago.

Revenue guidance for 2012 remains unchanged at US$250-300 million supported by strong sales into the domestic market, it added.

The company, which is run by former BP boss Tony Hayward, intends to drill seven wells across its acreage in the next twelve months.

In the meantime, Tethys Petroleum (LON:TPL, TSE:TPL) has been awarded a new oil field in Uzbekistan, from which it says there is good potential to increase production.

The Chegara field currently has limited production from three wells and lies 14 km south-west of the firm's existing North Urtabulak asset.

It has been the subject of minimal drilling and Tethys believes that with more work, it can increase production "substantially".

The deal at Chegara is for a 25 year production enhancement contract.

Tethys also announced this week it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NHC Uzbekneftegaz concerning a potential exploration agreement for a block in the North Usyturt basin in Uzbekistan.

Elsewhere in the sector, Thailand focused oil and gas firm Coastal Energy (LON:CEO, CVE:CEN) said it recorded record production, cashflow and earnings in the first quarter of 2012.

Total production increased by 125 per cent to 22,773 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the three months to March 31, it told investors.

That compared to 10,125 boepd in the same period in 2011.

Offshore production reached 21,031 barrels a day with the inclusion of both platforms at Bua Ban North, while onshore, production was 1,742 boepd - an increase from levels seen in the fourth quarter - as natural gas demand recovered after flooding in Thailand late last year.

Finally, Solo Oil (LON:SOLO) has raised £150,000 from its equity drawdown facility as it prepares to test its recent discovery in East Africa.

Solo issued 32.3 million shares at a “small premium” to the market price and will use the money to fund its 25 per cent share of the testing of the Ntorya-1 well gas discovery in the Ruvuma Basin in Tanzania

In February, Solo and partner Aminex (LON:AEX) reported the  discovery in a 25 metre (80 foot) gross sandstone interval at Ntorya.

The drawdown has been taken from at three year £10 million equity line facility with Dutchess Opportunity Cayman Fund.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 12:48:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43039/oil-and-gas-news-summary-range-resources-cove-energy-chariot-oil-gas-enegi-oil-genel-energy-tethys-petroleum-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Mining news summary: Condor Resources, Bullabulling Gold, Anglo Asian Mining, Continental Coal, Bellzone Mining ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43038/mining-news-summary-condor-resources-bullabulling-gold-anglo-asian-mining-continental-coal-bellzone-mining-0000.html

Gold miners Condor Resources (LON:CNR) and Bullabulling Gold (LON:BGL) were among the top performers in the mining sector on Friday with both companies adding around 10 percent.

Chairman of Condor Mark Child described himself "really pleased" with the results of the tests carried out on two samples from its La India gold project in Nicaragua.

The tests showed that both gravity concentration and leaching with cyanide are effective methods of processing the mineralisation at La India.

However, a combination of both processes achieved the highest recovery of the precious metal, with over 90 per cent recovery for both samples.

Chief executive and chairman Child told investors: "We are really pleased with the results of the metallurgical testwork carried out by Met-Solve Laboratories in Canada. 

"The two 25kg samples were taken from artisanal miners stockpile and returned higher than expected calculated head grades of 13.9 g/t and 17.2g/t, although this is not inconsistent with the grade reported in the historic production which is estimated at 575,000 oz gold at 13.2g/t from La India project.”

The latest assay results received by peer Bullabulling confirmed the potential to expand the company’s already impressive 3.2 million-ounce resource base.

The company completed 24 reverse circulation holes on the Gibraltar Trend. The best results included a 13 metre section at 2.87 grams of the precious metal per tonne and 3 metres at 6.82 grams.

A total of five holes have so far been drilled on the Geko project, returning 2.02 grams and 2.21 grams from two separate intercepts of 14 metres.

The group has also carried out 2,659 metres of scout drilling.

Another precious metals miner Anglo Asian Mining (LON:AAZ) has agreed a US$7.5 million loan for the initial part of a leaching plant upgrade at its flagship gold mine in Azerbaijan.

