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Market movers: 4Imprint, Active Energy, Atlantis, C&C, the Horse Hill gang, Pearson, Spirit, Tesco

Published: 09:16 24 Oct 2014 BST

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Yesterday afternoon's rally already seems like ancient history as shares opened lower, as they did yesterday.

As per yesterday morning, slumping supermarket chain Tesco (LON:TSCO) was leading the retreat, after its immensely disappointing trading update yesterday.

The shares were off 3.2% at 165.6p, a level last plumbed back in 2003.

Confirmation of the first case of the Ebola virus in New York is not doing much for the shares of travel related firms. Hotels group InterContinental (LON:IHG) was down 2.5%, package tour operator TUI travel (LON:TT.) was 1.6% weaker, and airline IAG (LON:IAG) was 1.1% lower.

Publishing group Pearson (LON:PSON) was down 0.3% following its interim management statement, but as the FTSE 100 was down 0.7%, or 42 points, at 6,377, that counts as out-performance.

The FT-owner reiterated full-year guidance as it reported underling sales (on a constant exchange rates basis) in the first nine months of 2014 were up 1% on a year ago.

Pubs group Spirit (LON:SPRT) advanced 1.4% after confirming yesterday, after the market had closed, that it has rebuffed a bid approach from Magners cider firm C&C (LON:CCR).

C&C slid 7.5% this morning after making an indicative offer that, according to press reports, trumps Greene King's (LON:GNK) agreed offer for Spirit. Greene King was off 0.8% on fears of being dragged into a bidding war.

4imprint (LON:FOUR), the direct marketer of promotional products, was one of the market's best performers, soaring 10.5% on the back of a strong third quarter performance that sees the company ahead of management expectations on the revenue front.

Up 10.4% was Active Energy (LON:AEG) after it said a joint venture in which it has a 45% stake is about to start selling forestry permits for acreage in Alberta, Western Canada.

The plan is for permits to be granted for an upfront fee, after which KAQUO, the joint venture company, will look to work closely with the permit holders to support their commercial activities, possibly leading long-term to KAQUO acting as a primary customer as part of plans to build a biomass power station on Métis land in Alberta.

There was good news and bad news for the many members of the Horse Hill consortium that is drilling for oil close to Gatwick airport.

Analysis of oil shows encountered earlier this month reveals an oil accumulation in the Upper Jurassic Portland Sandstone reservoir, at a depth of 1,791 feet.

The Lower Portland, Corallian and Great Oolite exploration targets were unsuccessful.

The new oil discovery is estimated to contain 3.1mln barrels of gross in-place hydrocarbons, with some 16mln barrels of prospective resources in a separate untested Portland interval providing upside.

Some pre-drill estimates for the well were phrased in hundreds of million barrels, so it is little surprise that Horse Hill consortium members such as UK Oil & Gas (LON:UKOG), Alba Minerals (LON:ALBA), Stellar Resources (LON:STG) and Doriemus (LON:DOR) each lost around a fifth of their value, blowing some of the froth off the share prices. Solo Oil (LON:SOLO), down 16.6%, got off a little more lightly, but only just.

Shares in Atlantis Resources (LON:ARL) were under water at 41.5p, down 13.5%, after the company announced a share placing to raise £5mln.

The placing, at 40p per share, will finance Atlantis’ share of MeyGen, pay fees for the seabed lease at the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy in Canada and repay a US$1.58mln (£0.77mln) loan from EDB Investments.

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