ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) is investing $250 million to explore Argentina's unconventional Vaca Muerta shale, where Madalena Ventures (CVE:MVN) has interests in two blocks, according to local newspaper La Mañana Neuquén. 

The world's largest oil and gas producer drilled five exploration wells last year, partnering with state-owned YPF. 

According to the paper, Exxon's country manager in Argentina, Daniel De Nigris, said the company plans to drill five more wells this year. He said some of the wells already drilled are being tested.

This is a positive sign for Madalena's interests in Vaca Muerta, where another mega cap producer, Chevron (NYSE: CVX), said earlier this week it hopes to invest up to $15 billion, along with partner YPF, in Vaca Muerta. The final YPF-Chevron agreement should be signed in July, once outstanding trade and tax issues are hammered out.

Calgary-based Madalena has two blocks in the Vaca Muerta and Agrio Shales at Coiron Amargo (35 percent W.I.) and Curamhuele (90 percent W.I.).

Earlier this month, Mackie Research Capital analyst Bill Newman reaffirmed his Buy rating on Madalena and a $2.15 price target, describing the Neuquén basin as having "world class resource potential." 

Adding to the bustle of activity, Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA) plans to invest $200 million and drill wells in Vaca Muerta this year. 

Madalena recently stated it has a total of 2.86 billion barrels of oil in its three blocks in Argentina.  The potential recoverable resource in the Cortadera block, where Madalena is partnered with Apache, is 1.05 billion barrels of oil.

Madalena's shares have soared 50 per cent in the past six months.

Judging by the paucity of company results scheduled for Friday, the City is preparing to make an early getaway for the Bank Holiday week-end.

HSBC (LON:HSBA) will be holding its annual general meeting at the Barbican Hall, Barbican Centre, in London, at 11.00am.

If you've never been to the Barbican, the advice is to aim to get there at around 10.00am ...

On the macroeconomic front, the British Banking Association release mortgage data for April. The market is expecting the number of loans to have risen to 32,800 from 31,227 in March.

Significant announcements expected

AGMs for Vphase (LON:VPHA), HSBC (LON:HSBA), Robert Walters (LON:RWA), S&U (LON:SUS.

Macroeconomic: UK: BBA Mortgage Approvals, CBI Realized Sales. EU: German Final GDP, GfK German Consumer Climate, German Import Prices, German Ifo Business Climate, Italian Retail Sales, Italian Prelim CPI, Belgium NBB Business Climate. US: Core Durable Goods Orders, Durable Goods Orders.

Belvedere Resources (CVE:BEL) is suspending mining operations at its Hitura nickel mine in Finland in response to continued low nickel prices. 

Further to its announcement in January, the company told investors that it has now started a two-week notice period for the start of temporary layoffs, of up to 60 of the 69 people employed at the mine. 

The layoff period will continue for up to 90 days for each employee. The company added that key staff will stay on to manage the care and maintenance of the mine and mill facilities during the suspension. 

"The continuing weakness in the nickel prices, in conjunction with permitting delays, has left the company with little option but to suspend nickel operations and commence temporary lay-offs," said CEO David Pym in a statement on Thursday.

"During the lay-off period the company will continue to concentrate on the metallurgical, environmental and engineering studies involved with assessing the viability of processing the nearby Kopsa gold copper ores through the Hitura mill."

The Finland-based operator made a net profit of €1.3mln (€2.6mln) over the whole of 2012, but was in the red in the final three months due to poor nickel prices and grades. Full year revenues were €27.9mln, up from €24.7mln while the amount of nickel produced rose to 2,282 tonnes against 2,157 tonnes. 

Belvedere was trading at 4.5 cents on Thursday, down 10%.

WesternZagros Resources Ltd. (CVE:WZR), a Canadian oil and gas company with operations in Iraqi Kurdistan, reported a 33 percent increase in its cash position at the end of the first quarter as proven resources and output potential improve.

Total current assets, including cash and cash equivalents as well as short-term investments, rose to $198.9 million as of March 31, from $149.2 million at the end of December, the Calgary, Alberta-based company said in a statement on Thursday. 

Last month, WesternZagros closed a private placement of 11.4 million common shares priced at $1.25, raising $14.3 million. In March, WesternZagros received $123 million through a debt and equity financing by existing shareholder Crest Energy International.

WesternZagros said Thursday that the total combined mean estimate of gross unrisked contingent resources at the Kurdamir and Garmian blocks is now 974 million barrels of oil equivalent and the total mean estimate of gross unrisked prospective resources is now 4.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

It added that the total combined mean estimate of gross unrisked contingent resources of the Kurdamir structure increased to 545 million barrels of oil in the Oligocene and Eocene reservoirs.

"Our twin goals of increasing proven resources and production potential are our main focus and the first quarter provided a solid start to the year," Chief Executive Officer Simon Hatfield said in the statement.

This year so far, the company has spud an appraisal well on one of its major discoveries and has spud the first well of a planned three-well shallow drilling program and is preparing to spud two more exploration wells, according to the statement.

"We remain very optimistic that the strength of our business model, the proven expertise of our personnel and the evolved efficiency of our drilling program will help us to achieve significant increases in our proven resource estimates throughout the rest of the year," Hatfield said.

Net loss for the three months that ended March 31 widened to $4.157 million from $1.997 million a year earlier. On a per-share basis, the net loss was unchanged at one penny a share compared with the year-earlier period, matching the average estimate of five analysts. 

WesternZagros shares rose 1.8 percent to C$1.14 at the market close in Toronto on Wednesday. The stock gained 4.6 percent since the beginning of the year through Wednesday, compared with a 23 percent loss for the juniorS&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (CVE:OSPVX).

The stock, with a market value of C$528.2 million, has 7 "buy", one "strong buy" and one "hold" recommendations from analysts.

FTSE 100 lost over 2% on a day, which saw it head in one direction only.

Temporary power provider Aggreko (LON:AGK) was among the losers, shedding 4.24%, while chip designer ARM (LON:ARM) also dropped 5.24%.

Food and ingredients giant Tate & Lyall (LON:TATE) was the biggest gainer, adding 1.63%.

Investors were put off by a combination of factors, including messages from the US about its bond-buying programme being tapered back and weak global data.

Analyst at CMC Markets Michael Hewson said: "When European markets opened this morning you could be forgiven for hearing a loud hissing sound as the air drained out of the strong rally we’ve seen unfold since the beginning of this month.

"This morning’s sharp drop on the Nikkei was certainly one catalyst, but it certainly wasn’t the only one as we saw the Japanese index plunge sharply in a fall that saw every constituent in the index close lower, the first time that this has happened since 2005."

But Hewson says today's drop has to be seen in the context of the market rise generally this year.

Similarly, the junior markets were down, with FTSE AIM All share down 8.32 to 724.77 and FTSE AIM 100 down 41.34 to 3331.12.

ON FTSE AIM 100, matchmaker Cupid (LON:CUP) had investors loving the shares as they rose 4.3%.

Among the small caps, a standout stock was Austria- focused gold explorer Noricum (LON:NMG), whose shares rose over 44%.

It repeated that it expects good results from this year’s drill campaign at Rotgulden in Austria.

The Austrian-focused gold explorer, which posted final results today, recently released very good grades from a review of historical assay results from Rotgulden, with grades including 4.6 m at 14.4g/t and high silver content.

Greg Kuenzel, Noricum’s managing director, said: “We have a fantastic project, we have supportive shareholders and operate in a very stable jurisdiction.”

Broker SP Angel said: “The drill plan and funds are in place. The high grades from assaying from the historical core supports our view that this brownfield project has good potential."

Meanwhile, shares in African Eagle Resources (LON:AFE) rose sharply for the third day in succession, after it emerged that Nicholas Clarke has lifted his stake above 3%. Shares rose 23.08%.

ZincOx Resources (LON:ZOX) was also up today -  19.68%. Andrew Woollett, chairman of the firm raised his stake yesterday to 3.65%.

Simon Hall, ZincOx’s finance director, also bought 65,000 shares at 16.84p each.

Other notable risers were Metminco (LON:MNC), up 3.44%, Mountfield Group (LON:MOGP), up 8.7%. Mwana Africa (LON:MWA) also rose 2.29%.

Potash developer Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) gained 3.03%. The firm revealed an objection to its potash project in the North York moors was to be removed.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) intends to remove the objection regarding the impact on the RAF Fylingdales facility in the area, said the firm.

The removal will follow the successful agreement of planning conditions between the MoD, the North York Moors National Park Authority (NYMNPA) and Sirius,  which will allow for an on-going programme of monitoring to ensure no impact on the facility, said Sirius.

Sunridge Gold Corp. (CVE:SGC) has added more good news to an already auspicious month with the completion of a mineral resource estimate for the Kodadu target on the company’s Asmara project in Eritrea, the sixth such mineral resource defined by the Vancouver-based exploration and development company on the property.

The announcement regarding the NI43-101 and JORC compliant estimate comes exactly a week after the mining junior released a feasibility study for the project that succeeded in bringing initial production forward by almost a year.

The freshly-defined resource includes an inferred mineral resource of 990,000 tonnes with an average grade of 1.24 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold and 1.6 g/t of silver, with 39,000 ounces of gold and 51,000 ounces of silver contained metal in the near surface oxide.

As a bonus, the freshly-defined Kodadu resource is less than 25 km from the planned central operating facility, as part of a plan announced a week before Thursday’s statement, when the company published the results of a feasibility study on four of the established deposits at the project that concluded the construction of a single centralized processing plant near the Emba Derho deposit would be the optimum economic scenario.

With deposit and initial metallurgical results suggesting gold from the sixth Kodadu resource could be successfully recovered from the mineralized material by standard heap-leaching methods, it is fortuitous that the mooted facility is already set to include a gold heap-leaching facility, meaning mineralized material from the new resource could also be processed.

With the resource estimate based on 36 drill holes, further drilling is planned to be carried out in 2013, as the resource area is open for expansion.

Indeed, drilling has intercepted additional copper-zinc, gold, and silver mineralization below the oxide zone, which is not part of the resource estimate. Future exploration drill programs are to attempt to further define and expand this zone, with a program of expansion drilling, trenching and local mapping and sampling planned for this year.

The fifth prospect, Adi Rassi, is also to be the target of more exploration in the next phase of drilling.  

“We have always said that the Asmara Project is very prolific and now we have six deposits so far and probably more to go!” said president and CEO of Sunridge, Michael Hopley, in a statement on Thursday. 

“This initial resource at Kodadu, although modest in size at the moment, could well boost our gold production from the planned heap-leach operation in the early years of production at the Asmara Mine.

"This initial mineral resource estimate for Kodadu is just for the near surface gold oxide mineralization based on thirty six drill holes completed by Sunridge and management believes that further drilling will significantly expand and upgrade the mineralization.”

The NI 43-101 compliant feasibility study for the property released mid-May, which was based on just four of the deposits, outlined a net present value of US$837 million, at a 10 per cent discount rate pre-tax, or US$443 million after tax. This compares with a pre-tax net present value of $555 million in the prefeasibility study released in May of 2012.

The internal rate of return (IRR) for the project was pegged at 34 per cent pre tax, or 27 per cent after tax, with a payback period of 4.6 years post tax. 

Like many of its peers, Silvercorp Metals (TSE:SVM)(NYSE:SVM) has posted fourth quarter results that reflect the current challenges facing the mining industry, but the China-focused silver producer says that it is implementing a new mining strategy at its core operations that will lead to lower total mining costs, with the company also forecasting higher ore production for its next fiscal year. 

For the three months that ended March 31, the miner reported net income attributable to equity holders of $6.4 million, or 4 cents per share, compared to a profit of $9.7 million, or 6 cents per share, a year earlier. 

The company said in a statement late Wednesday the decline was mainly due to lower base metal production, specifically lead and zinc, as well as a decrease in realized prices for silver and lead of 7 and 8 per cent, respectively, and an increase in production costs. 

Realized sales for the quarter were $33.1 million, down from $44.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. 

Cost of sales rose to $16.1 million from $14.3 million on an 11 per cent increase in ore production, with these latest figures including cash costs of $13.8 million. 

The company also said Wednesday that it re-negotiated contracts with eight mining contractors at its operations in China's Ying Mining District, with updated fees to reflect the change in mining strategy, which increases the use of "the lower cost shrinkage method" to 75 per cnet and reduces the use of the higher cost re-suing method to 25 per cent for expected ore production of 900,000 tonnes in fiscal 2014. 

The new contracts, which took longer than expected to negotiate and therefore impacted ore production, are expected to reduce total mining costs and increase mine life in the long term in the effort to combat increased labour costs in China, it added. The new strategy is also expected to take the company to up to a mining rate of 3,200 tonnes per day. 

Given the recent rout in precious metal prices, Silvercorp said it is currently reviewing its capex costs for fiscal 2014, as it looks for ways to reduce expenses and optimize the allocation of capital, including examining strategic options for non-core assets. 

In the fourth quarter, in the Ying Mining District in China, the company mined 153,323 tonnes of ore, compared to 135,748 tonnes in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012. 

Total production, however, which includes gold output from the BYP Mine in Hunan Province China, was 0.94 million ounces of silver, 2,333 ounces of gold, 9.8 million pounds of lead, and 1.9 million pounds of zinc. This compares to 1.1 million ounces of silver, 1,987 ounces of gold, 14.7 million pounds of lead and 2.9 million pounds of zinc a year ago. 

Silvercorp said that head grades at the Ying Mining District were lower for silver, lead and zinc as a result of the increased use of the shrinkage mining method, while cash mining costs were higher at $61.67 per tonne, compared to $57.62 a tonne in the fourth quarter of 2012. Cash costs per ounce of silver were $3.65 per ounce, versus negative $4.22 an ounce a year earlier. 

Gross profit margin fell to 52 per cent from 68 per cent in the year-ago period. 

Cash flow from operations, however - a key metric in the industry - rose to $14.8 million, or 9 cents per share, from $12.6 million, or 7 cents per share, in the equivalent quarter of 2012. 

The company, which began trial mining and processing of its GC mine in China in the past year, also declared a quarterly dividend to shareholders of $4.3 million, or 2.5 Canadian cents per share, to be paid on or before July 19. 

As of April this year, all contracts for mining at the Ying District had been renewed, and production has returned to levels required to reach its 2014 output forecast, Silvercorp said. Assuming all regulatory permits are in hand by the expected timeline of July, the GC mine is anticipated start proper production in the second half of this year, adding 740,000 ounces of silver output in fiscal 2014, which ends in March of next year. 

For the full year 2013, the company posted an adjusted profit of $36.9 million, or 22 cents per share, on sales of $181.6 million, and returned $17.1 million to shareholders in quarterly dividends. 

Shares of Silvercorp rose almost 3 per cent in Thursday morning trade, to $2.88, paring year-to-date losses. 

Mining stocks were in focus with Noricum Gold's (LON:NMG) shares soaring as it repeated that it expects good results from this year’s drill campaign at Rotgulden in Austria.

The Austrian-focused gold explorer, which posted final results today, recently released very good grades from a review of historical assay results from Rotgulden, with grades including 4.6 m at 14.4g/t and high silver content.

Greg Kuenzel, Noricum’s managing director, said: “We have a fantastic project, we have supportive shareholders and operate in a very stable jurisdiction.”

Broker SP Angel said: “The drill plan and funds are in place. The high grades from assaying from the historical core supports our view that this brownfield project has good potential.

“Once the drilling starts we expect a positive stream of newsflow. Austria appears to be a relatively good mining destination with many mines operating and a pragmatic approach to the industry.”

Meanwhile, potash developer Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) saw its shares lifted in afternoon trade after it revealed an objection to its potash project in the North York moors was to be removed.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) intends to remove the objection regarding the impact on the RAF Fylingdales facility in the area, said the firm.

Arian Silver (LON:AGQ CVE:AGQ) reported an increased net loss in its first quarter due to the suspension of milling at a former plant, but is making progress on buying its own plant.

It came as the Mexico-focused firm issued figures for its first quarter to March 31 this year, numbers, which it said reflected, the resumption of milling at a "third-party-owned, Juan Reyes toll mill".

Processing has now began at Juan Reyes - albeit on a small scale. No ore was mined in the quarter but 258 tonnes of material were milled.

In the three months, 878 ounces of silver were produced, compared to 66,688 ounces in the first quarter of 2012.

Arian also said it continues to make progress on buying its own custom processing plant, which has a crushing and milling capacity of up to 1,500 tonnes per day, and plans to update investors in coming weeks.

Sticking to the sector, EMED Mining (LON:EMED, TSE:EMD) told investors that the proposed restart of the Rio Tinto mine is still on track.

It said that production commissioning from the first mine is scheduled to start in mid-2014, and the operation will ramp up for a further 18 months after that.

The company also confirmed that the pending environmental sign off, in respect of the tailings management facilities, will be subject to the same conditions set out for the ‘administrative standing’ last month by the department of industry.

Shares in African Eagle Resources (LON:AFE) rose sharply for the third day in succession, after it emerged that Nicholas Clarke has lifted his stake above 3%.

Clarke, a director of Salkeld investments and Global Carbon trading, upped his stake earlier this week to 25.68mln African Eagle shares from 17.18mln.

He now holds 3.7% of the issued share capital, having previously been lurking below the 3% threshold that triggers the requirement to declare a shareholding.

In other news, East African oil and gas company Wentworth Resources (LON:WRL) revealed it is in talks with a strategic partner to provide it with debt financing.

A deal, which is expected to be agreed by the end of June, will see Wentworth meet its forecasts well into the fourth quarter of 2013.

“The company and its partners will be in discussions over the near term to firm up the 2013 and 2014 work programmes and establish a range of budget estimates,” said managing director Geoff Bury.

“Wentworth will continue to evaluate its funding requirements and will consider further financing options during the remainder of 2013.”

Atlantic Coal’s (LON:ATC) annual revenues rose sharply as production from its Stockton colliery in Pennsylvania hit record levels, though anthracite prices are softer this year, it said.

