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Epic & Msn data

Epic	ASX
Time:	15:37:00
Mid Price:	2627.14
Change Today:
Change % Today:
Fifty Two Week High:
Fifty Two Week Low:
Market Capital:

Period & price data

Period	Price
Now:	2627.14
3 Months ago:
6 Months ago:
1 Year ago:

Additional information

Additional	Information
Market:	All Share Index
Sector:	General Mining
Epic:	ASX
News:	Latest news
Web Site:	UK Market Wrap
Other Articles:	09-02-201009-02-201008-02-2010

Gold and Silver recover, but Randgold, Fresnillo and Hochscild slide to push down FTSE 100

Overview: as was expected, the FTSE 100 turned negative in the morning, dragged down by considerable losses from a few heavyweights including telecommunications company Cable & Wireless (LSE: CW), which slid 7% after reviving demerger proposals, and engineering company Invensys (LSE: ISYS), down 6% after reporting a 15% drop in operating profit after a sharp fall in orders for its Operations Management (IOM) unit.

Indian miner Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED) followed with a 3.5% slide after its H1 profit halved to US$188 million.

Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) was once again in decline, shedding more than 3%. Fellow bailed out bank Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) retreated 3%, as did consumer goods manufacturer Unilever (LSE: ULVR), whose Q3 profits fell 36%, and provider of quality and safety services Intertek Group (LSE: ITRK).

Airline British Airways (LSE: BAY), Swiss miner Xstrata (LSE: XTA) and insurer Old Mutual (LSE: OML) also were in decline, shedding more than 2.5%.

Not much was happening on the leaderboard with only a handful of companies making notable gains. Retailer Tesco (LSE: TSCO) was in the lead with a 2% climb, while telecom group BT (LSE: BT) followed with a 1.5% advance.

Mobile operator Vodafone (LSE: VOD), British American Tobacco (LSE: BATS) and consultancy, engineering and project management services company AMEC (LSE: AMEC) also tacked on more than 1%.

Stock index futures in the US were flat ahead of the jobless claims report, which is due today.

Commodities

Oil prices declined from yesterday’s levels as December Brent Crude dropped to US$78.40/barrel and US light, sweet crude for December delivery slipped below US$80/barrel.

Most oil and gas stocks were in decline this morning. Cairn Energy (LSE: CNE) was in the lead with a 2.5% slide. Petrofac (LSE: PFC) shed 1%, while BG Group (LSE: BG) and Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW) posted marginal losses.

Supermajors BP (LSE: BP) and Shell (LSE: RDSB) both declined marginally.

Midcaps did slightly better as Heritage Oil (LSE: HOIL) and Dragon Oil (LSE: DGO) held on to small gains. However, Dana Petroleum (LSE: DNX) slid 1.5%.

Peru, Colombia and Cuba operating oil and gas explorer and producer Gold Oil (LSE: GOO) led the market with a 20% rally after announcing results from 3D seismic acquisition at the Azar block in Colombia and saying it was looking to develop it as quickly as possible. US focused oil and gas junior Caza Oil & Gas (AIM: CAZA) followed with a 7% climb after announcing a hydrocarbon discovery at the Moore Bailout well in New Mexico.

North America focused oil & gas junior Pantheon Resources (AIM: PANR) also did well, tacking on 4%.

Iraq operating Irish oil company Petrel Resources (AIM: PET) and Atlantic Canada operating oil and gas group Enegi Oil (AIM: ENEG) went in a different direction, shedding more than 9%.

Gold and silver recover

Precious metals recouped some of their early losses as gold returned to US$1,091/oz and silver climbed to US$17.44/oz and platinum rose to US$1,361/oz.

Major mining stocks were in decline this morning. Gold miner Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS) posted marginal losses, while silver miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) and platinum producer Lonmin (LSE: LMI) both lost 1%.

Specialty chemicals firm Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT) was just below the opening level.

Midcaps also were in decline. While gold miner Petropavlovsk (LSE: POG) posted only marginal losses, Aquarius Platinum (LSE: AQP) and silver producer Hochschild Mining (LSE: HOC) retreated 2.8% and 1.8% respectively.

Small caps didn’t show much movement in early afternoon trade. South American based explorer Mariana Resources (AIM: MARL) was one of the leading risers in the sector with a 12% climb.

Australian gold and copper prospector Solomon Gold (AIM: SOLG) turned negative, shedding 5%, while Uzbekistan focused gold miner Oxus Gold (AIM: OXS) lost 4.3%. Copper and gold miner EMED Mining (AIM: EMED) was down 3.5%.

Base metals fall to weaken miners

Copper and nickel were in decline today, sliding to US$2.95/lb and US$8.15/lb respectively. Zinc held steady at US$0.99/lb.

All major base metals focused stocks turned negative.

Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED) was at the bottom of the pile with a 3% slide. BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT) lost almost 2%, while Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ) and Xstrata (LSE: XTA) shed more than 1%.