The International Bank of Azerbaijan has agreed to lend the money, which will be used on the early stages of construction at the plant.

Chief executive Reza Vazari said last week that a new agitation leach plant is a natural development for the mine and would ultimately provide the best return for shareholders.

The new plant for the Gedabek mine will be designed to treat 100 tonnes of ore per hour and will improve gold recoveries.

It is expected to cost US$52 million.

Staying with gold miners, Minera IRL (LON:MIRL, CVE:IRL) said its Don Nicolas gold-silver project in Argentina has reached another major milestone as the permitting process has now started.

The company told investors this week that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) has now been completed and presented to the secretary of mining of the Santa Cruz province of Argentina, marking the start of the permitting process.

According to the company, permitting, which is expected to take six months, should proceed expeditiously given the “outstanding” support from the authorities in Santa Cruz.

“The completion of the EIA and commencement of permitting marks another significant milestone in the development of the Don Nicolas Project in Patagonia,” said executive chairman of Minera Courtney Chamberlain.

Elsewhere in the sector, Red Rock Resources (LON:RRR) is to start mobilising for its iron ore exploration project in north-west Greenland as the area moves into its period of twenty-four hour sunshine.

The project is aiming to define a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate for one or more of the Melville Bugt iron ore target areas by gathering up to between five and six thousand metres of diamond drill core.

It will also continue the detailed reconnaissance mapping it started during its maiden field season last year.

“The promising mapping, assay and geophysical survey results obtained by Red Rock Resources at Melville Bugt during 2011 indicate the potential for economic quantities of both magnetite and haematite iron ore mineralisation,” it said.

In other news in the mining sector, Continental Coal (LON:COOL) has entered into an exclusive option for the potential acquisition of a 50 per cent joint venture interest in a producing hard coking coal mine in Colombia.

The move is in line with the company’s strategic objective to diversify its coal mining operations geographically and into the higher margin coking coal market, and it will complement its existing thermal coal mining, development and exploration projects in South Africa.

The potential cost of this acquisition is US$15 million.  

Taking the option would enable Continental to operate, develop and expand an existing business, which consists of five mining concessions/contracts covering over 1,500 hectares, including the existing underground mine that has been in operation for 24 years and adjacent exploration ground.

Meanwhile, Bellzone Mining (LON:BZM) expects to report on progress regarding the economic studies and resource development at its flagship project, the Kalia iron ore mine in Guinea, in the next few months.

The group announced its results for the full year to end-December 2011, which saw a massive fundraising in March to the tune of US$236 million.  The cash balance at the end of the year stood at US$153.1 million.

Kalia is planned to commence production in 2014 and be producing iron ore and iron ore concentrate at a rate of 50 million tonnes per annum in 2018. 

The project has a 6.16 billion tonnes magnetite JORC resource and an oxide JORC resource of 193 million tonnes.

Amur Minerals (LON:AMC) said it could make a potential smelter fee saving of US$76.2 million after recalculating the magnesium oxide content of samples from its Kun-Manie nickel and sulphide project in the far east of Russia.

The group conducted a detailed analysis of 24 concentrate samples, which concluded the average magnesium oxide content was 11.5 per cent and not the 16 per cent previously calculated.

As magnesium oxide in concentrate incurs a smelter penalty, the lower figure has a knock-on, positive impact on potential profits. 

It also points to additional nickel and copper production in the order of 8,303 tonnes and 9,250 tonnes respectively.

In the meantime, Connemara Mining (LON:CON) has completed an airborne survey over a block of five licences in the Wicklow and Wexford areas of Ireland which may have uncovered previously unknown potential gold targets.

The work is part of a joint venture between Connemara and Hendrick Resources of Canada under which the latter will earn a 75 per cent interest in the licences by spending €1 million.

The magnetic, very low frequency and radiometric survey is being processed by Terraquest in Canada. 