The US-based coal miner’s income rose by 41% in 2012 to US$19.7mln (US$14mln) as Stockton’s clean coal production rose 61% to 161,500 tons and average sale prices edged up to US$150.91 per ton (US$142.33).

Gross profits soared to US$4mln (from US$0.2mln), while pre-tax losses were reduced to US$2.7mln from US$3.1mln.

The miner would have been closer to break-even had it not been for costs of US$1.87mln for an option on a property Atlantic eventually decided not to take up.

It did take up its option over the nearby Pott and Bannon (P&B) site, which it believes will be transformational for the company. P&B, which cost £6mln, will add 4.1 million tonnes (Mt) of clean coal to Stockton’s saleable reserves of 1.7Mt.

Oracle Coalfields (LON:ORCP), the company that is hoping to mine coal in Pakistan, has published the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) on Block VI of the Thar coalfield.

The document has been submitted to SEPA (Sindh Environmental Protection Agency) as part of the approval process in Pakistan’s Sindh province, with a public hearing planned for the third quarter of 2013.

The ESIA has been prepared by Haggler Bailly PVT of Pakistan and Wardell Armstrong International to comply with the environmental legislation of Pakistan.

As with its baseline studies, Oracle believes that there should be no major impediments for the project.

Meanwhile, Andrew Woollett, chairman of ZincOx Resources (LON:ZOX), has shown his faith in the company by raising his stake to 3.65%.

Woollett bought 1.29mln shares at 15.525p each on 22 May.

Simon Hall, ZincOx’s finance director, also decided the shares were too good value to resist and bought 65,000 shares at 16.84p per share and plonked them in his pension fund.

Hall’s stake rose to 0.08% as a result of this transaction.

Spot gold was up by a healthy 1.2% by mid-afternoon, though at US$1,386 the price is still well below levels seen two weeks ago.

Bernanke’s remarks were open to different interpretations, with the Fed boss saying firstly that any move to end QE too early could lead to a stalling of the US economic recovery, but adding that the Fed could also slow down asset purchases “in the next few meetings”.

Economists now suggest the Fed’s interest rate meeting scheduled for September 17-18 may be the time that it decides to ease off the monetary accelerator, a timeframe that give the Fed some wiggle room if the US economy does turn down again.

The good news for the gold price was that Bernanke’s comment unsettled the dollar, which traditionally moves in the opposite direction. The US currency was weak against a basket of other currencies including sterling and the euro. More disappointing economic numbers coming out of China also knocked the dollar.

Manufacturing numbers fell for the first time in seven months raising doubts that China will be in a position to drag the US out of its slump.

Holding of gold in exchange traded funds have been steadily falling all year and were lower again yesterday. SPDR Trust, the world’s largest ETF, hit a four year low as more holders drifted away. Jewellery demand has also eased off after a surge when the gold price dropped to US$1,321 a month ago.

Elsewhere, silver rose US$0.22 to US$22.42, while platinum eased US$14 US$1451.

Major movers

Randgold Resources up 5p at 5.040p

Fresnillo up 2p at 1,078p

Anglo American down 85.5p at 1,568.5p

Investors looking to get back into the region should pile into Bridge Energy (LON:BRDG), whose shares are undervalued in the eyes of analysts at City broker Cenkos.

Ashley Kelty says that at 122p each – valuing the firm at £77mln – the shares don’t fairly reflect the value in the Bridge portfolio.

“The company remains undervalued relative to peers,” he said in a note.

According to Kelty, the AIM-quoted share offers “deep value” for investors.

Highlighting specific projects, he says the developments in the Vulcan area could prove to be transformational for the company, as could the recent discoveries in Norway.

“We see further high impact exploration wells in 2013, alongside progress on developments, as providing catalysts for further rerating of the shares in the coming months.”

The analyst repeated his ‘buy’ rating and 266p price target.

Broker Shore Capital said Condor Gold’s (LON:CNR) full-year results contained no surprises, but it was good to be reminded of the results of the PEA, which were ahead of the broker’s expectations in terms of production scale and mine life.

“We are of the opinion that there remains significant upside potential – we believe the prospects for the delineation of significant further resources at the various deposits to be good. Consequently, we continue to favour the shares,” Shore Capital said.

According to City broker SP Angel, Thursday’s statement suggested EMED Mining (LON:EMED) has now met the final conditions to ensure base-line production at its Rio Tinto copper mine.

“While this news is positive to the extent that the tailings conditions have been met there will be disappointment that the time line for permitting has slipped,” the broker, which rates EMED a ‘buy’, said in a note.

The same broker hailed assay results from Noricum Gold (LON:NMG).

Broker SP Angel said: “The high grades from assaying from the historical core supports our view that this brownfield project [Rotgulden] has good potential.

“Once the drilling starts we expect a positive stream of newsflow. Austria appears to be a relatively good mining destination with many mines operating and a pragmatic approach to the industry.”

Britvic’s (LON:BVIC) merger with fellow soft drinks company AG Barr (LON:BAG) may be on the rocks, but Canaccord Genuity still thinks it would be the perfect tonic for the Robinsons squash maker.

“Following the interims and strategy update, there is nothing that has changed our view that the merger with AG Barr makes commercial and strategic sense,” said analyst Wayne Brown.

Britvic is planning to axe up to 15% of its staff in a major reshuffle and while Brown agrees for the need for change, he claims the Britvic team have an unproven track record of delivering on big projects.

“The merger with AG Barr immediately infuses Britvic with the core values expressed in its strategy review, but brings with it a management team with a proven track record of delivering on large projects to support long term shareholder growth,” he said.

Brown suggests holding on to the shares for the time being. His target price of 380p implies they will fall more than 140p.

Shares in B&Q owner Kingfisher (LON:KGF) will trickle away this year, according to Sunita Entwisle at Nomura.

She believes the stock has performed so well over the past month that it can’t possible keep up the run.

Part of the reason behind the share price rise is all the talk surrounding Help-to-Buy – George Osborne’s scheme to boost the housing market.

Entwisle reckons the impact of Help-to-Buy has been overblown and we will not in fact see a sharp rise in DIY activity.

“We note that recent new-build optimism from housebuilders will not benefit DIY retailers extensively, so think excessive enthusiasm for read-across to housing transactions is a little early,” she said.

There are better opportunities elsewhere, such as Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS), she concluded.

Ask Panmure Gordon’s analysts what they think about the retail sector and they would tell you not to invest in Mothercare (LON:MTC).

They reasserted their ‘sell’ stance today on the back of its preliminary results, urging those with shares to make some money now before they see a change in fortunes.

“Today’s results are an opportunity to take profits, in our view, especially given that the current trading comment is far from bullish and the fact that consensus is expected to be unchanged also,” said analyst Jean Roche.

“We continue to believe that Mothercare will struggle to break even in the UK according to its own timetable (FY2015), and that investors would be better placed investing in lower risk options such as Dunelm (rated Buy, net cash), Ted Baker (rated Hold), Thorntons (Buy) or Majestic Wine (Buy).”

BNP Exane Paribas’s analysis of the battle of the big chip designers threw up some interesting conclusions.

ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) was miles ahead of its rivals in the smartphone race, with former chip designing supremo Intel lagging behind.

But Exane believes Intel’s processors are now very competitive and not that far behind ARM’s mobile chips.

The arrival of its new processor platform could even end ARM’s monopoly on smartphones and especially on tablets – a bold claim indeed from the broker.

“At the same time, ARM’s chances of breaking into the PC/servers market remain slim and its revenue opportunities are limited,” it added.

Beating market expectations is becoming an increasingly difficult task for the company behind the iPad chip, prompting Exane’s downgrade to ‘neutral’.

Deutsche Bank does not see enough reason to buy FirstGroup (LON:FGP) shares yet. But that didn’t stop the broker from lifting the bus-to-rail group off its ‘sell’ list.

The slump following the recent rights issue has taken some risk out of the stock, but there is still not enough in the investment case to attract Deutsche.

Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) shares were lifted this afternoon after it revealed an objection to its potash project in the North York moors was to be removed.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) intends to remove the objection regarding the impact on the RAF Fylingdales facility in the area, said the firm.

The removal will follow the successful agreement of planning conditions between the MoD, the North York Moors National Park Authority (NYMNPA) and Sirius,  which will allow for an on-going programme of monitoring to ensure no impact on the facility, said Sirius.

Sirius managing director and chief executive Chris Fraser said: "We welcome the MoD's intention to remove the objection following the submission of extra technical information showing that RAF Fylingdales will not be affected by the York Potash Project impact.

"Planning conditions are a sensible way to ensure important consultees are given comfort on our on-going commitment to the issues they raise, without incurring unnecessary delays."

Sirius shares gained over 4% in afternoon trade to stand at 25.5p each.

Shares in Noricum Gold (LON:BMG) jumped higher as it repeated that it expects good results from this year’s drill campaign at Rotgulden in Austria.

The Austrian-focused gold explorer recently released very good grades from a review of historical assay results from Rotgulden, with grades including 4.6 m at 14.4g/t and high silver content.

Greg Kuenzel, Noricum’s managing director, said that the drill campaign had started later than expected due to extreme bad weather in Austria.

In spite of this, he said Noricum has still made a lot of progress with the local communities, government and still had money in the bank and the remains optimistic.

“We have a fantastic project, we have supportive shareholders and operate in a very stable jurisdiction.”

He added that when Noricum started the project, gold was still only US$850-900 per ounce and it was still very profitable then, so the recent moves in gold price would not affect it.

An electro-magnetic survey last year identified 40 new targets, which will be the focus of multiple drill campaigns. This includes underground resource drilling at Rotgülden and a surface drill programme designed to test the Altenberg target at depth.

Rotgülden is one of five wholly owned Austrian assets held by the company. It is the company’s main focus, though it has also received encouraging results from Schonberg located approximately 100km to the east.

Noricum added that exploration at Rotgülden continues to generate fantastic high-grade, widespread results on a regional scale, indicating the prolific nature of the mineralisation in south-central Austria.

“This has provided us with a solid basis for growth and we are confident that our forthcoming activities will be value accretive as we define a maiden resource at Rotgülden and anticipate testing the mineralisation at Altenberg at depth.“

Noricum said that the areas it is exploring have not previously been tested using modern exploration techniques.

The group posted a loss of £790,000 in 2012 (2011: £597,000). Its cash position was £1.6mln at the end of the year and stands at £1.3mln currently.

Broker SP Angel said: “The drill plan and funds are in place. The high grades from assaying from the historical core supports our view that this brownfield project has good potential.

“Once the drilling starts we expect a positive stream of newsflow. Austria appears to be a relatively good mining destination with many mines operating and a pragmatic approach to the industry.”

Shares rose 36% to today to 0.611p.

Shares on Wall Street were falling in early deals as investors reacted further to the Fed's potential decision on bond buying.

Yesterday, Bernanke's comments that the US central bank could shortly taper the programme sent equities reeling and the sell- off continues globally Thursday - not aided by weak Chinese manufacturing data that emerged.

Japan's Nikkei 225 plummeted over 7% - the largest single-day decline since the tsunami in 2011.

The Dow Jones fell 84 to 15,223, while the tech heavy Nasdaq lost 17 points.  The broader S&P 500 lost 13 to stand at 1,642.

It came despite US new home sales figures which beat expecations and a fall in weekly jobless claims for the week to May 18.

On S&P, the top loser was Cliffs Natural Resources, which shed 3.8% 

In the UK, Footsie was also tumbling rapidly, losing 160, or 2.34%, to stand at 6,679.

Matt Basi, Head of UK Sales at CMC Markets, said: “Equity markets are taking a well-earned breather this morning after the latest Fed minutes sparked speculation that Chairman Bernanke’s asset purchase programme could dry up as soon as June of this year – though earlier assurances from the Fed chief suggested the taps will be left on whilst the recovery remains fragile.”

Miners fell to the bottom of the pile as a result. Anglo American (LON:AAL), the world’s largest producer of platinum, fell 5.14% as the platinum price took a beating, while copper producer Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) tumbled 4.4%.

Banks also suffered following Bernanke’s remarks and on the prospect of slower growth in China.

ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) was the bottom feeder on the Footsie for the second lunchtime in a row. The iPad chip designer has been the subject of much scrutiny from the City following its analyst day. Today BNP Exane Paribas joined the crowd as it downgraded the shares as it sees growing competition from US tech company Intel.

Things were worse on the second tier, which fell back below the 14,500 mark. Salamander Energy (LON:SMDR) slumped 20% when one of its Indonesian wells came out with some disappointing results.

Bike-to-car parts retailer Halfords (LON:HFD) rode  nearly15% lower after a big fall in profits, as well as a dividend cut of a third.

St James’s Place (LON:STJ) lost 10% as Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) sold another stake in the wealth manager, having claimed it would not do so.

Shares in bus-to-rail company FirstGroup (LON:FGP) put on the brakes for another session. They have fallen almost 40% this week after it unveiled a huge rights issue.

Other big fallers were online gambling company 888 Holdings (LON:888), down 6%, Debenhams (LON:DEB), down 3.6%, and pub operator Mitchells & Butlers (LON:MAB), whose results left investors in need of a stiff drink.

Elsewhere, shares in JKX Oil & Gas (LON:JKX) rose despite Eclairs Group stepping up its charge to remove the management.

It said the 88% share price fall, the 39% production decline and the collapse of profitability are the reasons behind the need for change at the top.

On AIM, Noricum Gold (LON:NMG) shone 44.44% higher as managing director Greg Kuenzel told investors to expect more good results this year from its Rotgulden gold prospect in Austria.

“We are confident that our Rotgülden Gold and Precious Metal Project provides us with unique exposure to a new high grade gold province and we look forward to a productive field season in 2013,” he said.

African Eagle Resources (LON:AFE) flew up nearly 35 % after Salkeld Investments raised its stake in the nickel company.

Lochard Energy (LON:LHD) meanwhile fell 11.36% after growing North Sea oil firm Parkmead (LON:PMG) agreed a £14.5mln deal to take it over.

The all-paper deal will give Parkmead a 10% stake in the Ithaca Energy-operated Athena oil field, which began production last year and currently yields up to 11,000 barrels per day (gross).

This will represent 400% increase in Parkmead’s production, and it also adds 2.3mln barrels of oil reserves. And the cash flows from Athena will help fund the development of Parkmead’s other assets. Parkmead shares remained unchanged at 12.75p each.

Oil prices tumbled on Thursday as traders caught a dose of the jitters after the previously range bound market was injected with uncertainty. 

In London trading, Brent crude futures slipped below US$101, losing US$1.80 to US$100.80. And America’s West Texas Intermediary futures shed over US$2  to US$92.40. 

The US Federal Reserve yesterday warned that the US central bank could shortly taper stimulus programmes. 

It is thought that Ben Bernanke’s asset purchase programme could dry up as soon as June. 

And without fresh funds it is feared that America’s economic recovery could stall, which would in turn cap oil demand. 

Meanwhile, in the more immediate future, US oil consumption is already weighing on prices. 

The report from the Energy Department showed that crude stockpiles reduced by just over 300,000 barrels, which fell short of expectations. Previously, on Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute revealed in its data that crude stockpiles had increase by more than 500,000 barrels. 

Crucially gasoline stockpiles stand at their highest levels for almost 15 years, with a surprise 3mln increase just days before the start of the US ‘driving season’ – which is considered to get underway from the Memorial Day holiday (which is this weekend). 

At the same time sentiment regarding China is faltering also, as a survey, from HSBC, indicated that manufacturing activity in the world’s fastest growing superpower fell for the first time in seven months. 

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke had shares flying high yesterday after he appeared to encourage more asset purchases, but his comments that the US central bank could shortly taper the programme gave the bears the ascendancy, and sent equities reeling.

Matt Basi, Head of UK Sales at CMC Markets, said: “Equity markets are taking a well-earned breather this morning after the latest Fed minutes sparked speculation that chairman Bernanke’s asset purchase programme could dry up as soon as June of this year – though earlier assurances from the Fed chief suggested the taps will be left on whilst the recovery remains fragile.”

And this was very much the way it panned out. Global shares shot up yesterday as Bernanke continued to back bond buying, but were subsequently knocked off their perch as Bernanke went on to suggest the Fed could lift its foot off the pedal soon.

Disappointing manufacturing figures from China compounded the Footsie’s woes, dragging the index down 1.9% to 6,707.

According to a survey from HSBC, manufacturing activity in the world’s fastest growing superpower fell for the first time in seven months.

Miners fell to the bottom of the pile as a result. Anglo American (LON:AAL), the world’s largest producer of platinum, fell 4.6% as the platinum price took a beating, while copper producer Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) tumbled by the same amount.

Banks also suffered following Bernanke’s remarks and on the prospect of slower growth in China.

ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) was the bottom feeder on the Footsie for the second lunchtime in a row. The iPad chip designer has been the subject of much scrutiny from the City following its analyst day. Today, BNP Exane Paribas joined the crowd as it downgraded the shares as it sees growing competition from US tech company Intel.

Things were worse on the second tier, which fell back below the 14,500 mark. Salamander Energy (LON:SMDR) slumped 20% when one of its Indonesian wells came out with some disappointing results.

Bike-to-car parts retailer Halfords (LON:HFD) rode 15% lower after a big fall in profits, as well as a dividend cut of a third.

St James’s Place (LON:STJ) lost 10% as Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) sold another stake in the wealth manager, having claimed it would not do so.

Shares in bus-to-rail company FirstGroup (LON:FGP) put on the brakes for another session. They have fallen almost 40% this week after it unveiled a huge rights issue.

Other big fallers were online gambling company 888 Holdings (LON:888), down 6%, Debenhams (LON:DEB), down 3.6%, and pub operator Mitchells & Butlers (LON:MAB), whose results left investors in need of a stiff drink.

Elsewhere, shares in JKX Oil & Gas (LON:JKX) rose despite Eclairs Group stepping up its charge to remove the management.

