Proactiveinvestors United Kingdom market reports

PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: ANGLE, Dragon Oil, Xcite Energy, DiamondCorp, Red Rock

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:15:00 +0000

Investment group ANGLE (LON:AGL) delivered more good news today as it said the potentially revolutionary cell separation device being developed by its Parsortix business had successfully captured cultured lung cancer cells.

This is an important milestone in that it proves the technology is capable of identifying different solid tumour forms without modification.

It has already successfully identified breast and prostate cancer cells in blood. The next advance will be to repeat the exercise with blood drawn directly from cancer patients.

ANGLE chief executive Andrew Newland said: “The successful capture and identification of cultured lung cancer cells added to blood further substantiates the potential for the Parsortix separation technology to become a market-leading product, which is simple, effective and affordable.”

In the oil sector, Xcite Energy (LON:XEL) has secured access to £85.8 million in new capital. Some £25.8 million of the money is being raised through a share placing while a further £60 million will be made available through an equity credit line facility.

Xcite also revealed that it has terminated its existing equity line arrangement with Yorkville Advisor’s YA Global Master fund.

"Against a challenging economic backdrop, we are very pleased to have further strengthened our balancesheet as we move forward with the field development plan towards first oil," said chief executive Richard Smith.

The placing has been arranged by a subsidiary of Bermuda based Socius Capital Group. It will be completed in two tranches.

In the first tranche 15.1 million units, comprising one share and half a warrant, are being issued to Socius at a price of 85p. This will raise £12.9 million for Xcite.

Shares in oil and gas explorer Solo Oil (LON:SOLO) rose as it moved a step closer towards full production from the Ausable field in Ontario - revealing an update on operations. Equipment to bring three wells onto production have arrived on the site, the firm said, relaying a statement from its JV partner Reef Resources (CVE:REE) to the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The completion programme for the upper Guelph and A2 gas zones in the Airport South No.1 well is currently being drafted with expected recompletion early next year, it added.

Dragon Oil (LON:DGO) today reached a significant milestone in its ongoing expansion as its latest well brings total daily production up to the 70,000 barrel mark.

This morning it revealed that the Dzheitune (Lam) 28/164 development well has now been completed. Testing showed an initial production rate of 3,018 barrels of oil per day.

"Having successfully put on stream the Dzheitune (Lam) 28/164 well, we reached the production rate of 70,000 barrels of oil per day,” said chief executive Dr Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa.

Planet Payment (LON:PPT) today revealed a 40 per cent increase in net revenue for the first nine months of the year.

Net revenues for the three quarters, ended September 30, came in at US$29.5 million compared with US$21.0 million in the same period of last year. The firm’s consolidated gross billings increased by 64 per cent to US$70.9 million.

The company said that the fourth quarter will be the strongest period of the fiscal year. It estimates that net revenue will reach US$41-42 million during the full year and gross consolidated billings will be US$98-$102 million.

DiamondCorp’s (LON:DCP) receipt of £2 million from an insurance settlement is a great result for the company, according to analysts at Ocean Equities.

Yesterday the South Africa based diamond mining firm revealed an agreement with its insurer over a claim for damage to timbers and pumps in the vertical shaft at the Lace mine. The timbers were damaged incurred during heavy rains earlier in this year.

It also clarified that this particular shaft will be used for ventilation rather than ore hoisting, in the current underground mine development plan.

Red Rock Resources (LON:RRR) shares went up after the firm unveiled analysis from work carried out at its Melville Bugt project in Greenland, which has confirmed the existence of a significant iron ore province.

The company found a number of highly prospective iron formations during the 2011 season, it revealed. The announcement late yesterday prompted the stock to rise towards the end of the session from 3 pence to reach 3.32 pence at the close, and the shares continued upwards today.

Troubled fast food franchisee Global Brands (LON:GBR) more than doubled in value as it revealed a plan to retain part of its business as an AIM-listed shell.

It had previously planned to de-list the company and go private. Instead it will demerge the current operation into an unlisted entity. Investors will own shares in both the private pizza business and the AIM quoted cash-shell.