Initial analysis carried out on the raw data by Hendrick in Canada indicates the presence of previously undetected blind targets.  Final results are due within six weeks.

This week’s research included broker notes on gold miners Medusa Mining (LON:MML) and Ortac Resources (LON:OTC) from Fairfax and Seymour Pierce respectively.

Fairfax has raised its target for Medusa and said the current market represents a "golden opportunity" to buy into the stock.

The broker has also raised the production forecast for the firm for the year to June this year to 65,000 ounces - from 60,000 previously.

And it raised its price target to the stock to 610 pence a share from 573 pence (current price: 317 pence), on the back of anticipated reduced cash costs at the company's flagship Co-O mine in the Philippines.

It comes after a presentation by Medusa at the City broker.

The company is updating investors on progress at Co-O, the new Bananghilig gold project and the copper porphyry exploration in the Philippines," said analyst John Meyer.

Fellow precious metals miner Ortac has in the space of less than a week reported an increased resource estimate at its flagship project in Slovakia, followed by a £20 million equity funding agreement.

The subsequent share price fall though is baffling analysts at Seymour Pierce, who have a ‘buy’ rating on the stock.

They believe that given the low risk investment opportunity, there is significant value to be found in Ortac.

“In our view both these developments help to further derisk Ortac’s offering as it pushes on with its evaluation of Sturec. This in turn makes the recent downward trend in the share price difficult to comprehend,” said Seymour Pierce analyst Asa Bridle.

]]> Sat, 19 May 2012 11:41:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43038/mining-news-summary-condor-resources-bullabulling-gold-anglo-asian-mining-continental-coal-bellzone-mining-0000.html <![CDATA[News - FTSE 100 closes sharply lower on Friday ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43037/ftse-100-closes-sharply-lower-on-friday-43037.html The FTSE 100 took another battering today, closing the last trading day of the week at  5,267.62 points, down 70.76 – or 1.32 per cent lower.

In a week dominated by fears over the future of Greece and mounting concerns that the debt-ridden country could bring the euro zone to the point of breaking down, London’s main index lost nearly 300 points.

Compounding the worries was Moody’s slashing the ratings on 16 Spanish banks including the country’s biggest bank Santander, which was slashed to A2.

Meanwhile, Fitch lowered Greece’s rating to CCC from B-minus as a result of the political turmoil in the country.

Greece will hold a new election in June after coalition talks between five parties and president Karolos Populias collapsed earlier this week.

It is feared that anti-bailout parties could secure enough votes to form a new coalition in the June election, putting Greece’s membership in the euro zone and the future of Europe’s single currency into jeopardy.

In London, the Spanish downgrade hit banking stocks with Lloyds (LON:LLOY) down 6.1 pct at 25.95p and fellow taxpayer owned bank RBS (LON:RBS) down 5.1 pct at 19.99p.

Miner Xstrata (LON:XTA) was also among the biggest fallers, down 4.3 pct at 914.70p, and luxury brand Burberry (LON:BRBY) saw a 4.2 pct sell-off, ending the session at 1,373p.

Top among the few risers on the main index were Polymetal International (LON:POLY), which put on 2.8 pct to 799p, and silver miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES), closing 2.1 pct higher at 1,358p.

]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 17:50:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43037/ftse-100-closes-sharply-lower-on-friday-43037.html <![CDATA[News - PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: Transeuro Energy, Medusa Mining, Heritage Oil, Range Resources, Facebook ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43036/proactive-news-summary-transeuro-energy-medusa-mining-heritage-oil-range-resources-facebook-0000.html  

Today’s main story by Proactive Investors was dedicated to Transeuro Energy (CVE:TSU), whose CEO David Worrall said the group has put together an innovative, flexible funding package that guarantees the company access to funding as required and manages and minimises dilution for equity investors.

The three-part, C$33 million package, includes a loan, a convertible bond, and a share purchase agreement, which will allow the Company to bring up to seven wells into production, three in Ukraine and up to four in Canada.