It said the 88% share price fall, the 39% production decline and the collapse of profitability are the reasons behind the need for change at the top.

On AIM, Noricum Gold (LON:NMG) was 59% higher as managing director Greg Kuenzel told investors to expect more good results this year from its Rotgulden gold prospect in Austria.

“We are confident that our Rotgülden Gold and Precious Metal Project provides us with unique exposure to a new high grade gold province and we look forward to a productive field season in 2013,” he said.

African Eagle Resources (LON:AFE) flew up 23% after Salkeld Investments raised its stake in the nickel company.

Lochard Energy (LON:LHD), meanwhile, fell 14% after growing North Sea oil firm Parkmead (LON:PMG) agreed a £14.5mln deal to take it over.

The all-paper deal will give Parkmead a 10% stake in the Ithaca Energy-operated Athena oil field, which began production last year and currently yields up to 11,000 barrels per day (gross).

This will represent 400% increase in Parkmead’s production, and it also adds 2.3mln barrels of oil reserves. And the cash flows from Athena will help fund the development of Parkmead’s other assets. Parkmead shares remained unchanged at 12.75p each.

Arian Silver (LON:AGQ CVE:AGQ) reported an increased net loss in its first quarter due to the suspension of milling at a former plant, but is making progress on buying its own plant.

It came as the Mexico-focused firm issued figures for its first quarter to March 31 this year, numbers, which it said reflected, the resumption of milling at a "third-party-owned, Juan Reyes toll mill".

Processing has now began at Juan Reyes - albeit on a small scale. No ore was mined in the quarter but 258 tonnes of material were milled.

In the three months, 878 ounces of silver were produced, compared to 66,688 ounces in the first quarter of 2012.

The firm posted a net loss of US$935,000 for the period, compared to a profit of US$866 in the first three months of 2012.

Arian also said it continues to make progress on buying its own custom processing plant, which has a crushing and milling capacity of up to 1,500 tonnes per day, and plans to update investors in coming weeks.

It is now assessing financing packages, which, if successful could enable significant investment in the purchase and re-commissioning of such a plant.

Chief executive officer Jim Williams said of today's figures: "Whilst initial recovery rates are encouraging, the board is mindful of the current silver price and is keeping this under close review."

In March this year, Arian agreed terms to buy its own plant for its San Jose mine in Zacatecas, Mexico called the El Bote Mill, which has capacity to treat up to 1,500 tonnes per day of silver-lead-zinc ore.

Processing at Juan Reyes has continued into the second quarter, albeit on a small scale, and a total of 1,823 tonnes have been processed during the first seven weeks of the second quarer. 

"This is more conservative than initial estimates, and reflects the on-going adjustments to refine the operations and processes, as well as the volatility of the silver price and management's future expectations," Arian said.

"The commencement of processing at the Juan Reyes toll mill puts Arian back into the ranks of silver producers. However, this new toll mill arrangement should be regarded as only a stepping-stone towards the company acquiring its own processing plant.

 "A plant has been identified and the company is in discussions regarding its acquisition, which, if successful should eventually allow the company to realise economies of scale in both mining and milling operations, resulting in greater production and increased operating efficiencies," it added.

Shares dipped to stand at 5.50p.

The two companies are hooking up to exploit oilfield development opportunities in Trinidad and Tobago.

Earlier in the day, prior to the Maxim Resources announcement in Toronto, Leni Gas’s chief executive, Neil Ritson, said at the firm’s annual general meeting: “The board and I are delighted with the position we have now managed to obtain in the onshore Trinidad oil belt and we see this, supported by our position in Spain, as providing the springboard for future growth.”

“The focus on Trinidad is already showing good results and as we broaden and deepen our exposure to that market I expect this trend to be maintained,” Ritson said.

Clarke, a director of Salkeld investments and Global Carbon trading, upped his stake earlier this week to 25.68mln African Eagle shares from 17.18mln.

He now holds 3.7% of the issued share capital, having previously been lurking below the 3% threshold that triggers the requirement to declare a shareholding.

The 3% threshold was crossed on Monday, 20 May. Shares in African Eagle closed on Monday at 0.28p, rose to 0.48p on Tuesday, then 0.65p on Wednesday. In lunch-time trading on Thursday the shares were up 15.4% to 0.75p.

A number of deals in 2012 – among them Cairn’s buyout of Nautical Petroleum for over £400mln – sparked renewed interest in the region.

But since then, North Sea M&A activity has died down, with the exception of Ithaca Energy’s (LON:IAE) £200mln swoop for Valiant Petroleum in March.

Today though, all eyes were back on the story, with energy giant SSE (LON:SSE) also declaring its interest in the North Sea, which it said provides a “relatively stable tax and fiscal regime and is near our domestic supply market”.

Parkmead is taking a 10% stake in the Ithaca Energy-operated Athena oil field, which began production last year and currently yields up to 11,000 barrels per day (gross).

This will represent a 400% increase in Parkmead’s production and also adds 2.3mln barrels of oil reserves. The cash flows from Athena will help fund the development of Parkmead’s other assets.

Through the all-paper deal, which values Lochard at 4.9p, investors will receive 0.385 Parkmead shares for every Lochard share they own.

Parkmead already has approvals accounting for about 40% of Lochard’s shares, after a number of major shareholders backed the proposal.

Parkmead shares edged lower on the news to 12.4p each, while Lochard’s dropped further still, down as much as 20% on Thursday.

Noricum Gold (LON:NMG) shone 80% brighter as it told investors it expects more good results this year from multiple drill campaigns underway at its Rotgulden gold prospect in Austria.

Greg Kuenzel, Noricum Gold's managing director, said: “We are confident that our Rotgülden Gold and Precious Metal Project provides us with unique exposure to a new high grade gold province and we look forward to a productive field season in 2013.

“This will be characterised by multiple drill campaigns including underground resource drilling at Rotgülden and a surface drill programme designed to test the Altenberg target at depth.”

Rotgülden is one of five wholly owned Austrian assets held by the company. Rutgulden is the main focus, but it has also received encouraging results from Schonberg located approximately 100km to the east.

Elsewhere, EMED Mining (LON:EMED), which is waiting on the environmental sign-off for its Rio Tinto mine, told investors that its proposed restart is still on track.

It said that production commissioning from the first mine is scheduled to start in mid-2014, and the operation will ramp up for a further 18 months after that.

“While this news is positive to the extent that the tailings conditions have been met there will be disappointment that the time line for permitting has slipped,” the broker, which rates EMED as a ‘buy’, said in a note.

Shares slipped 14% to below 7p each.

African Eagle Resources (LON:AFE) caught the eye, with its shares flying 23% higher after Salkeld Investments raised its stake in the nickel company.

Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) has once again cut its holding in wealth manager St James’s Place (LON:STJ) – a move that sent the shares of the latter down more than 10%.

As at the year-end - March 31 - Labrador Iron Mines' total measured and indicated resource stood at 59.5 million tonnes at 56.7% iron, representing a 33% increase from the same date a year earlier.

This included a new measured and indicated resource for the Houston 1, 2 and 3 deposits and the Malcolm-1 deposit, which combined make up the second stage of LIM's planned mining operations.

Overall, the stage 2 Houston and Malcolm deposits are estimated to contain 40.6 million tonnes of measured and indicated resource grading 57.6% iron, Anglesey said.

Also, LIM published an initial mineral resource for selected historical stockpiles, which totalled 3.5 million tonnes of indicated resource at 49.1% iron and 2.9 million tonnes of inferred grading 48.8% iron.

LIM, which is Canada's newest iron ore producer, began first production at the James Mine in the summer of 2011.

It is now in its third year of operations, targeting 1.75 to 2.0 million tonnes of saleable iron ore production in 2013.

Anglesey shares rose 7.81% to stand at 8.625p.

Kincora is the sole owner of the Bronze Fox, Northern Fox and Tourmaline Hill copper-gold licences in Oyu Tolgoi.

The licences cover a total area of 60,000 hectares, of which the flagship Bronze Fox’s licence area covers over 22,000 hectares and has approximately 100 drill holes completed to date.

Exploration work is ongoing and the company screens well on the basis of relative valuation, strategy to add value at the project level while remaining funded into 2014, and the recently adopted remuneration policy for directors, said ResCap.

Investment in copper exploration and development into Mongolia from both major mining companies and investors has continued despite changes of government and recent mining legislation.

Four separate financings have been completed in the junior copper exploration space over the past six months underlining that the country remains a high priority global copper destination, said the broker.

Turquoise Hill, the separately listed Rio Tinto subsidiary that is developing the huge Oyu Tolgoi mine, is the barometer for Mongolian copper equities and has rallied 50% since its recent lows of mid-April.

On Kincora, ResCap said: “With a significant mineralised system confirmed, prospective for an economic copper porphyry ore body(s) and smaller scale oxide development potential, Kincora is an appealing advanced exploration play offering an attractive risk reward scenario skewed to the upside in our opinion.”

At a current market capitalisation of C$8m, ResCap rates Kincora as a speculative buy.

The plan is to learn and move on from the experience, according to managing director Ron Miller, who has been charged with turning around the fortunes of the explorer.

Oilex’s main project is in Gujarat’s Cambay Basin, where the group is the first in India to deploy the horizontal drilling and fracking techniques used in North America to exploit unconventional oil and gas.

Its Cambay 76H well came as close as you possibly can to banking a winner, but you get nothing in the binary world of oil and gas for coming close.

Technical issues rather than geological problems were to blame, according to Miller, who brought in independent consultants to reveal where Oilex went wrong last time and importantly how it can avoid future mistakes.

“The problem probably began when we fractured the well,” Miller explained.

“We appear to have accessed natural fractures that probably opened up a connection to a deeper reservoir that was far higher pressure.

“That probably caused a collapse and a mechanical failure of the casing, which resulted in us suspending the well.

“That was really unfortunate and we took a big hit in the marketplace for that.”

The share price chart bears out this last point.

Attempts to remedy the situation led to significant cost overruns in for Cambay 76.

Armed with what this has taught the team, Miller and his colleagues have designed Cambay 77H as an offset well.

And they already know there is gas and gas condensates there. “During the course of drilling of Cambay-76H we actually had well control issues. So, we were flowing hydrocarbons to surface and flaring them,” said Miller.

“This clearly demonstrated to us there was not a problem with the geology to deliver oil and gas out of these wells.”

As important as the presence of hydrocarbons is, the absence of formation water. It is a “key positive” for tight reservoir projects of this kind, said the Oilex MD.

The next task is to select a drill rig and crew to carry out the work on Cambay 77. If all goes to plan, the group could be producing gas by the year-end, Miller confirmed.

Success with the drill-bit would provide a huge boost to sentiment as it would prove definitively the group has the technical wherewithal to tap Cambay’s potential.

“The issue is not whether the oil or gas is there,” Miller said.

“The issue is whether we can transfer the technology from the United States into India and use it to get commercial flow rates.

“Our expectation is, based on the experience of Cambay-76H and all the research done over the last five years, it is eminently achievable.

“The resource has been identified as being discovered by the independent reserves certifier.

“So they have categorised oil and gas contained in the X and Y zones (Eocene  formation)  as Contingent Resources according to the SPE Guidelines. This means it is discovered but there is some geological risk with respect to deliverability.

“But there’s no geological risk in their minds with respect to actually being able to identify the hydrocarbons and their distribution.”

According to an independent audit Cambay has an unrisked 167mln barrels of oil equivalent (half gas, half liquid), or 76mln barrels net to Oilex, which holds 45% of the asset.

Its local joint venture partner is GSPC, one of India’s leading oil and gas explorers, which also owns the nearby gas grid.

This access to infrastructure will be handy when it comes to developing Cambay, though there is the potential initially, at least, to sell its output “off-spec”.

The next well is budgeted to cost US$10-12mln, or around US$5mln net to Oilex. The latest quarterly filing reveals the group had around A$5.8mln at the end of March.

Funds will be needed to embark on the next phase of development – a further five wells.

“Everyone is watching us with keen eyes in India,” said Miller.

“Our expectation is success at Cambay-77H, which together with five other contingent wells will demonstrate repeatability and we believe that a range of opportunities will open up.”

This may allow the group to farm down its interests, and Miller adds he and the Oilex team have already identified “other areas we might want to get into”.

However, the blue-sky opportunity is provided by its acreage in Western Australia’s hugely prospective Canning Basin.

Its entry to the area was also low-cost as this particular fairway was missed by the first wave of explorers. Interest in the basin is such that the likes of PetroChina, ConocoPhillips and Hess have invested heavily to get in on the action.

“We obviously realise that Cambay is the asset that is closest to production and therefore of great interest to the joint venture and the Government of India,” said Miller.

“It allows Oilex to maintain our emphasis on self-sustaining cash flow and reserve growth, which enhances the value to shareholders.

“But from our perspective we need something beyond Cambay, and we knew the Canning Basin and other parts of Australia could be interesting. There may some geological similarities with Cambay.”

However, the Oilex boss points out that while Cambay is 160 square kilometres, the new asset is on an entirely different scale at 11,400 square kilometres, with competitive tenders made for a further 6,400 kilometres.

However, the Australian asset is also “very low on the maturity scale”, said Miller.

“We are planning for the first phase of work in the Canning to be carried out later this year. It probably won’t be done until Cambay-77H is drilled.”

At the current price of 6 cents a share the market is significantly underrating Oilex’s potential – and perhaps that is understandable given the company’s track record and the significant cost to get this far.

Even so, the current bargain-basement valuation will look laughable if Oilex is able to unlock the full potential of Cambay.

RFC Ambrian in a recent note reckons the Indian assets could be worth north of US$200mln once developed.

The broker’s price target is 12.8 cents a share and ascribes little or no value to the company’s other assets.

“The market has been unduly influenced by the ultimately unsuccessful Cambay-76H well,” said analyst Emily Ashford.

“However, management has changed and lessons have been learnt since that well.”

The company announced earlier this week that it has hedged a further 96,000 ounces of production for delivery in the April – June quarter of next year at a price of US$1,408 an ounce which, in the words of Canaccord Genuity analyst Peter Malin-Jones, “shows management is not trapped in the headlights”.

“Combined with the prior hedge (400koz at US$1,663/oz to March 2014), US$150M capex deferral and cost cutting it shows management is feeling the pressure of lower gold prices but that it is also actively trying to manage the situation,” Malin-Jones said.

“We believe the market is not looking beyond the 2013 financials and therefore is unwilling to pay for the likely large uplift in EBITDA [underlying earnings] in 2014 on 2013 as production reverts to 100% mined output versus some high cost stockpiled ore,” he added.

The broker remains confident that management will be able to renegotiate temporary waivers to its debt covenants and to refinance its convertible bonds.

It also expects a strong rebound in EBITDA in 2014 as production costs return to a more normal level.

“It is this cost recovery that gives us the confidence to believe POG’s lenders will likely permit a covenant waiver. We have adjusted our estimates to reflect the impact of the extra hedging programme,” the broker said in a note that reiterated a ‘buy’ recommendation, though the target price has been lowered to 340p.

Copper $7,287/t – prices fall $190/t on yesterday as Chinese move to control capital inflows

• Traders reckon the Chinese move to control capital inflows will end the use of Copper for interest rate arbitrage.

• The move could unlock as much as 250,000t of physical copper, representing around 5% of global supply.

• Making this copper available should conveniently fill a hole left by problems at Bingham canyon, Grasberg and with a shortfall in copper scrap supply.

• We expect any surplus in the physical market to be short lived.

Grasberg – death toll rises to 28 out of 38 in the tunnel in one of Indonesia’s worst mining disasters

• Mine will not reopen till the investigation is complete

• The investigation is expected to take days rather than weeks and is said to be costing the mine around $15m a day in lost production

• The tunnel was used for training and was some way away from the main mining operations

Bernanke – long term outlook for the USA

• Ben Bernanke has given a hugely bullish speech about the longer term future for the US.

• Bernanke talks of great innovation, technological advance, transforming technologies and their impact on economic growth.

• The speech is well worth a read.

• http://www.businessinsider.com/ben-bernanke-commencement-speech-2013-5

Economic View

US - In testimony to Congress, Ben Bernanke said monthly bond purchases may slow down “in the next few meetings” should labour market continue to improve. The Fed Chairman indicated purchases may be increased again if the outlook worsens.

• “If we see continued improvement and we have confidence that that is going to be sustained, then in the next few meetings, we could take a step down in our pace of purchases. If we do that, it would not mean that we are automatically aiming towards a complete wind-down,” Bernanke said.

• Existing home sales increased to the highest reading in more than three years in Apr and prices gained 11%yoy, the fifth consecutive month that real estate prices grow more than 10%yoy.

• Previously owned houses grew 0.6%mom to 4.97m units (annualised) led by improving labour market and record low borrowing costs.

• Market reports suggest property inventories were at the lowest level for any Apr (a month when housing stock typically increases as families prepare to relocate before the next school year) since 2001.

• Share of foreclosures and distressed sales dropped to 18% of the total, the lowest since first data was prepared in Oct 2008.

• Reports today may show Apr new home sales climbed to the highest since 2009 (425k vs 417k in Mar), initial jobless claims fell to 345k in the week ended May 18, down from 360k in the previous week, and May manufacturing PMI declined slightly but remained above 50 indicating growth in the sector (51.2 versus 52.1 in Apr).

China - Preliminary manufacturing PMI released this morning came in at 49.6 in May, the lowest in seven months, compared to 50.4 recorded in Apr and forecast.

• A reading below 50 indicates contraction.

• A decline is reported to be driven by a fall in domestic demand amid weaker new order and employment, rather than slowing export markets.

• The National Development and Reform Commission will tighten bond sale rules for local governments with debt ratios above 65% and credit ratings below AA+.

• The NDRC issues approvals for bond placements by firms set up by local administrations to finance projects as governments are not allowed to borrow directly.

• The commission will “appropriately control the size and speed” of bond issuance by entities in the relevant category.

