The following are some of the main news-driven price changes as at 3.15pm.
RISERS
Investment company Challenger Acquisitions (LON:CHAL) was 13.5p higher at 33p as investors digested yesterday’s news about a cooperation agreement it signed with Starneth Holding, an engineering company that specialises in the construction of giant observation wheels, such as the London Eye.
“We are now able to selectively offer a strategic financial engineering and funding option to local developers of Giant Observation Wheels through the public market of the London Stock Exchange,” Starneth’s managing director Chiel Smits said yesterday.
Hunter Resources (LON:HUN) spiked 28.6% higher to 0.45p after an upbeat trading update. The company said it is continuing to make progress towards obtaining the required community and regulatory approvals to pursue exploration of its Pampamali gold, silver and base metals project in Peru.
Shares in Stilo International (LON:STL) have rebounded from yesterday’s biffing, which was sparked by disappointing full-year results. David Ashman, chairman of the company, has taken advantage of the share price weakness to buy just over 3mlm shares at an average price of 2.19p. Shares were up 0.25p at 2.375p in late afternoon trading.
FALLERS
Insurance brokers are the worst performers among FTSE 350 companies, with Brit (LON:BRIT), Lancashire Holdings (LON:LRE) and Hiscox (LON:HSX) all reacting badly to a move announced by George Osborne in yesterday’s Budget to wrest back some market share from Bermuda in the insurance broking sector.
Brit is off 27p at 278p, Hiscox is down 41p at 807p and Lancashire is 46.5p lower at 633p.
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Below are some of the major news-driven share price movements as at 1.15pm.
RISERS
The share price of Azonto Petroleum (LON:AZO) doubled in London to 0.45p after a large trade went through on the Australian Stock Exchange, where the shares are also listed. The company is making enquiries about the trade and will update the market with its findings.
Sefton Resources (LON:SER) was up 31.6% to 0.125p after appointing Cornhill Capital as its broker to replace Dowgate Capital. Allenby Capital remains the company’s nominated adviser.
Confirmation that the refinancing has completed has lifted Russian gold miner Petropavlovsk (LON:POG) 16.1% to 5.11p. Sothic Capital European Opportunities Master Fund Limited has emerged as a 10.64% stakeholder in the company, while CapeView Recovery Fund disclosed it has 5.36% of the company’s issued shares following the recent rights issue.
FALLERS
Gulf Keystone (LON:GKP) gives back some of yesterday’s gains, falling 5p to 38p. The shares were a hot ticket yesterday after the company confirmed it had resumed operations at its Shaikan production facilities in Kurdistan.
A director buying shares does not normally send the share price south, but that appears to be the case with Anglo Asian Mining (LON:AAZ), where non-executive director bought 30,584 shares at 8.45p a throw. The shares currently trade at 8.375p, down 9.5%.
In similar vein, Coal of Africa (LON:CZA) is 6.1% lower at 1.32p after to revealed the chief executive, David Brown, had bought 500,000 shares at an average price of 1.46p.
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Below are some of the major news-driven share price changes as at 11.00am.
RISERS
Gate Ventures (LON:GATE) has only been listed since 10 March but has already become a regular feature of the Risers & Fallers report. It was up another 65.8% to 123.5p this morning after it revealed yesterday that major shareholder Jun (Michael) Zhu is in line to become the non-executive chairman.
Zhu has an 8.74% stake in the company and has indicated his intention to increase this stake, either through the open market or by subscribing for newly issued Gate shares.
Regency Mines (LON:RGM) was wanted after yesterday’s update on the Horse Hill discovery in the Weald Basin in the south of England. It is selling its 5% interest in Horse Hill Developments to Alba Minerals for £300,000, so yesterday’s good news from Horse Hill should not really affect the company, but it does have a 5.03% direct stake in Alba so it still has a finger in the Horse Hill pie.
Regency shares advanced 20% to 0.09p.
Results from EnQuest (LON:ENQ) got the thumbs-up from the City, with the shares pushing 6.25p higher to 40.25p. The oil firm banged out 15% more oil in 2014 than it did the year before, so despite the collapse in the oil price revenue rose 5.1%, though underlying earnings (EBITDA) eased 6.5%.
LOSERS
What goes up must come down, and after yesterday’s stonking gain on the back of an operational update at its Chepica gold and copper mine in Chile, Xtract Resources (LON:XTR) was down 16.7% at 0.20p, and it is more likely to be a result of profit taking than this morning’s announcement of a joint broker (Beaufort Securities), though such appointments often presage a fund raising exercise.
The share price of PV Crystalox Solar (LON:PVCS) dimmed after its preliminary results. Shares weakened from 11.5p overnight to 10p this morning as the supplier of photovoltaic (PV) silicon wafers revealed a slump in revenues in 2014 to €53.3mln from €71.4mln the year before. The company dived into the red, losing €4.65mln versus a profit before tax of €6.62mln in 2013.
Results from Cello (LON:CLL) struck a discordant note, with the he pharmaceutical and consumer strategic marketing group’s shares sliding 4.8% to 88.5p. Headline profit before tax rose 9.9% but the threat of a VAT liability charge continues to hang over the group.
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The following are some of the major news-drive share price changes as at 9.00am.
RISERS
PuriCore (LON:PURI) rose 23% to 37.5p after signing a deal with a top-three US supermarket retailer. The supermarket chain will take the company’s Sterilox Fresh service in an agreement that should generate revenues for PuriCore of around US$17.8mln over the next six years.
Among the small cap miners, Amur Minerals (LON@AMC) was the pick of the bunch, as it reported a potential reserve increase of 70% at its Kun-Manie nickel/copper sulphide project. The shares climbed 18.2% to 9.5p.
zamano (LON:ZMNO) was wanted, after well-received full-year results. The web and mobile products and services provider said revenue, pre-tax profit and cash generation all moved in the right direction on the back of strong performance in the UK. The shares surged 16.9% to 9.5p.
FALLERS
One-sixth of Patagonia Gold’s (LON:PGD) market value was wiped off as the shares fell a halfpenny to 2.5p on the back of an update from its Cap-Oeste project in Argentina. The miner said it will need to fine more oxide ore to make the project viable at the current gold price.
Elsewhere in the mining sector, Rambler Metals (LON:RMM) was off 6.5% at 10.75p, as weak copper prices and a reduction in grades sent the firm into the red for the first time since it started commercial production three years ago.
FTSE 100 retailer Next (LON:NXT) tumbled 385p to 7,235p on a cautious outlook statement in its full-year results. The fashion firm reported a 7.2% increase in total sales (excluding VAT) in the year to the end of January 2014, and indicated sales in the current financial year could grow by anything from 1.5% to 5.5%.