In addition the facilities provide spare capital for acquisitions and new ventures. 

“We can call down on the remaining tranches of the loan agreement and on the equity as a contingency item to manage overruns and to do additional work, but we won’t disadvantage existing shareholders by paying for it now, upfront,” said Worrall.

“We will use it as and when we want and hopefully that will be when the share price is significantly higher.

“But securing access to the funds means we can plan future campaigns with confidence and make commitments to our government partners in Ukraine.”

 Worrall moved to allay fears over the share purchase agreement, a form of funding which is commonly mis-understood by market, and is wilfully misrepresented in other quarters.

“Yorkville has agreements in place with other companies it supports, which have led to increases in stock prices,” he said. 

“They work closely with companies to ensure the additional shares are placed carefully and gradually without disrupting normal market activity. And they have committed not to short the stock at any time.” 

“We think what we have done is particularly suitable to funding for junior oil and gas companies,” said Worrall.

Medusa Mining (LON:MML, ASX:MML) also emerged among the most followed stocks of the day after broker Fairfax upped its price target for the stock and said the current market represented a "golden opportunity" to buy into the company.

The broker has also raised the production forecast for the firm for the year to June this year to 65,000 ounces - from 60,000 previously.

And it raised its price target to the stock to 610 pence a share from 573 pence (current price: 317 pence), on the back of anticipated reduced cash costs at the company's flagship Co-O mine in the Philippines.

It comes after a presentation by Medusa at the City broker.

The company is updating investors on progress at Co-O, the new Bananghilig gold project and the copper porphyry exploration in the Philippines," said analyst John Meyer.

He pointed out that exploration at the Co-O mine continued to progress and that the JORC resource should continue to expand to replace ounces that have been unearthed and to extend the overall resource to something over 2 mln ounces - from 1.96 million previously.

The recent Bananghilig gold discovery, where production is targeted for 2016, should also extend to over 1 million ounces although mine planning will be for a potential 200,000ozpa operation for a five year mine life at a $550/oz cash cost, he said.

In terms of copper, Meyer added that the team was working to prove up a significant body of mineralisation with a view to selling its copper portfolio and distributing the majority of proceeds to investors.

Two other stories covered today’s news from oil and gas groups Heritage Oil (LON:HOIL) and Range Resources (LON:RRL).

Range’s Shabeel-1 well in Puntland, Somalia could produce up to 130mm barrels of recoverable oil, the company’s MD said in an interview today.

Drilling of Shabeel-1 has been suspended pending testing, with Range saying it had been a significant success to date with the discovery of a 12 to 20 metres net hydrocarbon pay zone in the Jesomma sands.

Managing director Peter Landau added that based on Range's internal technical team's review of the net pay zone and results to date, a successful flow test could result in 70 to 130mm barrels of recoverable oil from the well.

Of that, 14 to 26mm bbls would be attributable to Range.

“The zone needs to be commercially flow tested and this will be undertaken after the completion of the second well, Shabeel North, which will spud early June,” he said.

“It is also important to remember that this is the first hydrocarbon well drilled in the Dharoor Valley for over 50 years and it is a massive credit to all involved, namely Horn Petroleum, the Puntland Government and the local Puntland communities that the well has been successfully drilled to date,” he said in an interview with Open Briefing.

“Globally, the average discovery rate is between one in five and one in 10 for a ‘wildcat’ well, which essentially is what Shabeel-1 is, hence we consider the well successful to date with both the net pay and the confirmation of an active petroleum system.

“Whilst the market and short term traders may have been anticipating further success in the deeper sections of the well, what we have discovered is extremely significant and the chances of a commercial hydrocarbon operation in Puntland are far greater now than when the well was spudded.

“And it must be remembered that we did encounter additional potential net pay sands in a Jurassic aged formation over a 184 metre section at a depth of 3,246 metres to 3,430 metres. The fact that hydrocarbons were encountered at a number of levels is particularly significant moving ahead.”