Euro zone - Manufacturing and services PMIs released this morning showed the activity in the euro area were in contraction in May.

• Manufacturing PMI came in at 47.8 versus 46.7 in Apr and 47.0 expected.

• Services PMI stood at 47.5 versus 47.0 in Apr and 47.2 forecast.

Japan - Nikkei 225 index fell more than 7% today following a 6-month rally as Ben Bernanke signalled the pace of the US$85bnpm asset purchases “in the next few meetings” and a private estimate of Chinese manufacturing PMI came in worse than expected suggesting the sector contracted in May.

South Africa - Labour unions at state-controlled Eskom filed their pay demands ahead of this year’s salary negotiations. Unions to be involved in negotiations are the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and Solidarity.

• Numsa demanded average monthly wage increases ranging from R3,00 to R3,500 and personal housing loans upped from R75,000 to R120,000.

US$1.2865/eur vs 1.2926/eur yesterday. Yen 101.91/$ vs 102.64/$. SAr  9.648/$ vs 9.551/$. $1.504/gbp vs 1.515/gbp

Commodity News

Precious:

Gold US$1,379/oz vs US$1,389/oz yesterday - Prices are up this morning on speculation Fed will keep its monthly bond buying programme in place.

• Gold production in Russia climbed 4.4%yoy to 35.2t in Q1 this year, Russian Gold Union said.

• SPDR gold holdings declined to 1,020t (32,796koz), the lowest since Feb 2009, valued at US$46.178bn from 1,023t (32,893koz) yesterday. 

Platinum US$1,463/oz vs US$1,470/oz yesterday

Palladium US$741/oz vs US$751/oz yesterday

Silver US$22.34/oz vs US$22.70/oz yesterday

Base metals:

Copper US$ 7,279/t vs US$7,472/t yesterday - Copper is off today on the back of poor preliminary manufacturing data in China suggesting economic growth and copper demand may slow down further this year.

• Copper market recorded a 252,700t surplus in Q1 this year, compared to a 192,000 shortage last year. (WBMS)

Aluminium US$ 1,855/t vs US$1,872/t yesterday

Nickel US$ 14,904/t vs US$15,164/t yesterday

Zinc US$ 1,847/t vs US$1,869/t yesterday

Lead US$ 2,019/t vs US$2,061/t yesterday

Tin US$ 21,138/t vs US$21,400/t yesterday

Energy:

Oil US$101.7/bbl vs US$103.3/bbl yesterday

Natural Gas US$4.218/mmbtu vs US$4.218/mmbtu yesterday

Uranium US$40.40 (close 22/05/13) unchanged on the previous close

Other:

Iron ore 62% Fe spot (cfr Tianjin) US$123.2/t (close 22/05/13) vs US$123.6/t (close 21/05/13)

Company News

Afferro Mining (LON:AFF) – Quarterly Update

• The loss for the quarter was $0.8m compared with a loss of $1.9m for the previous period as professional fees and staff costs were reduced.

• Cash and cash equivalents stood at $7m as a result of investing $51m in short term investments.

• Short term investments stood at $77m at the end of the quarter giving cash and short term investment equal to $84m.

• The budget set for 2013 is $16m.

• The cumulative deferred spend across all three projects stands at $48.4m with Nkout accounting for 86% of the total expenditure.

• The key strategic objective of the group is to satisfy the conditions required for the completion of the IMIC acquisition of the company.

• Operational goals were to update and upgrade the resource at Nkout from inferred to indicated and define more DSO and SAP, start the PFS and ESIA for the Nkout project and progress the framework agreement with the Govt of Cameroon.

Conclusion: This quarterly update is largely historic in the context of the agreement between IMIC and Afferro management to proceed with the revised offer from IMIC of 120 pence which is a combination of cash of 80 pence and a convertible bond of 40 pence. The total value of the offer is £126m based on 105m shares outstanding. The current market value reflects mainly the cash element of the offer. IMIC had confirmed that it has $100m in place or around £66.7m – this support 80% of the cash element of the bid. 

EMED Mining (LON:EMED) – Update on Permitting

• The company has completed the design work to satisfy the conditions for the tailings management facility (TMF).

• This is the main outstanding item holding up the environmental permit which precedes getting the administrative standing (AS) for the mine to be restarted.

• The conditions for the tailings management facility have been met following reviews by the two principle regulators, the Andalucian Government and the Departments of Industry and Environment as well as CEDEX who is the government’s independent expert.

• The main refinements to the tailings facility set out by the regulators relate to:

o restricting the existing dam wall to the previously permitted height

o the transition to high density tailings to reduce water

o the progressive sealing of the surface of the tailings deposit during operations

o sufficient holding capacity to support the initial base line production plans.

• Permitting is now expected at the end of Q3 2013.

• The project timetable has been adjusted to meet the current timetable to start commissioning in mid-2014.

Conclusion: The update on permitting suggests that the final conditions for the tailings management facility have been met to ensure base line production. This is the final requirement for environmental permitting to be received. While this news is positive to the extent that the tailings conditions have been met there will be disappointment that the time line for permitting has slipped. Against this backdrop,  the schedule for re-start is being reviewed to meet commissioning by mid-2014 and accelerate the re-start of the mine. 

Noricum Gold (LON:NMG) – Final Results

• The results highlighted progress with exploration at Rotgulden.

• A number of high grade targets have been identified through a helicopter-borne geophysical survey.

• 40 new targets have been identified along the 8 km strike running through the licence area with 10 of these targets considered high priority.

• The company has assayed historical core from a drilling programme conducted on the brownfield project in 1990.

• The assay results show high grades of up to 4.6m at 14.42 g/t gold and 96 g/t silver.

• These results will provide support to this year’s drilling programme which is targeting a JORC resource.

• The 2013 resource drillings is fully funded and  is aimed at targets in the areas above the main level and to depths of around 50 to 100m.

• The company concluded a successful fund raising in £2.2m and currently have £1.3m in cash.

Conclusion: The cold season this year has postponed the start of the planned drill programme this year. The drill plan and funds are in place. The high grades from assaying from the historical core supports our view that this brownfield project has good potential. 

Once the drilling starts we expect a positive stream of newsflow. Austria appears to be a relatively good mining destination with many mines operating and a pragmatic approach to the industry

*SP Angel acts as Nomad and broker to Noricum Gold

ZincOx (LON:ZOX) – Chairman buys stock 

• Andrew Woolloett, chairman of ZincOx Resources has announced his purchase of stock in the company.

• Woollett has bought 1,288,244 shares at 15.525p taking his stake to 3,773,643 shares (3.65% of the company).

• Simon Hall, the finance director also bought 65,000 shares at 16.84p taking his stake to 85,000 shares.

• The two share purchases should lend confidence to the market.

• ZincOx is ramping up production of its $100m EAFD facility and appears to be not far off design capacity of 40,000tpa.  

• The South Korean plant is using electric arc furnace dust which comes from steel furnaces and has been suffering teething issues relating to the corrosion of some components within its facilities in South Korea.

• We would expect the plant to achieve its design capacity on the replacement of some components and for unit cash costs to continue to fall.

• The company posted a net loss of $10m on sales of $10.8m earlier this month.  This combined with admin costs of $10m add to a gross loss of $10.9m to give rise to total costs of $21.7m.

• The company plans a second phase $100-110m expansion to follow once full capacity for the first phase has been reached.

• Experts see zinc as offering good potential for price gains as environmental pressures start to limit production in.  Chinese demand should also increase as Chinese manufacturers look to raise the quality of products and seek the better protection afforded by better zinc galvanising.  We forecast a 400kt surplus for zinc this year but can see prices recovering with restocking. 

Conclusion:   The company offers growth potential assuming design capacity is attained and zinc prices show some recovery

Energy markets have continued the declines seen overnight in Europe this morning, with WTI crude futures heading into the NA crossover down around USD 1.20. Oil prices were first weighed on by less dovish comments than expected from Fed chairman Bernanke and the latest FOMC minutes revealing that some participants are willing to slow asset purchases as early as June. This was followed by weaker than expected Chinese HSBC Flash Manufacturing PMI for May (M/M 49.6 vs. Exp. 50.4, Prev. 50.4), which put further downward pressure on price levels. Also of note for today, weekly EIA natural gas storage change data is due at 0930CDT/1530BST.

Oil & Gas News

Moody's says the US approval of the Freeport LNG terminal to non-FTA nations will further open up the US natural gas market.

Dubai has cut its August crude differential to USD 0.05/bbl discount to Oman.

The US House of Representatives have passed legislation to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Democrats have played down the Republican-driven decision, given that it is highly unlikely to receive sufficient Democratic support when it reaches the Senate and is also likely to be subject to a presidential veto. 

Brazil will hold an auction of exploration rights for some of its most promising offshore oil and gas areas in October, one month earlier than expected. 

The IEA says its opinion has not been sought by EU Commission with regard to recent oil market probes. The organisation also said it has not been in recent contact with OPEC over the matter.

Geopolitical News

Washington has threatened to increase its support for Syria's rebels if President Assad refuses to discuss a political end to a civil war that is spreading across borders. In particular, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the US is increasingly concerned that the escalating fighting in Syria might slip across the border with Lebanon and destabilize the country.

Corporate News

Chevron has reported a pipeline leak at its 279,000 BPd refinery in El Segundo, California. 

PetroChina, China's biggest oil and gas producer, will seek to increase cooperation with companies including Exxon Mobil, BP and Shell as it looks to add overseas resources, according to a company spokesman.

Weather News

Thunderstorms in the northeast today will fade tomorrow, however, dry conditions will not return until Monday when temperatures start to return to the mid-seventies, prior to another wet weekend. 

On the Gulf coast, clear conditions are forecast for the next ten days as temperatures head towards the nineties. 

“Following the interims and strategy update, there is nothing that has changed our view that the merger with AG Barr makes commercial and strategic sense,” said analyst Wayne Brown.

Britvic is planning to axe up to 15% of its staff in a major reshuffle and while Brown agrees for the need for change, he claims the Britvic team have an unproven track record of delivering on big projects.

“The merger with AG Barr immediately infuses Britvic with the core values expressed in its strategy review, but brings with it a management team with a proven track record of delivering on large projects to support long term shareholder growth,” he said.

Brown suggests holding on to the shares for the time being. His target price of 380p implies they will fall more than 140p.

Shares in B&Q owner Kingfisher (LON:KGF) will trickle away this year, according to Sunita Entwisle at Nomura.

She believes the stock has performed so well over the past month that it can’t possible keep up the run.

Part of the reason behind the share price rise is all the talk surrounding Help-to-Buy – George Osborne’s scheme to boost the housing market.

Entwisle reckons the impact of Help-to-Buy has been overblown and we will not in fact see a sharp rise in DIY activity.

“We note that recent new-build optimism from housebuilders will not benefit DIY retailers extensively, so think excessive enthusiasm for read-across to housing transactions is a little early,” she said.

There are better opportunities elsewhere, such as Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS), she concluded.

Ask Panmure Gordon’s analysts what they think about the retail sector and they would tell you not to invest in Mothercare (LON:MTC).

They reasserted their ‘sell’ stance today on the back of its preliminary results, urging those with shares to make some money now before they see a change in fortunes.

“Today’s results are an opportunity to take profits, in our view, especially given that the current trading comment is far from bullish and the fact that consensus is expected to be unchanged also,” said analyst Jean Roche.

“We continue to believe that Mothercare will struggle to break even in the UK according to its own timetable (FY2015), and that investors would be better placed investing in lower risk options such as Dunelm (rated Buy, net cash), Ted Baker (rated Hold), Thorntons (Buy) or Majestic Wine (Buy).”

BNP Exane Paribas’s analysis of the battle of the big chip designers threw up some interesting conclusions.

ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) was miles ahead of its rivals in the smartphone race, with former chip designing supremo Intel lagging behind.

But Exane believes Intel’s processors are now very competitive and not that far behind ARM’s mobile chips.

The arrival of its new processor platform could even end ARM’s monopoly on smartphones and especially on tablets – a bold claim indeed from the broker.

“At the same time, ARM’s chances of breaking into the PC/servers market remain slim and its revenue opportunities are limited,” it added.

Beating market expectations is becoming an increasingly difficult task for the company behind the iPad chip, prompting Exane’s downgrade to ‘neutral’.

Deutsche Bank does not see enough reason to buy FirstGroup (LON:FGP) shares yet. But that didn’t stop the broker from lifting the bus-to-rail group off its ‘sell’ list.

The slump following the recent rights issue has taken some risk out of the stock, but there is still not enough in the investment case to attract Deutsche.

The release of Afferro Mining’s (LON:AFF) quarterly results underlined its strong financial position.

However, the stock succumbed to a bout of profit-taking in the morning session to trade at a modest discount to the cash element of a putative bid from International Mining & Infrastructure (LON:IMIC).

Brokers described as “largely historic” the figures to the end of March, which showed the group had cash and short-term investments of US$84mln and posted a loss from operations of just over US$1mln.

The company, which owns the 2.5bn tonne Nkout iron ore project in Cameroon, on Wednesday said it was backing an “in-principle” offer from IMIC that vales the group at US$190mln (£126mln), or 120 pence a share.

Currently, the shares are changing hands for 76 pence a share, or 4 pence below the cash element of IMIC’s offer. The AIM-listed Africa-focused infrastructure group is also offering a loan note worth a further 40 pence a share.

“This quarterly update is largely historic in the context of the agreement between IMIC and Afferro management to proceed with the revised offer from IMIC,” said City broker SP Angel.

Condor Gold (LON:CNR) mapped out a busy work programme for the year ahead as it released full year figures for 2012.

The company has completed 80% of its 10,000 metre infill drilling programme at its La India open pit asset in Nicaragua, and has also completed 1,700 metres (m) of geo-technical drilling on the open pit.

Furthermore, 4,000m of a 5,400m drilling programme has been completed on the America historic mine, aimed at proving a feeder pit, and 1,000m of a 2,000m drilling programme has been completed on the Central Breccia, aimed at proving a second feeder pit.

The geo-technical drilling programme is designed to test the competency and strength of the host rock and determine the optimal pit angles for the La India open pit resource.

The preliminary economic assessment (PEA) identified an open pit containing 800,000 ounces (oz) gold at a 40-42 degree pit angle, extractable at a cash cost of US$682 per oz.

Sensitivity analysis on the pit slope angles has shown that by steepening the pit angles to 50 degrees, the cash costs to produce an 800,000 oz gold pit reduces by 18% to US$558 per oz due to lower strip ratios. However, there are some 500,000 oz of gold resource beneath the pit, so a maximised open pit would seek to drive the pit down as deep as possible while retaining strong economics.

Sensitivity analysis shows that using a US$1,200 gold price and 50 degree pit angle may result in 1.23mln oz gold within the open pit extracted at a cash cost of US$702 per oz.

A geo-technical report is expected in August 2013, which will help determine the pit angles of La India open pit.

The strategy for this year is to move the La India project through to the pre-feasibility study (PFS) and Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) stages. Regarding the latter, work on several studies is already underway.

The baseline studies required for an Environmental Impact Assessment have started, as have hydrogeology studies. Metallurgical tests are also underway.

The company said it is fully funded for the work planned over the next 12 months.

The current drilling programme is focused on changing the production mix to as much open pit as possible, and the company speculated that the first four or five years of the life of mine could see all of the mining being done from an open pit.

Under this scenario, future cash flow would finance underground development, which would have the desired effect of removing the upfront capital costs of underground development and increasing the internal rate of return.

An objective for 2013 is to increase the open pit indicated resource from the current 554,000 oz gold to between 1.0mln and 1.3mln oz gold, which can then be used in a PFS and support open pit production of between 110,000 oz to 130,000 oz a year at over 3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for the first five years of a 13 year mine life.

Being an early stage mining company, Condor made an operating loss in 2012, of £3.26mln, versus an operating loss of £1.98mln the year before.

At the end of the year the group had a net cash balance of £2.48mln, while its net assets increased in the year from £7.93mln to £12.78mln. Since the end of the reporting period, the company has raised £7mln through a share placing.

Broker Shore Capital said the 2012 full-year results contained no surprises, but it was good to be reminded of the results of the PEA, which were ahead of the broker’s expectations in terms of production scale and mine life.

“Nonetheless, we are of the opinion that there remains significant upside potential – we believe the prospects for the delineation of significant further resources at the various deposits to be good. Consequently, we continue to favour the shares,” Shore Capital said.

Shares in Condor were down a halfpenny (0.6%) to 88.5p, on a day when the Footsie was off around 2% late in the morning.

--Adds broker comments--

EMED Mining (LON:EMED, TSE:EMD) told investors that the proposed restart of the Rio Tinto mine is still on track.

It said that production commissioning from the first mine is scheduled to start in mid-2014, and the operation will ramp up for a further 18 months after that.

The company also confirmed that the pending environmental sign off, in respect of the tailings management facilities, will be subject to the same conditions set out for the ‘administrative standing’ last month by the department of industry.

EMED said it has completed the design work to satisfy those conditions, following reviews with the regulators and the government’s independent experts.

The two key sign offs are now on a ‘revised path’, the company said, and they are expected before the end of the third quarter.

According to City broker SP Angel, Thursday’s statement suggests EMED has now met the final conditions to ensure base-line production.

“While this news is positive to the extent that the tailings conditions have been met there will be disappointment that the time line for permitting has slipped,” the broker, which rates EMED as a ‘buy’, said in a note.

In the meantime, EMED plans to carry out site ‘housekeeping’, including personnel training, starting in the third quarter.

"We are immensely pleased that the government has, through its actions, reiterated its policy commitment to the restart,” said managing director Harry Anagnostaras-Adams.

“The Andalucian government's two regulatory authorities which issue the key permits required for construction, have now confirmed the same conditions will be applied to the tailings management facility, to serve both their environmental and economic agendas in a complementary and integrated manner.

"Environmentally, the conditions make the plan safer, allow progressive environmental restoration during operations and avoid the premature disturbance of more land.