Eurasian Natural Resources (LSE: ENRC) moved down less than 1%, while Anglo American (LSE: AAL), Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO) and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) declined marginally.

London's only listed pure iron ore producer and FTSE 250 constituent, Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO) outperformed the market with a small gain.

Iron ore focused investor Red Rock Resources (AIM: RRR) led the juniors with a 22% rally. Copper and nickel explorer Regency Mines (AIM: RGM) added 7.4%.

Laterite nickel specialist European Nickel (AIM: ENK) and zinc mining and recycling specialist ZincOX (AIM: ZOX) went in the opposite direction with losses of more than 4%.

Banks, insurance, private equity

With the exception of Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN), which posted a small gain, all major banking stocks were in decline in early afternoon.

Partly nationalised banks Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) were at the bottom of the pile with losses of 3.5% and 2.9% respectively. HSBC (LSE: HSBA) was down 1.2%, while Barclays (LSE: BARC) declined marginally.

Insurers also were in selling mode today. Old Mutual (LSE: OML) led the way with a 2.7% drop, while Aviva (LSE: AV) lost 2.4%. Standard Life (LSE: SL) and car insurer Admiral Group (LSE: ADM) declined more than 1%, while RSA Insurance Group (LSE: RSA) pulled back 1%.

Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) and Prudential (LSE: PRU) declined marginally.

Private equity group 3i (LSE: III) posted marginal losses.

Small Cap Movers

Other notable movers among the small caps included specialty pharmaceutical company Alliance Pharma (AIM: APH), which rallied 11% after saying 2009 profits could top expectations.

Large and Mid Cap News

Cable and Wireless plc (LSE: CW.) announced its intention to demerge its Worldwide division into a separate publicly-quoted company. According to Cable and Wireless the decision follows ‘signs of more settled conditions’.

Centrica plc (LSE: CNA) announced it has entered into a further agreement with Drax Group plc (LSE: DRX), to provide Centrica with access to an additional 300 megawatts (MW) of baseload power. The agreement will run for a five year period from October 2010.

Resolution Ltd (LSE: RSL) announced that it has completed its acquisition of Friends Provident Group PLC (LSE: FP.). Resolution will now pay a total of approximately £312 million in cash and issue approximately 1.7bn new Resolution shares to Friends Provident shareholders.

Half year results (period ended 30 September) released from Invensys (LSE: ISYS) disappointed investors this morning, who quickly pushed shares in the engineering and support services group down 6%.

Shares in Unilever (LSE: ULVR) were hit this morning as the consumer goods manufacturer revealed weaker net profits in Q3, which dropped by 35% compared with 2008. Similarly earnings per share for the first nine-months of the year fell by 34%. The groups improving sales performance has been offset by price cuts, increased borrowing costs and substantial costs associated with pension financing.

Small Cap News

Specialty pharmaceutical company Alliance Pharma (AIM: APH) now expects its full year profits to significantly exceed previous expectations as trading continued to be “very strong” with sales in the first three quarters almost doubling compared to 2008.

Direct marketing software developer smartFOCUS (AIM: STF) said today its client, the US’ largest organization for motorists and leisure travelers, the AAA, has implemented its full suite of marketing software to increase cross-sell and up-sell opportunities across its more than 51 million members after the initial deployment of the group’s solutions yielded impressive results.

Shares in Caza Oil & Gas Inc (TSX: CAZ; AIM: CAZA) soared on news of a new hydrocarbon discovery, at the Moore Bailout 11 State #1 horizontal well, in New Mexico’s Lea County, a month after reporting an oil find at  Penny 10 State #1, the first well drilled in  at the Abo/Wolfcamp horizontal oil play there.

KEFI Minerals PLC (AIM:  KEFI) said it has started a drilling programme at the Artvin gold project in northeastern Turkey targeting a very large geophysical gold and base metals anomaly identified on surface.

Peru, Colombia and Cuba operating oil and gas explorer and producer Gold Oil (LSE: GOO) reported on the preliminary results of the 50 sq km (square kilometre) 3D survey acquired on the southern part of the Azar block in Colombia, calling them “excellent” and looking to drill the prospect as quickly as possible.

Mongolia-focused oil explorer Petro Matad Ltd (AIM: MATD) said it was notified on November 4 that its biggest shareholder Petrovis LLC  bought a further 12,750,000 Petro Matad shares through the market, and now has an interest in 57,505,002 shares, or a 45.88 percent stake.

Gas storage company Portland Gas (AIM: PTG) said its Portland Gas Storage has attained the 'under appraisal' status from the European Investment Bank as a project contributing to energy diversification and security at European Union level.

Baltic Oil Terminals (AIM: BTC), which owns and operates oil product terminals in the Russian port of Baltiysk in Kaliningrad, said its recovery from the tough first half was still on track, confirming that the expected throughput of oil products at the terminal did materialise in October, resulting in the highest even monthly volume of product achieved.

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