Peer Heritage, a constituent of the FTSE 250 index, told investors that it was happy with the results of the Miran West-3 well in Iraqi Kurdistan and was well funded for its 2012 work programme.

In the year to date, Heritage was focused on its operation in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, where it successfully tested the Miran West-3 well, which flowed gas at a rate of 22 million cubic feet per day.

It is estimated that this well will be capable of producing 50 mmcfpd of wet gas and 1,000 barrels of oil per day of condensate when it goes online.

After Miran West-3, the rig will move to the location of the Miran West-4 appraisal well, which will spud in early June this year.

The group also released its production figures, showing that output jumped to 605 barrels of oil per day in the first quarter, up 40 percent from the same period of 2011, but down 38 percent from the final three months of 2011 due to mechanical issues on well 363 in Russia.

Well 363 was the first horizontal well to be drilled in the Zapadno Chumpasskoye field with further wells planned for the second half of this year.

On the financial front, Heritage ended the period with US$154 million in the bank, which it said is “more than sufficient” to cover existing work programmes into 2013.

The cash position excludes amounts of US$405 million related to the ongoing tax dispute in Uganda.

In the meantime, social network Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) began trading on the NASDAQ exchange today.

The most anticipated float ever has been priced at $38, or £24 a share.

Facebook, now a household name, has added a further 96.4 million shares to the table, bringing the total number on sale to 484.4 million, it has emerged.

The IPO is set to raise US$18.4 billion for the company.

Mark Zuckerberg, who invented the concept in his bedroom at Harvard, stands to become one of the richest people on the planet.

Fellow founders Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin will also become paper-billionares, along with Napster founder and former employee Sean Parker.

The massive demand for the stock has meant several of the firm's early supporters have decided to sell their stakes.

For example, Peter Thiel, one of the websites earliest backers, will cut his 2.5 per cent stake to less than one percent by selling 16.8 million shares, while investment giant Goldman Sachs has more than doubled the shares it is selling to 28.7 million, from 13.2 million previously.

 

]]> Fri, 18 May 2012 16:51:00 +0100 http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43036/proactive-news-summary-transeuro-energy-medusa-mining-heritage-oil-range-resources-facebook-0000.html <![CDATA[News - Gold rallies on US stimulus speculation ]]> http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/43033/gold-rallies-on-us-stimulus-speculation-0000.html

Gold rallied today, lifted by hopes of further stimulus measures from the Federal Reserve and a report from the World Gold Council, which said demand from China surged 10 percent to a record 255.2 tonnes in the first quarter.

The WGC added that China will soon become the world’s biggest consumer of the yellow metal.

Meanwhile, demand from the current largest buyer of gold India slipped 29 percent to 207.6 tonnes year on year during the quarter.

Gold also benefitted from minutes of the latest policy meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

The report revealed that several policymakers said further stimulus measures were possible to support the ongoing recovery in the US.

Further stimulus would weaken the US dollar and bolster demand for gold, which is seen as an alternative investment to the greenback.

Gold traded at US$1,593/oz, up US$19 from Thursday’s close. Silver added 73 cents to reach US$28.78/oz and platinum advanced US$8 to US$1,457/oz.

Today’s top risers in the sector were:

Patagonia Gold (LON:PGD), up 14 percent at 28.5 pence at midday

GoldStone Resources (LON:GRL), up 10.5 percent at 4 pence

Condor Resources (LON:CNR), up 10.5 percent at 4 pence

Triple Plate Junction (LON:TPJ), up 8 percent at 2.11 pence

Archipelago Resources (LON:AR.), up 5 percent at 56.8 pence

The top fallers were:

Premier Gold Resources (LON:PGR), down 16 percent at 0.42 pence at midday

Highland Gold (LON:HGM), down 9 percent at 100.6 pence

Touchstone Gold (LON:TGL), down 6 percent at 15 pence

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