“Economically, the conditions preserve the base case for production and, in due course, will also serve expansion scenarios after the refinements have been optimised in the field during operations.

"The company and the authorities will continue to adjust the timetable for permitting and start-up activities to ensure site activities escalate in a prudent sequential manner that is in line with regulatory permitting and to start commissioning production in mid-2014."

On AIM, EMED shares were down 15% on Thursday changing hands at 6.88p.

Shares in North Sea focused Bridge Energy (LON:BRDG) are too cheap, according to City Broker Cenkos.

Analyst Ashley Kelty says that at 122p each – valuing the firm at £77mln – the shares don’t fairly reflect the value in the Bridge portfolio.

“The company remains undervalued relative to peers,” he said in a note.

According to Kelty the AIM quoted share offers ‘deep value’ for investors.

Highlighting specific projects, he says the developments in the Vulcan area could prove to be transformational for the company, and so could the recent discoveries in Norway.

“We see further high impact exploration wells in 2013, alongside progress on developments, as providing catalysts for further rerating of the shares in the coming months.”

Cenkos repeated its ‘buy’ rating and 266p price target following Bridge’s first quarter results statement.

Bridge revealed in its statement that it has kicked on from its strong end to 2012, with progress in key projects.

The highlights included the Asha discovery, and a deal to potentially cash in early on the Ivar Aasen development project.

This year’s drill programme has now started and the company expects ‘significant follow ups’ to last year’s discoveries - the fully funded programme is targeting 22mln barrels of oil resources, net to Bridge.

Drilling is underway on the Mjøsa well, and the spudding of a well on the Amol prospect is slated for the third quarter.

During the quarter, oil production averaged 1,110 barrels per day compared with 873 barrels in the corresponding period of last year.

It brought the Cormorant East field online during the period, and production is expected from the Duart field is expected to start in the third quarter.

Development drilling is also planned at Duart and the Boa field over the next two years.

In terms of financials, Bridge’s revenues were line with its expectations, at NOK81.7mln versus NOK32.2mln in Q1 2012, and net operating cash was better due to higher than anticipated prices.

At the end of the period Bridge had US$14.5mln in cash, and had additional debt funding facilities.

"In the first quarter of 2013, we have focused on building from a strong 4Q2012,” said chief executive Tom Reynolds.

“The remapping of the Asha discovery, subsequent increase in resource estimates and likely unitisation with the Ivar Aasen field development has created significant value as well as expanding the options available to Bridge to achieve business growth.

“With our production on track, we continue to pursue various options to deliver increased growth of our business, both organically and via acquisition.

“In addition, exciting development options exist within our existing portfolio and we will continue to progress these options through 2013, in order to unlock this value.

“Having kick-started our 2013 exploration programme with the recent spud of Mjøsa, we look forward to progressing the other growth options over the year to come."

The US-based coal miner’s income rose by 41% in 2012 to US$19.7mln (US$14mln) as Stockton’s clean coal production rose 61% to 161,500 tons and average sale prices edged up to US$150.91 per ton (US$142.33).

Gross profits soared to US$4mln (from US$0.2mln), while pre-tax losses were reduced to US$2.7mln from US$3.1mln.

The miner would have been closer to break-even had it not been for costs of US$1.87mln for an option on a property Atlantic eventually decided not to take up.

It did take up its option over the nearby Pott and Bannon (P&B) site, which it believes will be transformational for the company. P&B, which cost £6mln, will add 4.1 million tonnes (Mt) of clean coal to Stockton’s saleable reserves of 1.7Mt.

Going forward, Atlantic has already announced a 67% increase in production in the first three months of 2013 and a 91% increase in coal sales but on Thursday it said anthracite prices had continued to weaken from the US$139.84 average of the first quarter.

One producer is being especially aggressive, Atlantic said, though it expects prices to recover by the autumn of this year.

“In tandem with maintaining our production levels at Stockton, the rapid development of the Pott & Bannon site will be a high priority for us.

"We also seek to identify and evaluate opportunities, including joint ventures, for the acquisition of additional anthracite mining assets,” chairman Adam Wilson said.

A deal, which is expected to be agreed by the end of June, will see Wentworth meet its forecasts well into the fourth quarter of 2013.

“The company and its partners will be in discussions over the near term to firm up the 2013 and 2014 work programmes and establish a range of budget estimates,” said managing director Geoff Bury.

“Wentworth will continue to evaluate its funding requirements and will consider further financing options during the remainder of 2013.”

Bury insisted the funding would be non-dilutive.

“It’s pretty typical for any early stage exploration and production company [to raise funds]. So in the future we will be looking to raise further capital,” he added.

Wentworth also revealed that, along with its Mnazi Bay partners and the Tanzanian government, it is still in talks to finalise a gas sales agreement to supply 80 million standard cubic feet of gas per day to the Mtwara to Dar-es-Salaam gas pipeline, which is currently being built and should be finished by mid-2014.

Bury admitted his frustrations at the time it was taking to conclude the deal, but remains confident it will be done and dusted soon.

“I can say confidently that we’re working hard on it – I think we’re getting close,” he said.

Meanwhile, over the border in Mozambique, the partners for the highly prospective onshore Ruvuma basin block are meeting in early June to review the interpretation of the 2D seismic data recently acquired by operator Anadarko. They will pick out drilling locations for a planned two-well programme to start in the second quarter of 2014.

The news came alongside first quarter results that included capital expenditure of US$2.64mln compared with US$390,000 in 2012.

Revenues from continuing operations were US$220,000, up 29% from the same quarter last year, while it posted a net loss of US$1.15mln, an improvement on last year’s loss of almost US$6mln.

It ended the period with US$3.32mln cash in the bank and working capital of US$11.31mln.

Bad Chinese economic figures and speculation that the US asset purchase programme could dry up soon mean there's a lot more red on the boards than green today.

One company bucking the trend is US oil company Nighthawk Energy (LON:HAWK), which rocketed after making a significant find at its Smoky Hill oil project in Colorado’s Denver-Julesburg Basin.

It revealed today that the Big Sky 4-11 well found a substantial oil column, confirming the north-east extension of the Arikaree Creek oilfield discovered by Nighthawk's Steamboat Hansen 8-10 well late last year.

Test results point to the potential to produce 200-300 barrels a day of high quality oil with minimal water production.

It has been logged and cased, with production expected to start by the end of May.

ZincOx Resources (LON:ZOX) proved a hit after its directors offered a show of faith in the company, upping their stakes.

Andrew Woollett, chairman of ZincOx raised his stake to 3.65%, buying 1.29mln shares at 15.525p each.

Meanwhile Simon Hall, the firm's finance director, also decided the shares were too good value to resist and bought 65,000 shares at 16.84p per share, adding them to his pension fund.

Shares in Sarantel Group (LON:SLG) rebounded after a dire week for those holding shares in the antenna manufacturer.

In early trades shares were up 11%, following Wednesday's news that bosses would try to sell the business as soon as possible.

However, they stressed that money would run out in the first half of June and if a buyer weren't found, the company could be forced into administration.

Today's rise still means the shares are down over 40% over the last week.

Growing North Sea oil firm Parkmead (LON:PMG) took a dent after agreeing a £14.5mln deal to takeover Lochard Energy.

The all-paper deal will give Parkmead a 10% stake in the Ithaca Energy operated Athena oil field, which began production last year and currently yields up to 11,000 barrels per day (gross).

This will represent 400% increase in Parkmead’s production, and it also adds 2.3mln barrels of oil reserves.

Through the deal, which values Lochard at 4.9p, investors will receive 0.385 Parkmead shares for every Lochard share they own.

Budget African airline Fastjet (LON:FJET) was also off after issuing 45mln new shares to New York-based fund manager Bergen for £500,000.

It comes as part of the deal unveiled in March to raise £15.68mln through six separate tranches to Bergen Global Opportunity fund.

It revealed today that the Big Sky 4-11 well found a substantial oil column, confirming the north-east extension of the Arikaree Creek oilfield discovered by Nighthawk's Steamboat Hansen 8-10 well late last year.

Test results point to the potential to produce 200-300 barrels a day of high quality oil with minimal water production.

It has been logged and cased, with production expected to start by the end of May.

Shares jumped 17% to 4.75 each on the news.

Chairman Stephen Gutteridge said: “The successful oil discovery at the Big Sky 4-11 well is hugely significant for Nighthawk and the area in general.

“This well has confirmed a potentially sizeable oilfield with strong production characteristics. It has also de-risked the next well in our programme, the Taos 1-10, and the potential production from three producing wells in the field should bring our next goal of 1000 bbls/day within reach.”

He added: “At that level of production and at current prices, Nighthawk would be generating significant free cash-flow after operating costs and overheads confirming a major transformation of the company and a strong platform for further growth.”

Shares were down 14% to 340.3p in early trading after the company unveiled a strategy update along with its full year results.  Retail profits look set to take a hit in the short term as the company invests in a turnaround programme.

The shares have been on a strong run over the last month so holders might have taken the opportunity to bank profits, but a 35% reduction in the final dividend to 9.1p will not have helped sentiment. The full year dividend eased to 17.1p from 22p.

Group revenue in the 52 weeks to 29 March crawled up to £871.3mln from £863.1mln the year before, but underlying profit before tax slumped 21.9% to £72.0mln from £92.2mln.

“The fall in group profitability … illustrates the pressing need for sustainable revenue growth to offset ongoing cost inflation,” said Matt Davies, Halfords’ newish chief executive, as he unveiled a new strategy for the group, entitled 'Getting Into Gear 2016'.

“This programme will focus on supporting our colleagues to deliver consistent friendly expertise backed by major improvements in store environments, plus building on the authority of our offer, infrastructure and digital capabilities.

“We expect these vital investments will inevitably reduce short-term Retail profitability but will deliver long-term revenue and profit growth together with sustainable shareholder value," Davies said.

Growing North Sea oil firm Parkmead (LON:PMG) has agreed a £14.5mln deal to takeover Lochard Energy (LON:LHD).

The all-paper deal will give Parkmead a 10% stake in the Ithaca Energy operated Athena oil field, which began production last year and currently yields up to 11,000 barrels per day (gross).

This will represent a 400% increase in Parkmead’s production, and it also adds 2.3mln barrels of oil reserves. Furthermore, the cash flows from Athena will help fund the development of Parkmead’s other assets.

Through the deal, which values Lochard at 4.9p, investors will receive 0.385 Parkmead shares for every Lochard share they own.

Parkmead already has approvals accounting for about 40% of Lochard’s shares, after a number of major shareholders backed the proposal.

"This is the most exciting and important deal for Parkmead to date,” said Clive Carver, Parkmead chairman.

“The acquisition of Lochard will increase Parkmead's production by over 400 per cent, and therefore provides it with a significantly enhanced cash flow profile.

“Furthermore, the addition of Lochard's production will enable Parkmead to deliver its ambitious growth plans. This follows the acquisition of DEO Petroleum plc, first production from the Netherlands, successful horizontal appraisal drilling at the Platypus field and the major award of 25 blocks across the UKCS, all achieved by Parkmead within the last 12 months."

MARKETS

For those who don't follow my fascinating life (!) above next market update is June 5th.

Well, as I said last time, never second guess. Those who have been short of the market for a long time are getting a real roasting.

Clients of spreadbet firms have remained mainly short of the indicies for some time.

Which goes to show if you go against what the majority think you'll probably make money...

Of course the current rises will inevitably end in tears at some point. Boo hoo. No idea when. 

Ben Banker-bastard is due to speak in the US this week. Maybe that'll do it.

The guy he took over from, the one that looked like Woody Allen. Now he could really send the markets down even before he opened his mouth.

Anyway as usual I find the best bet is to ignore the TV news, finance channels and the nutters on bulletin boards and just follow stuff. And for right now it is still going up.

I picked up some Petrofac (LON:PFC) on a spreadbet at 1325 - I hold these long term from when they were about 3 quid (profits of £10,000) and time to add some more after falling from highs of 17 quid. A good solid business.

I've added on a spreadbet as this holding would be a shorter-term timeframe with the aim to take profits around 15 quid.

I like the look of Xaar (LON:XAR). And I know most other traders wouldn't as they've gone up a lot. Which doesn't bother me, I like that.

It's another one of those companies changing from slightly dull to the more whizzy high tech and it's one of those that could really leap even higher. 

I've picked up 1,000 XAR shares at 559.8. It's coming down as I write so looking for a top up probably on any weakness.

In fact it is weak as I write - I just put an order in on the order book for a thousand at 623. If it is still there for those of you that have level 2 when you come to read this, it's me!

I've sold and bought back Optos (LON:OPTS). Sold the final ones at 156.64 (profit £184) as they just weren't going anyway with massive sellers on the book at 160. Then came a horrible statement - but not so horrible that they were worth so much less so picked them up again at 115.08. Not really sure I want to be in them that long as there are a number of question marks over them.

Greencore (LON:GNC) continues to be a brilliant play so glad I got them on the low at 82p but also happy to buy back some more which I did at 114.25. They issued a statement this week which the market liked a lot and now lifted my target to around the 145-150 area. It's been a lovely one!

I've shorted Facebook on the spreads. It's a crazy valuation for a company that's peaked in my opinion.

People, especially the younger ones aren't using it so much and moving on.

I spoke to some teenagers who tell me it's really past its best. They now use - what was it, something that sounded like a washing machine, anyway they are twitting and basting and obviously saying "What EVER" a lot.

Hmmm, there's an idea. I might create a new social network called "Whatever!"

Instead of posting your best pic and all the "amazing" things you are doing to show what a fantastic person you are, put up your worst pic and your worst thoughts and show what a **** you are instead! Surely less stressful?

A tip for Trifast (LON:TRI) from the investors Chronicle tipster made me happy: meant I could exit at a much better price and quicker than I thought.

If you're in big profits on a share but perhaps think there is more to come there is nothing better than seeing it rise massively on a magazine tip, especially when it is a tipster with a massive following.

Massive buying went into Trifast from when the tipster's tip was published pushing it up. Which meant a brilliant time to exit from me (Usually wise to exit as tipsters are usually rubbish) . And of course it is in reality a false rise because loads of people who don't have a clue buy in rightaway. 

The company is actually pretty good and I thought it would head up to 60p after its next statement but the tip did that for me without now having to worry about the results!

So thank you IC! I am out at 59.13 banking a very nice profit of £3,771.

I had decided to sell some Parity as they'd hit my targets of 40 and 45, sitting nicely over 50 and it seemed sensible to bank most of the profit as they'd pretty much doubled for me.

But my bath was running so I nipped in for a dip before selling. That proved a costly bath!

When I came back to sell they'd issued a statement saying they were moving to the AIM market which meant I would be forced to sell soon as they were in my ISA and they wouldn't be allowed in ISAs for much longer,

The market didn't like it but the price was already down and had to take a rather sorry 40.6p instead of 50p, yes 20% less profits because of a bath.

Well no point in getting bothered about it (I'll go and kick my rubber duck) and even so profits banked of £ 1,440 and 3,838 for a total profit of £5,278

Idiotically if it was next year it wouldn't have mattered as AIM shares are soon to be allowed in ISAs. Just unlucky. Though why the company couldn't just wait a few months I don't know. I might re-look at it as a buy again as a spreadbet once it's moved over. I suspect it will rise steeply once done and the price now looks attractive. 

I topsliced a few Vislink (LON:VLK) as they seem stuck in a rut, selling some at 31.55 profit £733 holding onto the original buy though,

Total profits for the site banked today then are profits of £9,782.

I'd like to recommend a rather nice book on trading: Professional Investor Rules.

In the book top professional investors reveal the secrets of their success.

Each one gives ten of their top rules for making money in markets.

Some top names gives their secrets - including Jim Slater.

Each rule is pretty clear and simple, There is no jargon in this book and it is a lovely easy read.

The kind of book you can dip in and out of. All those quoted are real investors, not tipsters, and they really have made money. These are the guys to follow, so I suggest: Buy!

For next day delivery click this link 

http://books.global-investor.com/books/866158/Jonathan-Davis/Professional-Investor-Rules/?ginPtrCode=10453

PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHTS

The portfolio continues to soar away at the moment thanks to the strong market.

Nearly everything is still going up with my spreadbetting and ISA accounts booming despite me currently forking out 100s of thousands to builders for renovating a new property. Most of it coming from spreadbetting which is great as I hate using ISA money as it loses its tax benefits.

Recent buys and top ups all go well. 

"Boring" Hellerman Tyton has proved anything but boring, soaring up to 240. Very nice. 

The first lot bought when it listed around 195 are doing nicely so far.

It's got a good chance of entering the FTSE 250 soon which should push it up some more as funds buy in.

Pace and Dart both go well - both came up at the last seminar. 

Dart spreadbet especially goes very well and anything over 2 quid would look very bullish.

If you'd like to come to the next seminar by the way it's not far off on June 14th.... email me at robbiethetrader@aol.com for details. 

St Ives (LON:SIV) continues to soar higher, at this rate I shall nearly have doubled my money on the first lot bought not that long ago. 200 looks a likely target now as it continues to shine. (Shine bright like a diamond as Rhianna wisely comments)

Lovely performance too from the lovely Porvair (LON:PRV) which continues to climb most days. Looks like it should head up to the 300 area and pushes 280 at the mo, another doubler, indeed trebler.

Biggest holding Telecom Plus (LON:TEP) has reported full year results which were very decent. The shares raced higher before results so no surprise they came off a tad after them on profit taking but been running this winner from 18p, the 80s and the early 100s has paid off. Website profits of well over £100,000 and personal profits of more £400,000. I just continue a long-term holder.

One could argue it is a bit overcooked for right now but institutions are happy to pay a premium for a quality company. Indeed holding above 1200 is a good sign that there aren't that many sellers even at this level. You would really just want to hold on. And if it can continue and then accelerate the growth this is a FTSE 100 company in the making in a few years time - then we could see the share price at 60 quid plus. In any event I reckon anyone buying these now and coming back in three years will be a lot wealthier! The Times reckons there is more to come here in a piece today,

Senior spreadbet is going great guns, nearly a grand profit,

Coastal (LON:CEO)continues to be a lovely oiler having trebled on the first buy. It's just plateauing at the moment. 

Vectura (LON:VEC) reported and the market seems to think it's okay... pretty much on highs.

Loq has headed back up after its falls and nicely up today.. it should be less volatile now still timed my money by five on the first lot.

Filtronic (LON:FILTR) seems happy in the 60s. Unrealised profits for the site over £20,000 on this and banked profits over £4,000.

Sepura (LON:SEPU) has been rerated higher, might pause now before another rerating. 

And long-term open positions on the site now total a magnificent profit of over £300,000. 

32 red (LON:TTT) holds its gains nicely. Holding for a hopeful bid!

GB Group (LON:GBG) is creeping up again and trying to tackle 100p. It fell back once from this level but the slowness this time should help it get over that hurdle.

Costain (LON:COST) continues to be a nice surprise through 300 seems the limit for now. 

Nichols (LON:NICL) just continues to rise and rise but might not be enough for it to clear a tenner for a while but I sit on a fabulous profit.

Dialight (LON:DIA) has been storming up recently and looks likely to hit all time highs again soon my second biggest winner bought at 145p at a seminar in 2009 ! And topped up all the way along - as those of you who came to the seminar saw in my accounts profits on this are enormous. I don't see any reason to sell yet.

Open profits for the site have bubbled over £300,000.

It comes as part of the deal unveiled in March to raise £15.68mln through the issue of six separate tranches of shares to Bergen Global Opportunity fund.

In other news, the company, along with its branding agency, won brand strategy of the year for its grey parrot at the Drum Marketing Awards in London.

It follows three award wins at the Transform Brand Awards earlier in the year.

Fastjet’s much anticipated entry into the key South African market is scheduled to start in early July, with flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town set to go on sale shortly.

The low cost carrier is already the dominant airline on the key routes from Dar-es-Salaam to Kilimanjaro and to Mwanza.

The Markets

Market opening: Markets could open lower today. FTSE 100 futures were trading 98 points down at 7:00 am.

New York: Wall Street faltered amid volatile trading after minutes from the latest Fed policy meeting indicated that several officials expressed willingness to pull back the monetary stimulus programme as early as June. All sectors on the S&P 500 declined, with energy and utilities being the main laggards. The S&P 500 fell 0.8%.

Asia: Disappointing preliminary data of China’s manufacturing sector raised concerns of a slowdown in domestic demand, while fears mounted that the US Fed could reduce its QE programme this summer if economic data displayed strong and sustained growth. The Nikkei fell sharply, closing 7.3% down, while the Hang Seng was trading 2.4% lower at 7:00 am.

Continental Europe: Equities gained on comments from the US Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in his testimony to the Congress that the QE programme was strengthening the economy and the central bank would retain its stimulus measures until the economy improved. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.4%, while Germany’s DAX added 0.7%.

UK small caps: The FTSE AIM All-Share index rose 0.6% yesterday.

Today’s news

China’s HSBC manufacturing PMI contracts in May 

China’s flash HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 49.6 in May, contracting for the first time in seven months, after a final reading of 50.4 in April. A sub-index measuring total new orders declined to 49.5, its lowest reading since September.

UK’s budget deficit widens in April 

UK’s budget deficit, excluding temporary support for banks, widened to £10.2bn in April from £8.9bn a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday. Meanwhile, the IMF warned the UK that a strong and sustainable recovery was still a long way off and that fiscal consolidation would be a drag on medium-term economic growth.

Compny News

Fastnet Oil & Gas (LON:FAST)

Yesterday, Fastnet Oil & Gas announced an operational update, scoping independent resource estimates and an outline of the forward program for the Deep Kinsale prospect. The company informed that a 500 sq. km. 3D seismic programme has been completed at the prospect, significantly ahead of schedule and under budget. Furthermore, an independent assessment conducted by SLR Consulting has estimated Deep Kinsale’s un-risked P50 prospective resources to be 2.365 billion barrels of oil (bbl) in place. The estimated risked potential resources are in the range of 134 – 691 million barrels (mmbl) of oil in place. Going forward Fastnet will focus on processing the newly acquired 3D seismic to identify reservoir ‘sweet spots’. Fastnet has also commissioned a pilot development study. The objective is to manage development risk associated with the particular geological characteristics of the Basal Wealden Oil Sand. With this, the company targets to high grade an area for drilling in the Deep Kinsale structure that presents the lowest risk where a minimum of 100 million barrels of oil can be found. The management is looking to ensure that a potential farm-in well, coupled with high quality 3D seismic definition of structure and reservoir sweet spots, will result in an economically viable pilot development at today’s oil prices.

Our view: Fastnet Oil & Gas has made rapid progress towards acquiring the 3D seismic data over the Deep Kinsale prospect, which also included undershooting the two Kinsale production platforms. The Deep Kinsale prospect has the potential to host substantial oil accumulation directly beneath the producing Kinsale gas field and the two platforms, in the Celtic Sea. This new 3D seismic is a major de-risking component necessary for the planning of an optimal drilling campaign. The Deep Kinsale prospect could host over 2 billion barrels of oil in place. Only last week, the company announced that it was awarded a new licensing option 13/3 in the Mizzen Basin and the western end of the North Celtic Sea Basin. This licensing option 13/3 adds to Fastnet’s strong inventory of prospective structures in the Mizzen area. The larger scale of the target portfolio as well as the acquisition of the planned 3D seismic programme will substantially enhance the attractiveness of the farm-out package for the Mizzen area. Also last month, Fastnet announced a significant increase in resource potential at its North Celtic Sea Licensing Option 12/5 (Shanagarry). It is estimated that Shanagarry could host an aggregated un-risked P50 prospective resource of 1.298 billion barrels of oil and 1.342 trillion cubic feet of gas. Given the massive growth potential of the assets held by Fastnet, we maintain a Speculative Buy rating on the stock.

Acta (LON:ACTA)

Yesterday, Acta announced that it sold its first Acta Power back-up power system, only six weeks post the launch of this new product at the Hannover Messe. The system will be placed on trial with a large international telecom company at a base station located in Africa. The initial sale is for a system incorporating a 4kW fuel cell and 1,000 L/hr hydrogen generator, and is priced at €35,000. Acta Power is a self-recharging back-up power system that incorporates a fuel cell and low cost on-board hydrogen generator. The product will be shipped to the client in June 2013 for the start of the on-site trial, which is expected to last up to three months. Subject to the successful completion of the trial, Acta expects to carry out a larger-scale installation of Acta Power systems for their remote base station sites. Acta Power generates compressed hydrogen directly from renewable energy and is designed to replace diesel gensets which are traditionally used to provide back-up power at remote telecom sites.

Our view: Acta receiving its first order for the Acta Power system so soon after its launch underscores the large and growing demand for such self-recharging fuel cell systems in the telecommunications market. Acta Power could well be a game changer for the company as the product addresses the back-up requirements of telecom base stations in off-grid or bad grid locations, mitigating the cost and logistical barriers of hydrogen delivery to base stations in inaccessible sites. Acta’s recent participation in the Hannover Messe has already begun to yield rewards with the company receiving several commercial engagement opportunities. The last one year has been a transformational period for Acta, during which it has signed several new marketing and distribution partnerships, launched eight new products and product modules, and carried out the first-time shipment of larger and more advanced electrolyser systems. Acta also welcomed Heliocentris as an investor and strategic partner, increasing its distribution into the educational market within Germany, Africa and the Middle East. Considering Acta’s unique set of patented technologies and the massive potential for back-up power systems in emerging markets, we believe the company is well poised to create shareholder value. We maintain a Speculative Buy rating on the stock.

Economic News

UK retail sales

The UK retail sales including auto fuel declined unexpectedly by 1.3% m-o-m in April, following a revised 0.6% fall in March, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday. Economists had estimated a 0.1% gain. Sales of clothing, textiles and footwear were up 0.8% last month, while household goods stores saw sales rose 3.8%. On a y-o-y basis, retail sales rose 0.5%, reversing last month’s 0.5% decrease, but below market expectations of a 2% rise. Retail sales excluding fuel dropped 1.4% m-o-m, after easing a revised 0.8% in March. Economists’ had forecasted a 0.1% increase. Annual growth in sales excluding auto fuel was 0.2%, from 0.4% in March, well below expectations of a 1.8% gain.

US MBA mortgage applications

Applications for US home mortgages plunged 9.8% in the week ended 17th May, the Mortgage Bankers Association said yesterday. The applications for home mortgages had declined 7.3% in the preceding week. The seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications fell 11.7%, while the index of loan requests for home purchases, a key gauge for home sales, was down 3%. The refinance share of total mortgage activity dipped to 74% of applications from 76% the week before.

US existing home sales

Existing home sales in the US rose 0.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.97 million units in April from an upwardly revised 4.94 million units in March, the National Association of Realtors announced yesterday. However, the reading was below the market expectation of 4.99 million units. The median existing-home price was up 4.8% to US$192,800 in April. Prices increased 11% y-o-y, the 14th successive month of annual growth. Of the total housing inventory, existing homes available for sale advanced 11.9% to 2.16 million at the end of April.

Bowleven (LON:BLVN) has confirmed it is still on target for first gas production from its Etinde Permit in the shallow waters off the coast of Cameroon following the completion of work on its latest well.

IM-5 successfully tested the Middle Isongo and Intra Isongo reservoirs, but has now been suspended pending the roll out of production.

Stage-one of the Etinde development is to supply 70 million cubic feet of gas a day and a formal signing ceremony, rubber stamping a deal first inked in March, was completed on Wednesday.

Bowleven and its partners will now focus on agreeing gas sales prior to making a final investment decision by the end of the year.

Separately, the Etinde exploitation authorisation application is expected to be formally submitted to the Cameroon authorities next month.

Chief executive Kevin Hart said: "We are focused on the planned phased development of Etinde and the delivery of first production from the permit, anticipated in 2016.”

Greg Kuenzel, Noricum Gold's managing director, said: "We are confident that our Rotgülden Gold and Precious Metal Project provides us with unique exposure to a new high grade gold province and we look forward to a productive field season in 2013.

“This will be characterised by multiple drill campaigns including underground resource drilling at Rotgülden and a surface drill programme designed to test the Altenberg target at depth."

Rotgülden is one of five wholly owned Austrian assets held by the company. Rutgulden is the main focus, but it has also received encouraging results from Schonberg located approximately 100km to the east.

Noricum added that the exploration at Rotgülden continues to generate fantastic high grade, widespread results on a regional scale, indicating the prolific nature of the mineralisation in south-central Austria.

“This has provided us with a solid basis for growth and we are confident that our forthcoming activities will be value accretive as we define a maiden resource at Rotgülden and anticipate testing the mineralisation at Altenberg at depth.“

Noricum added that the areas it is exploring had not previously been tested using modern exploration techniques.

The group posted a net loss of £878,000 (£634,000) in 2012. Its cash position was £1.6mln at the end of the year and stands at £1.3mln currently.

Bridge Energy (LON:BRDG) revealed it has kicked on from its strong end to 2012, with progress in key projects.

The highlights included the Asha discovery, and a deal to potentially cash in early on the Ivar Aasen development project.

This year’s drill programme has now started and the company expects ‘significant follow ups’ to last year’s discoveries - the fully funded programme is targeting 22mln barrels of oil resources, net to Bridge.

Drilling is underway on the Mjøsa well, and the spudding of a well on the Amol prospect is slated for the third quarter.

In its quarterly results, for the three months to March 31, oil production averaged 1,110 barrels per day compared with 873 barrels in the corresponding period of last year.

It brought the Cormorant East field online during the period, and production is expected from the Duart field is expected to start in the third quarter.

Development drilling is also planned at Duart and the Boa field over the next two years.

In terms of financials, Bridge’s revenues were line with its expectations, at NOK81.7mln versus NOK32.2mln in Q1 2012, and net operating cash was better due to higher than anticipated prices.

At the end of the period Bridge had US$14.5mln in cash, and had additional debt funding facilities.

"In the first quarter of 2013, we have focused on building from a strong 4Q2012,” said chief executive Tom Reynolds.

“The remapping of the Asha discovery, subsequent increase in resource estimates and likely unitisation with the Ivar Aasen field development has created significant value as well as expanding the options available to Bridge to achieve business growth.

“With our production on track, we continue to pursue various options to deliver increased growth of our business, both organically and via acquisition.

“In addition, exciting development options exist within our existing portfolio and we will continue to progress these options through 2013, in order to unlock this value.

“Having kick-started our 2013 exploration programme with the recent spud of Mjøsa, we look forward to progressing the other growth options over the year to come."

Asian equity markets traded negative, following the lead from Wall Street where equities declined amid comments from Fed’s Bernanke that the Fed could cut the pace of purchases in the next few meetings. The ASX 200 declined overnight with the tech sector weighing heavily on the index. In individual stocks, Sundance is the biggest gainer, which traded higher by over 23%, reversing the 17% decline seen in yesterday’s session. The Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp. traded negatively, weighed by the release of a contractionary and 7-month low HSBC Flash Manufacturing PMI of 49.6 vs. Exp. 50.4. The big mover was the Nikkei 225 which began the session in firm positive territory and briefly pierced above the 15900 level, supported by the retailers sub-sector as the index giant Fast Retailing experienced strong gains. However, the Nikkei 225 then pared most its substantial gains after the release of poor PMI figures from China, which resulted in a steep decline in the Nikkei 225 falling below the 15000 level to carve a near 1000 points trading range for the session. (RANsquawk) 

China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is to further deepen China IPO reform, according to CSRC Vice Chairman Liu. (Shanghai Securities News)

Best Performing Sectors in the Nikkei 225: Telecommunications (-5.42%), Health Care (-5.78%), Utilities (-6.36%)

Best Performing Stocks in the Nikkei 225: Hokuetsu Kishu (-0.57%), Oji Holdings (-0.72%), Showa Denko (-1.16%)

Worst Performing Sectors in the Nikkei 225: Financials (-10.41%), Consumer Services (-8.04%), Industrials (-7.54%)

Worst Performing Stocks in the Nikkei 225: Shinsei Bank (-14.50%), Mitsubishi Motors (-13.66%), Kyocera Corp (-13.55%) 

FTSE

Vodafone - Morgan Stanley says co. is a long research tactical idea. (Newswires)

Lloyds - Co. is to sell about 77mln ordinary shares in St James' place. Says placing is to meet capital requirements and to hold about 21% of St Jame's place post completion. (Newswires) Co. is said to plan USD 8.7bln auction of US home-loan bonds. 

Glencore - U.N. panel of experts says Co. and Trafigura swap deals with Iran, if confirmed, could have been a way of skirting sanctions. (Newswires)

BSkyB - BBC threatens co. with fees to retransmit its channels. (FT-More)

United Utilities - FY rev. GBP 1.64bln. Underlying EPS GBP 0.391. FY profit after tax GBP 282mln. Underlying op. profit rises to GBP 607.1mln; after tax rises to GBP 266.3mln. FY div. GBP 0.343. (Newswires)

SABMiller - FY Ebita USD 6.42bln vs. Exp. USD 6.46bln. Final div. USD 0.77. Organic Ebita constant FX up 9% vs. Exp. up 9%. (Newswires)

OTHER UK

Pennon - FY profit before tax GBP 198.2mln. FY operating profit GBP 246mln. Capital expenditure GBP 439mln. Final div. GBP 0.197. Sees long-term profit growth for Viridor on pipeline and says South West Water to outperform K5 contract. (Newswires)

Electrocomponents - FY net income GBP 62.9mln vs. Exp. GBP 66.5mln. FY pretax profit GBP 98.7mln vs. Exp. GBP 98.3mln. FY rev GBP 1.24bln vs. Exp. GBP 1.24bln. Rev rises 1% in first seven weeks of new financial year. (Newswires)

Cobham - Co. gets five-year base contract extension from UK MoD worth GBP 165mln. Anticipated value GBP 200mln through 2019. (Newswires)

Aveva - FY rev. GBP 220.2mln vs. Exp. GBP 222.2mln. Final div. GBP 0.195 vs. Prev. GBP 0.17. FY pretax GBP 63.3mln vs. Prev. 57.7mln. Special div. GBP 100mln. (Newswires) 

Companies paying dividend: British Sky Broadcasting (GBP 0.122)

DAX

Bayer - Co. says is analyzing acquisitions in Brazil. Says acquisitions in Brazil are expensive but worthwhile and sees Brazil material science market growing 10% in 2013. (Newswires)

Deutsche Bank - Co. to sell portfolio of carbon credits. (Newswires)

VW - Swiss competition body WEKO to investigate possible price-fixing within VW group. (Newswires)

Deutsche Telekom - Co. is set to begin the sale of its Scout24 Holding GmbH digital classified business, according to people familiar with the business. (Newswires)

CAC

AXA - Co. is said to weigh sale of ingredients unit for USD 1.3bln. (Newswires)

Carrefour - Co. says may divest a 25% minority stake in Majid Al Futtaim for EUR 530mln. (Newswires)

Vivendi - Co. announce change of governance at SFR names Sandrine Dufour in charge of finance. (Newswires)

Companies going ex. dividend: Vinci (EUR 1.22)

Pan-European

Telecom Italia - Co. is said to value its fixed-line asset at about USD 18bln. (Newswires) Meanwhile, S&P downgrade co. to BBB- from BBB; off watch; outlook stable.

Banca Monte De Paschi - Co.'s board member Briamonte suspended over leak allegations of a March lawsuit. Co. confirmed the board member was suspended by court and that suspension related to alleged abuse of private information . (Newswires)

Nokia Siemens Networks - Joint co. venture plans to revamp its management in Europe and Latin America, close down functions and simplify its structure in order to cut costs. (Newswires)

Caixabank - Co. says studying sale of half stake in Inbursa. (Newswires)

SMI

Swiss Life - Q1 premium income CHF 6.97bln, up 14%. AM inflows CHF 1.6bln. Q1 net investment return 1.4%. (Newswires)

Scandinavia

Maersk - Co to extend cost cuts as a policy of capacity restraint fails to lift shipping rates, according to the CEO. (Newswires)

Broker Recommendations

ANGLO AMERICAN CUT TO HOLD VS BUY AT JEFFERIES

HENDERSON GROUP CUT TO NEUTRAL VS BUY AT BOFAML

SSE CUT TO SECTOR PERFORM VS OUTPERFORM AT RBC

ARM CUT TO NEUTRAL VS OUTPERFORM AT EXANE

KINGFISHER CUT TO REDUCE VS NEUTRAL AT NOMURA

SEGRO CUT TO HOLD VS BUY AT DEUTSCHE BANK

HAMMERSON CUT TO HOLD VS BUY AT DEUTSCHE BANK

LAND SECURITIES CUT TO HOLD VS BUY AT DEUTSCHE BANK

MERCK KGAA RATED NEW OVERWEIGHT AT Morgan Stanley, PT EU142.00

US

US equities tumbled to finish the session in negative territory despite the S&P 500 posting recording highs following Fed’s Ben Bernanke's less dovish than expected comments during his testimony to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. Equities initially rallied as Bernanke said premature tightening risks slowing or ending recovery & withdrawing monetary accommodation now would not help the economy. First Solar was the session worst performing stock dropping over 5%. following yesterday's announcement that no active negotiations were underway to end US duties on Chinese solar products. Finally, the DJIA finished down 0.52% at 15307.17, the S&P 500 finished down 0.83% at 1655.35 and the NASDAQ 100 finished down 0.90% at 2999.13.

Best Performing Sectors in the S&P 500: Health Care (+0.01%), Consumer Goods (-0.28%), Industrials (-0.84%)

Worst Performing Sectors in the S&P 500: Utilities (-1.61%), Oil & Gas (-1.25%). Telecommunications (-1.16%)

You can now follow real-time news headlines on the move with the new RANsquawk app available to download for free at ransquawk.com/mobile_app for Apple iPhone, Blackberry and Android users. Please note the headlines can be viewed on the app between 0630BST/0030CST to 2200BST/1600CST Monday to Friday but does not include Asian-Pacific news.

Asia

Chinese HSBC Flash Manufacturing PMI (May) M/M 49.6 vs. Exp. 50.4 (Prev. 50.4). The headline figure printed a 7-month low with the new orders sub-index falling to an 8-month low of 49.5. HSBC China chief economist Qu said the cooling manufacturing activities in May reflected slower domestic demand and ongoing external headwinds. Qu further added that a sequential slowdown is likely in the middle of Q2, casting downside risks to China's fragile growth recovery.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China faces complex external environment. Li further added that the global economic recovery remains weak and quantitative easing may cause negative impacts. (Newswires) Meanwhile, CNY expectations may reverse if Fed adjusts policy, according to state researcher Zhang Monan.

China may cancel lending rate floor in H2 or next year as part of its interest liberalization, deputy director general Ba Shusong of the Financial Institute under the Development Research Center of the State Council. (Securities Times)

BoJ upgrades economic view for 5th straight month in May report, the first 5-month consecutive upgrade since Mar-Jul 2002. (Newswires)

10yr JGBs fell from the open and triggered a circuit breaker which halted trade a few minutes after opening. This resulted in 10yr yield rising to its highest since April 2012 at 1.00%, as JGB prices tracked the moves lower in T-notes which plummeted following Fed Chairman Bernanke’s less dovish than expected comments. 10 year JGBs then reversed to return flat (up 29 ticks at 142.19), coinciding with huge declines in the Nikkei 225 (-5.2%) which carved over a 1000 point trading range, amid poor Chinese data and a fall in USD/JPY. (RANsquawk)

Global

The International Monetary Fund is studying changes to how it handles sovereign debt restructurings after a turbulent period that has rattled the balance of power between governments and their creditors. According to international officials familiar with the IMF’s deliberations, the Fund is primarily concerned with countries delaying necessary restructurings and the difficulties involved in corralling bondholders into agreements.(FT-more)

Europe

ECB's Praet said ECB will continue using existing instruments and if necessary expand its intruments to respond to price stability risks. says monetary policy must ensure economy does not enter into a downward spiral and ECB's mandate does not need to be changed. ECB starting process of assessing Euro banks' balance sheet & ECB strategy to deliver on inflation mandate must be flexible but sufficiently binding so as to maintain credibility. (Newswires) 

The European Union will tighten its rules on bailouts for banks, setting out tougher requirements for creditors to face losses if public money is used, according to two people familiar with the matter. The European Commission plans to issue revised state-aid guidance for bank rescues before August, according to unnamed sources. (Newswires)

Ireland may regain Moody's investment grade in 2013, according to Citi. Citi also say Greece no longer seen exiting Euro in 2014 base case. (Newswires)

Prelim Pan Euro Agg month-end extension: 0.06yrs

FX

In the FX markets, SGD strengthened following better than expected Singapore Q1 Annualized GDP Q/Q of 1.8% vs. -1.2%, which saw a slight move lower in USD/SGD. USD initially strengthened at the beginning of the session which translated to spikes higher in USD/JPY and the USD index reaching its highest since July 2010. However, the initial strength was pared with USD/JPY and USD index reversing the earlier price action. AUD weakened overnight and saw an immediate 39 pip drop following the release of a contractionary and 7-month low HSBC Flash Manufacturing PMI of 49.6 vs. Exp. 50.4, weighed by Australia’s large exposure to China. (RANsquawk)

Geopolitical

Iran remains in violation of international obligations on nukes according to State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell.(Newswires) Iran still seeking items for banned nuclear and missile activities from abroad using front companies, middlemen and false documents according to UN experts 

Friends of Syria alliance are to increase rebel support until transition. (Newswires)

Commodities

WTI crude prices were pressured overnight (down USD 0.63 at USD 93.65) from the release of poor HSBC Flash Manufacturing PMI from China which resulted in a continuation of the large declines seen throughout yesterday’s US session where a smaller than expected draw down in inventories combined with a strong dollar weighed on prices. (RANsquawk)

US

US Treasuries tumbled pushing the 10y yield above 2% for the first time since March, following the Fed’s Ben Bernanke's less dovish than expected comments during his testimony to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. T-notes initially rallied as Bernanke said premature tightening risks slowing or ending recovery & withdrawing monetary accommodation now would not help the economy. However the move higher was reversed during the Q&A where Bernanke told Congress that the Fed could in next few meetings cut the pace of purchases. Sell-stops were triggered as fast money and CTA selling added pressure to T-notes. Despite a modest bounce following some mild short-covering, T-notes tumbled further and at the pit close, T-notes settled at 131.07+, down 20 ticks. T-notes head into the European open up 2 ticks at 131.09+. (RANsquawk)

FOMC minutes show some of the Fed participants are willing to slow asset purchases as early as June. The minutes showed that many Fed participants said more progress needed before slowing QE. (Newswires) They also showed that most saw the economy expanding at a 'moderate pace and many felt continued labor gains, more confidence in outlook and diminished risks needed before slowing bond buying.

US House voted to pass legislation approving Keystone XL; Obama administration vowed to veto Keystone measure. (Newswires) Canadian Finance Minister Flaherty said failure to approve keystone would affect Canada GDP growth. 

Prelim US Treasury month-end extension: 0.10yrs

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Treasuries Sink With Gold as Dollar Jumps, U.S. Stocks Retreat � This article by Lu Wang and John Detrixhe for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

Treasuries tumbled with gold and the dollar rallied, while U.S. equities retreated, as concern grew that the Federal Reserve will scale back its stimulus efforts if the labor market continues to improve.

Ten-year Treasury yields jumped 10 basis points to 2.03 percent at 3:14 p.m. in New York, topping 2 percent for the first time since March. The Dollar Index rose 0.6 percent to 84.35, trading near its strongest level since 2010. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.7 percent at 1,656.79, retreating from a record after climbing as much as 1.1 percent earlier. Gold futures retreated 1.4 percent to $1,359.00 an ounce, after rising as much as 2.6 percent.

U.S. stocks extended gains earlier while gold and Treasuries rallied as Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress that a premature end to its bond buying would put the economic recovery at risk. Treasuries and gold turned lower as Bernanke later told lawmakers that the flow of purchases will slow as the employment outlook �improves in a real and sustainable way.� A number of officials said they were willing to taper stimulus as early as June, minutes from the Fed's last meeting showed.

My view � The Fed has told us that they are looking at the unemployment rate as one of their key objectives for improvement. They have also told us that they are aiming for a higher inflation rate in order to confirm their victory over deflationary pressures. At present neither of these objectives has been achieved to their satisfaction but progress has been made.

Let's not forget that the housing and credit bubbles were at least in part fuelled by the Fed's failure to withdraw stimulus quickly enough as the economy recovered after the Nasdaq crash. They will be keen to avoid a similar mistake on this occasion. Considering just how large the monetary accommodation has been Mr. Bernanke is obviously wary of leaving a sea of liquidity run unchecked when growth returns to a self- sustaining footing. It is therefore logical that the scale of accommodation be tailed back as the economic outlook improves.

This section continues in the Subscriber's Area.

Eoin's personal portfolio: stock market short initiated � This section continues in the Subscriber's Area.

Vitamins That Cost Pennies a Day Seen Delaying Dementia � This article by Andrea Gerlin for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

Vitamin makers and retailers such as Pfizer's consumer health-care unit and GNC Holdings Inc. in the U.S. and Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc and Holland & Barrett Holding Ltd. in Europe stand to benefit. The Nutrition Business Journal estimates the global market for vitamins, minerals and supplements was $30 billion in 2012 and forecasts sales will grow 3.6 percent by 2017.

In the PNAS study, researchers tracked 156 people ages 70 and older who had mild memory loss and high levels of a protein previously linked to dementia. Among people with elevated homocysteine, the study found that the amount of gray matter declined 5.2 percent in those taking a placebo, compared with 0.6 percent in those who took the vitamin cocktail. The supplements cost about 30 cents a day in pharmacies and health- food stores.

My view � As incomes improve the desire to lead a healthier life that can keep the cost of personal medical care down and extend one's life expectancy is a compelling argument for considering supplements. Additionally, in countries where GP coverage is spotty, the tendency to self-medicate also helps drive demand for herbal remedies, vitamins and supplements. If supplements are seen to be of benefit to Alzheimer patients that would be a considerable bonus for a sector already benefitting from significant demand growth.

US listed GNC Holdings rallied consistently following its IPO before spending a year ranging mostly between $30 and $42. It broke upwards in April and a sustained move below $40 would be required to question medium-term scope for continued higher to lateral ranging.

This section continues in the Subscriber's Area.


China's pollution crisis and power Rationing � Thanks to a subscriber for this note from Deutsche Bank which may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

Reducing the extreme levels of air pollution in China has moved to the top of the political agenda for the new government this year. Without reform, China's air pollution could worsen by another 70% in 2015. Figure 1 illustrates that construction and industrial emissions contribute to 20% of PM2.5 levels. We expect measures to address this crisis may have important implications for industrial sector activity. In fact, the forthcoming power rationing in Hebei province highlights that provincial governments may step up their effort to tackle pollution crisis. According to Bloomberg, Tangshan city will shut 199 polluting factories by rationing their power supply from May 20t. Power supply for three ore-sintering lines at Tangshan Steel and two at Guofeng Steel will be cut. Operations won't be resumed until desulfurizing devices are added to satisfy environmental standards. Furthermore, outdated, unlicensed and illegal facilities in Tangshan will also be closed by May 31st. If these measures are implemented strictly, we expect this could support steel prices while depress iron ore demand.

My view � The caveat on whether these measures will be strictly implemented is one of the more relevant considerations in addressing China's ability to tackle pollution. The central government has had difficulty enforcing its will on provincial administrations not least when profit motivation is pitted against national interest. However, if they succeed in rationalising polluting industries such as steel production the outlook for the global sector could improve as oversupply is reduced.

Within the environmental sector China Everbright broke successfully out of a two-year range in February and continues to extend its advance. The potential for a reversion towards the mean has increased.

This section continues in the Subscriber's Area.

An Africa anecdote � The Treacy family were at dinner at a local restaurant on Saturday and we got chatting to the couple at the table next to us. They were in Ireland for a holiday before moving to Kenya where he would work on a computer system for a local bank that when ready would be rolled out to 14 neighbouring countries.

Despite the fact that Africa has become the buzz word for frontier investors over the last couple of years, there is very real progress being made on the ground. A number of Sub-Saharan Africa countries are among the world's fastest growing economies albeit rising from a very low base. Veteran subscribers will also be familiar with my accounts of trips to China where I have met a considerable number of African entrepreneurs sourcing cheap consumer goods for their respective home markets.

This section continues in the Subscriber's Area. 

easyJet is paying £20mln for the slots, which, assuming Flybe’s shareholders approve the deal, will transfer from summer 2014.

easyJet said the transfer of the slots will allow it to provide additional frequencies on popular existing routes from Gatwick as well as add new destinations across the UK and Europe.

The slots represent all of Flybe’s allocation at Gatwick. The decision to sell the slots follows “a discriminatory pricing regime applied by the airport's owners to the operators of smaller, regional aircraft” which, in Flybe's case, has resulted in a 102% increase in charges over the last five years, Flybe said in a statement.

Genel Energy (LON:GENL) has contracted a rig to drill the first well on highly prospective offshore acreage around Malta.

The Noble Paul Romano semi-submersible platform is currently in Valletta undergoing work, but is expected to be in position some time in the fourth quarter.

Operator Genel, which has 75% of the licence, and partner Mediterranean Oil & Gas (LON:MOG), which owns the remainder, are targeting the Hagar Qim 1 prospect first.

It will be drilled to a depth of around 2,500 metres below the sea bed to the Lower Eocene and Paleocene formations and will test for “unrisked” 109 barrels of oil equivalent.

"We are very pleased to be able to reach agreement with Genel to use the Noble Paul Romano for the drilling of our joint exploration well offshore Malta later this year,” said MOG.

“We are excited to progress the exploration of this frontier basin offshore southern Malta."

The bio-plastics group will pay £895,000 plus VAT in cash to the landlord of the two sites. The sites have not been used by the company since 2006 and are under lease until 2021.

Biome said the settlement removes a gross lease obligation of at least £3.2mln over the eight years remaining on the leases for the two buildings.

A lease on a third property currently occupied by Biome will continue to run until September 2019.

Having agreed the property settlement, Biome added it can now undertake a reorganisation of its share capital that will allow it to make pay-outs in the medium-term if it has the funds.

The company is proposing to consolidate its shares on the basis of one new share for every 430,000, while small shareholders with less than 430,000 shares currently will receive cash for their shares.

After the consolidation each share will then be sub-divided into 177 new shares, which will continue to be traded on AIM.

“The capital reorganisation provides a realisation event for such [small] shareholders at a significantly reduced cost,” the company said.

Costs of the settlement and capital reorganisation are forecast to be £1.3mln, which Biome said will soak up a significant proportion of its current cash resources.

“Accordingly, the directors will re-assess the potential for any further distributions, taking into account the investment needs of the group going forward.”

The document has been submitted to SEPA (Sindh Environmental Protection Agency) as part of the approval process in Pakistan’s Sindh province, with a public hearing planned for the third quarter of 2013.

The ESIA has been prepared by Haggler Bailly PVT of Pakistan and Wardell Armstrong International to comply with the environmental legislation of Pakistan.

As with its baseline studies, Oracle believes that there should be no major impediments for the project.

The company remains in active talks with potential partners for its Thar project, its chief executive recently revealed.

A well testing programme confirmed the oil find in the Eblana well as a ‘discovery’, although those tests failed to yield sufficient flows for the project to be considered commercial at this stage.

The findings from the tests and the prior drill programme have now been used in a new competent person's report (CPR) for the project. This was carried out by Forrest Garb & Associates.

According to the independent report the Eblana area contains an estimated 107mln barrels of in-place prospective resources. Estimated with a greater degree of confidence the report pits Eblana’s recoverable contingent resources at 19mln barrels.

Forrest Garb& Associates also provided estimates for the broader licence area, which spans 88 square kilometres, with prospective in-place resources of 283mln barrels and 57mln barrels of recoverable prospective resources.

Based on a 50-well development project the report values the asset at US$588mln.

"I am delighted by the independent confirmation of our significant discovery in Hot Creek Valley,” said chief executive Brian McDonnell.

“We researched the prospect, drilled and struck oil with our first well and, in an intensive programme of testing, gathered an immense amount of invaluable data.

“This has enabled FGA to reclassify a portion of our overall resources as contingent rather than prospective resources, reflecting significantly reduced risk and adding value.

“We will now develop a detailed programme of activities to further derisk the asset.

“We will use the updated CPR to evaluate various development options, which may include considering suitable farm-in or other forms of partnerships for the company. We also mean to further develop the company infrastructure in order to support the next phase of exploration and development.”

Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX “Small and Mid-cap” stocks with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.

A company backed by former Genesis front-man Peter Gabriel is one of two new businesses offering their products to nearly 30,000 exchange users through blur Group’s (LON:BLUR) business-to-business App Center.

CueSongs, the one-stop music licensing hub for online and digital media, and MarketInvoice, the crowd-funding platform, are the latest addition to fast-growing blur’s roster.

Chief executive Philip Letts said: "blur Group's partner programme is designed for innovative businesses to use blur's 3.0 platform to bring new products to exchange users.

“Today, we've nearly 30,000 businesses on the exchange, growing at just under 1,000 per month and this is a big draw for businesses like CueSongs and MarketInvoice to start joining the s-commerce revolution."

CueSongs helps businesses find and licence music from both established and emerging artists for their productions, while MarketInvoice provides a marketplace for invoices that are overdue, helping cash flow and debt financing to support small business growth.

blur is helping to re-invent commerce and is at the forefront of the internet phenomenon called crowd-sourcing, which describes the process of taking a job or service and outsourcing it electronically to the person or firm willing to carry it out for the right price, and/or to deadline.

Last month it launched its 3.0 computer platform, which has been in development for six years and makes the user experience faster, more unified and includes multi-device management, blur said.

It also improves scalability after the 178% rise in briefs submitted in the last quarter (year-on-year) and 258% increase in projects completed compared with the same quarter of 2012.

blur says the Global Services Exchange is set to grow significantly and the latest platform release provides the robust support to ensure that growth can continue.

Its partner, Serbian oil and gas company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), has contracted a German drilling company to carry out the multi-well programme targeting the highly prospective Algyo play.

NIS will drill the first well (Kútvölgy-1) targeting gas prospects in the formation at a depth of around 3,000 metres. The rig is expected to be moved around the end of the month and spudding will begin in mid-June.

One or two wells will be drilled initially – they will then be logged and suspended for evaluation before appropriate testing. The first well will take around 40 days to drill.

Philip O’Quigley, Falcon’s chief executive, said: “We are delighted to announce the commencement of drilling operations in Hungary.

“The partnership with NIS has been excellent over the last few months and we now are looking forward to exploring the further hydrocarbon potential of the Makó trough.”

All costs are covered by NIS, with any revenue from the initial programme shared 50/50 between Falcon and its Serbian ally.

Woollett bought 1.29mln shares at 15.525p each on 22 May.

Simon Hall, ZincOx’s finance director, also decided the shares were too good value to resist and bought 65,000 shares at 16.84p per share and plonked them in his pension fund.

Hall’s stake rose to 0.08% as a result of this transaction.

George Soros invests in ‘hyperfast’ internet firm: Financier George Soros has led a £50 million investment in fibre-optic company Hyperoptic, which lays high-speed lines direct to UK homes. The funding, from the Soros investment vehicle Quantum Strategic Partners, will help Hyperoptic reach its target of 500,000 homes within the next five years. 

Daily Mail

Government plans to sell-off Lloyds and RBS set to be unveiled within weeks: Chancellor George Osborne confirmed on Wednesday he will reveal plans after the influential banking commission of MPs and peers publishes its final report.

House of Fraser spins its web as online sales boost retailer’s results: Shoppers flocked to make purchases from House of Fraser’s state-of-the art website helping the department store chain post record sales. The firm, which was once owned by Iceland’s collapsed Baugur and is now part-owned by its lenders, said online sales now account for 10.9% of total revenue, rising 53% over the year. 

Daily Express

Sony considers action plan by billionaire: Sony, home to the Spider-Man movies and singers including Adele, said it would consider a proposal from billionaire 6% activist hedge fund investor, Dan Loeb, to sell up to 20% of its entertainment business in a public offering.

Scottish & Southern Electricity eyes North Sea: The group, which last month paid £117.4 million to buy a 50% stake in the Sean Gas field from BP, said it would continue to seek new opportunities in the UK and North West Europe. Three years ago it bought North Sea assets from Hess Corporation for £278 million.

The Scottish Herald

SSE in legal bid over Glendoe hydro scheme: Perth-based energy giant SSE has launched a claim likely to total tens of millions of pounds against German construction company Hochtief regarding a rock fall that halted generation at its Glendoe hydroelectric scheme near Loch Ness for three years.

Morrisons shares fall after Walter Scott sells off stake: Supermarket group Morrisons saw its shares slide 2.3% after Edinburgh-based fund manager Walter Scott, which owned 4% of the group, offloaded its 100 million shares.

Bolland vows to turn around M&S fortunes: Marks & Spencer chief executive Marc Bolland has insisted he is determined to see through the overhaul of the UK’s biggest clothing chain after it posted a 5.8% fall in underlying pre-tax profit to £665.2 million.

Vertu Motors on acquisition trail in Scotland: Vertu Motors, the car retailer with eight dealerships in Scotland, is on the hunt for acquisitions north of the Border after announcing plans to raise £50 million in new equity funding.

Inflation falls for first time in seven months: Annual UK consumer prices index inflation tumbled from 2.8% in March to 2.4% in April – a steeper drop than had been forecast – official figures have revealed. 

The Scotsman

IMF calls for swift Lloyds and RBS sale: The Treasury edged closer to an exit from Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called for a swift sale of its stakes and Britain’s new banking watchdog backed plans to shore up the pair’s capital buffers.

AG Barr ‘positive’ despite Britvic jobs axe: Irn-Bru maker AG Barr has insisted that it “remains positive” over its planned £1.4 billion merger with Britvic, which unveiled plans to cut hundreds of jobs after reporting a 50% jump in profits.

City A.M. 

Ocado’s Steiner misses out on Waitrose party: Waitrose’s managing director Mark Price has been none too pleased recently with Tim Steiner and his chums at Ocado, who up until now have been exclusively servicing the food group with a highly-acclaimed although not terribly profitable internet service.

Pandora falls after investor sells shares: Shares in Pandora fell 11%, after the Danish jewellery maker said its majority shareholder was offering about 10% of shares in the company to institutional investors.

Intermediate Capital profits drop by 25%: Intermediate Capital Group, a provider of mezzanine financing, said full year profit fell 25% due to lower realisation of gains from investments and higher provisions for bad loans.

Carillion wins £400 million contract for Battersea Power Station: Carillion, one of the UK’s biggest construction firms, has won a £400 million deal to develop the first phase of London’s Battersea Power Station.

UK markets finished higher yesterday, after the International Monetary Fund called for additional measures to boost growth in the nation and as US Fed chief Ben Bernanke indicated that the monetary easing programme would continue for now. Lloyds Banking Group jumped 2.3%, following reports that the company might meet its capital requirements without issuing new shares. Marks & Spencer Group climbed 1.6%, following a broker upgrade to ‘Hold’ from ‘Underweight’. Rolls-Royce Holdings edged up 1.0%, after it received an order from CIT Aerospace for its aircraft. Britvic surged 10.7%, after posting an almost 50% rise in its pre tax profits for 28 weeks to April 15th. On the flipside, ARM Holding slipped 1.4%, amid news that Samsung Electronics may prefer some other seller for processors. The FTSE 100 advanced 0.5%, to close at 6,840.3, while the FTSE 250 rose 0.1%, to settle at 14,824.1.

US Market Snapshot

US markets closed lower yesterday, after initial optimism following Bernanke’s testimony to Congress gave way to concerns, after the Fed minutes showed that several members were willing to consider curtailing bond buying as early as the next meeting in June. Allegheny Technologies shed 4.7%, after the shares of the company went ex-dividend. Target retreated 4.0%, after it indicated that its revenue suffered due to higher taxes and cold temperatures. Bucking the trend, Bristol-Myers Squibb rallied 5.3%, following a broker upgrade to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’. NetApp rose 1.8%, amid news that the company would cut jobs and undertake a share buyback programme. Lowe’s Companies gained 1.2%, after its chief executive indicated that the positive US house markets is helping the company recover from a cold spring. The DJIA shed 0.5%, to settle at 15,307.2, while the NASDAQ slid 1.1%, to close at 3,463.3. The S&P 500 slipped 0.8%, to settle at 1,655.4.

Europe Market Snapshot

Other European markets finished higher yesterday, after the US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke indicated that the altering the pace of bond buying might prove risky. Metro soared 10.3%, following a broker upgrade to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal weight’. Roche Holding jumped 3.0%, after a broker upgraded the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’. Volkswagen edged up 0.5%, following a broker upgrade to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’. Banking stocks Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas gained 1.6% and 1.2%, respectively, amid increased risk appetite among investors. On the flipside, Terna Rete Elettrica Nazionale retreated 3.4%, after UniCredit sold stakes in the company on behalf of several other investors. The FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 0.2%, to close at 1,256.3. Among other European markets, the German DAX Xetra 30 rose 0.7%, to close at 8,530.9, while the French CAC-40 advanced 0.4%, to settle at 4,051.1.

Asia Market Snapshot

Markets in Asia are trading mostly lower this morning, following weak Chinese PMI data and amid concerns that the Fed could curtail its bond buying programme. However, some stocks in Japan are trading higher. Canon Corp, Fast Retailing and Fanuc Corp are trading 5.3%, 5.1% and 3.8% higher, respectively, as the yen continued to weaken against the dollar. Toyota Motor is trading 1.4% higher, amid news that the company has decided to lift its production target for the half year ended September 30th. In Hong Kong, Jiangxi Copper and Cnooc are trading 2.4% and 2.2% lower, respectively. In South Korea, SK Hynix is trading 1.8% higher, amid speculations that the profits of the company might increase in the next quarter. SK Telecom and KT Corp are trading 1.6% higher, respectively. The Nikkei 225 index is trading 0.2% higher, at 15,663.0. Hang Seng index is trading 1.6% down, at 22,880.0, while the Kospi index is trading 0.6% lower at 1,982.7.

Commodity, Currency and Fixed Income Snapshots

Crude Oil

At 0330GMT today, Brent Crude Oil one month futures contract is trading 0.65% or US$0.67 lower at US$101.93 per barrel, as weak Chinese PMI dented the demand for crude oil. Yesterday, the contract declined 1.26% or US$1.31, to settle at US$102.6 per barrel, after the Energy Information Administration reported that US crude oil inventories declined 338,000 barrels for the week ended 17th May.

Gold

At 0330GMT today, gold futures contract is trading 0.23% or US$3.1 lower at US$1364.3 per ounce. Yesterday, the contract fell 0.74% or US$10.2, to settle at US$1367.4 per ounce, as the dollar strengthened after the minutes of the Fed’s last meeting indicated support for tapering the bond buying programme. 

Currency

At 0330GMT today, the EUR is trading at US$1.2846 against the USD, marginally gaining 0.03%, ahead of the Eurozone’s manufacturing PMI data to be released later today. Yesterday, the EUR weakened 0.6% versus the USD, to close at US$1.2842, after the minutes of the last Fed meeting indicated support for curtailing the bond buying programme.

At 0330GMT today, the GBP weakened against the USD, slightly losing 0.02%, to trade at US$1.5031, ahead of the UK’s gross domestic product data to be released later today. Yesterday, the GBP weakened against the USD by 0.83%, to close at US$1.5034, amid broad dollar strength and as retail sales in the UK missed market expectations.

Fixed Income

In the US, long term treasury prices fell, pushing the yields higher, as investors weighed the comments of US Fed chief, regarding curtailing the bond buying programme, in response to questions in his testimony and following the release of minutes of the last Fed meeting. Yesterday, yield on 10-year notes rose 9 basis points to 2.03%, while yield on 2-year notes remained unchanged at 0.26%. Meanwhile, 30-year bond yield increased 7 basis points to 3.21%. 

Key Economic News

UK industrial orders rose less-than-expected in May, indicates CBI

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), in its latest industrial trends survey has reported that total order book balance in the UK rose to a reading of -20.0 in May, compared to a level of -25.0 in April. Market had expected the index to improve to a reading of -17.0 in May. Meanwhile, trend selling prices dropped to a level of 4.0 in May, from a level of 8.0 recorded in the previous month. 

UK retail sales fell unexpectedly in April

On a monthly basis, retail sales (including fuel) in the UK dropped 1.3% in April, following an upwardly revised drop of 0.6% recorded in the previous month. Market had expected the retail sales to rise 0.1% month-on-month (MoM) in April. On an annual basis, retail sales (including fuel) rose 0.5% in April, compared to a 0.5% drop recorded in March. Meanwhile, on a monthly basis, retail sales excluding fuel declined 1.4% in April, following a revised drop of 0.7% reported in the previous month. Market had expected retail sales to rise 0.1% MoM in April. On an annual basis, retail sales excluding fuel advanced 0.2% in April, following a 0.4% rise recorded in March. 

UK public sector borrowing fell in April

The Public Sector Net Borrowing (PSNB) in the UK posted a surplus of £8.0 billion in April, lower than the upwardly revised £12.6 billion surplus reported in March. Market had expected the net borrowings to post a surplus of £7.0 billion in April. Meanwhile, PSNB excluding financial interventions narrowed to £6.3 billion in April, compared to £14.7 billion surplus registered in March, and slightly lower than expectations of £8.5 billion surplus in April. Moreover, public finances recorded a deficit of £10.8 billion in April, compared to a £31.5 billion surplus recorded in March.

IMF calls for measures to support UK Growth

The IMF warned that, despite recent positive economic data in the UK, the economy is still a long way from “a strong and sustainable recovery” and feared the impact from forthcoming spending cuts. The IMF’s deputy managing director, David Lipton, said “Recent data suggest some improvement in economic and financial conditions, which is encouraging, but the United Kingdom has a long way to go. Investment has been persistently weak and unemployment, especially among young people, is high.” 

Mervyn King's stimulus call rejected for the fourth consecutive month

The Bank of England (BoE) in its monetary policy meeting, decided to maintain its interest rate at a record low of 0.50%. However, BoE chief Mervyn King’s call for an increase in quantitative easing by £25.0 billion to a total of £400.0 billion was overturned for the fourth consecutive month by other policymakers.

Eurozone current account surplus widened in March 

The European Central Bank (ECB) reported that, on a seasonally adjusted basis, the current account surplus in the Eurozone widened to €25.9 billion in March, from a downwardly revised surplus of €14.6 billion recorded in the prior month. On an unadjusted basis, current account surplus came in at €24.8 billion in March, following a revised €11.5 billion surplus recorded in February. 

SNB would pursue negative interest rates if needed, says SNB president

Swiss National Bank president Thomas Jordan’s commented that the central bank is likely to take steps of a shift of the cap on the franc and negative interest rates. He further added that: “The adjustment of the minimum exchange rate is something that principally belongs to the options if needed, and we will maintain the minimum exchange rate for as long as necessary.” 

Fed Minutes showed some policy makers want to scale back QE3 this summer

According to the minutes of the April 30-May 1 policy meeting, some federal members showed an inclination to slow down the pace of asset purchase programme as early as the June meeting. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke stated that it was too early to scale back the monetary stimulus and the central bank needs to see further signs of traction before taking a decision. He stated, “A premature tightening of monetary policy could lead interest rates to rise temporarily but would also carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery and causing inflation to fall further.” 

US existing home sales rose to a three-year high in April

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that, on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, existing home sales in the US rose 0.6% to an annual rate of 4.97 million in April, marking its highest annual rate since November 2009 and following a 0.2% drop to an upwardly revised 4.94 million in March. Market had expected the existing home sales to rise to 5.00 million in April, from the 4.92 million originally reported in the previous month.

US mortgage applications fell for the second consecutive week

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), for the week ended 17 May 2013, mortgage application volume in the US, on a seasonally adjusted basis, fell 9.8% from one week earlier, marking its second consecutive weekly decline. Meanwhile, the refinancing demand for the week also slumped 11.7% from the week before. 

Canadian retail sales remained flat in March

On a monthly basis, retail sales in Canada remained flat in March standing at C$39.5 billion, compared to a downwardly revised increase of 0.7% recorded in the previous month. Market had expected retail sales to rise 0.1% MoM in March. Meanwhile, retail sales excluding autos fell unexpectedly by 0.2% in March, compared to a rise of 0.7% recorded in the previous month, and expectations of 0.2% rise in March.

Chinese manufacturing activity contracted unexpectedly in May, indicates HSBC/Markit

According to preliminary estimates, the HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing in China dropped to a reading of 49.6 in May, marking its lowest level in seven months and compared to a reading of 50.4 in April. Market had expected the index to remain unchanged at a reading of 50.4 in May.

Japan investors were net sellers of foreign stocks last week

The Ministry of Finance reported that the Japanese investors sold a net ¥804.4 billion in foreign bonds and notes in the week ended 17 May 2013. Japanese investors also sold a net ¥136.9 billion of foreign stocks. The ministry further stated that the foreign investors bought a net ¥17.7 billion in Japan bonds and notes and also bought a ¥716.0 billion of Japanese stocks in the week ended 17 May 2013.

Bernanke hinted at a tapering off of the central bank’s quantitative easing (QE) programme. That was enough to send the S&P 500 index down by 1.11%.

Asian markets have also taken a battering this morning with Tokyo’s Topix index suffering its biggest daily fall since March 2011, while the Nikkei 225 is off more than 4%. Hong Kong gets off a little more lightly, with the Hang Seng currently down 2%.

Back home, the FTSE 100 index is set to open around 106 points lower at around 6,734, which should lead to City editors putting those “Footsie hits all time high” stories back in the drawer for the time being.

The corporate news agenda is busy, as it usually is on a Thursday. On the retail side, Mothercare and Halfords are scheduled to report, while for those of a boozy bent, lager brewer SABMiller and pubs group Mitchells & Butlers are set to serve up trading statements.

It also adds another significant piece of the puzzle needed to build a successful parcel distribution and on-line logistics network that could not only go head to head with Australia Post but take it past the postal company given TZ's "agnostic" delivery logistics system enables deliveries from any company.

Previous agreements had already covered possibly more than 60% of parcel deliveries in Australia while the company has locked in initial locations for its A.D.A.M. Parcel Locker System and has identified potential sites for the next stage of development.

TZ had this morning entered a trading halt ahead of a planned capital raising.  The latest TNT announcement should add signficant impetus to the next 12 months for TZ.  We continue to affirm our estimate of "intrinsic value" of TZ is closer to double the current market valuation.

TZ Limited will be presenting at the Proactive Investors One2One Forum in Sydney on 4 June 2013. Click HERE to register.

Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX “Small and Mid-cap” stocks with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.

TZ Limited will be presenting at the Proactive Investors One2One Forum in Sydney on 4 June 2013. Click HERE to register.

Proactive Investors Australia is the market leader in producing news, articles and research reports on ASX “Small and Mid-cap” stocks with distribution in Australia, UK, North America and Hong Kong / China.