Also among the losers was debt ridden camping retailer Blacks Leisure (LON:BSLA) after major shareholder Sports Direct (LON:SPD) withdrew its interest in buying the company.

Mike Ashley's Sports Direct tried to buy Blacks last year and it was thought it may rescue the retail firm, in which it already has a 22.5 per cent stake.

FTSE 100 goes above 5,430; US awaits Farmville maker's Float - UPDATE

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:19:00 +0000

Britain's blue chip index advanced this morning - as it did yesterday - with mining stocks featuring prominently among the risers.

As at 12.25 pm, the FTSE100 stood up 24.85 points - at 5,425.

The optimism among investors was attributed to a positive mood coming from across the Atlantic about the US economy following strong data released yesterday.

Closer to home, European markets were more subdued with the German DAX down 0.11 per cent, the French CAC 40 down 0.09 per cent.

"Yesterday’s economic data, and strong earnings from FedEx, have buoyed investors as the penultimate week before Christmas draws to a close," said Christopher Beauchamp, research analyst at IG Index.

"Some are beginning to hope that the US economy is starting to decouple from the eurozone crisis, as the world’s largest economy shows its resilience."

US November CPI data is due out later.

Miner Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) led the FTSE100 - up 3.81 per cent, to change hands at 1173 pence.

Kazakhyms (LON:KAZ) was in second place - advancing 3.54 per cent - to trade at 876 pence while Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) stood up 2.95 per cent - at 3118.5 pence and Xstrata (XTA) was up 3.08 per cent - at 977.20 pence per share.

Another notable riser was Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS, up 2.90pct at 20.21p).

US markets

The eagerly anticpated shares will start trading in New York of online video game pioneer Zynga after the firm- based in California - sold 100 million shares at $10 each.

Financial bookmakers are expecting a higher start on Wall Street with futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing 48 points to 11,870 and Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index rising 7.20 points to 1,218.

The US November consumer-price index is also due.

UK corporate

In FTSE 100, oil giant BP (LON:BP) said today that it had settled with contractor Cameron over the Macondo incident.

Cameron has agreed to pay BP US$250 million in exchange for settling all claims between both parties. No liabilities are admitted on either side.

In FTSE 250 news, HomeServe (LON:HSV) announced the appointment of Ben Mingay to the board as a non-executive director as of January 1 next year. Mingay will also join the audit committee.

FTSE100 advances this morning

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:49:00 +0000

Friday's most followed including Pursuit Dynamics, Max Petroleum, Sirius Minerals, BP, Aminex, Red Emperor Resources and ANGLE

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:03:00 +0000

Engineering firm Pursuit Dynamics (LON:PDX) emerged as the most searched for UK companies on Google Finance following the firm's announcement yesterday that chief executive Roel Pieper has resigned.

The firm said Pieper resigned with immediate effect for personal reasons and he will return to his venture capital activities.

As at 9.24 am, the firm's shares were down 8.60 per cent to trade at 85 pence each. Non-executive director Jeremy Pelczer, who joined the board in June 2011, has assumed the role of interim CEO and will serve until a permanent CEO has been identified.

A statement from Max Petroleum (LON:MXP) topped the list of most read stock exchange announcements today as the oil and gas firm released an operational update.

It said that the Kazakh Government had approved a three month extension to the firm's trial production project for the Zhana Makat Field until March 15 next year.

This is expected to provide the necessary time to obtain final regulatory approval to convert Zhana Makat to full field development status under the Blocks A&E exploration and production contract.

Also making the list of most read announcements was potash specialist Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX), whose shares were up 3.26 per cent - to trade at 23.75 pence - this morning.

The company announced today the approval by the North York Moors National Park Authority of three additional planning applications for drill sites at its York potash project and also updated investors on drilling at the SM2 hole.

This hole has now passed the latest fluid loss zone and is now 1,164m below surface and the rig is currently preparing to insert the last casing.

Managing director Chris Fraser commented that the additional sites would help the firm further define the extent of the world class resource in the area and that Sirius continued to progress the drilling phase as quickly as possible.

Also catching the attention of investors was oil major giant BP (LON:BP.), which announced it had reached agreement with Cameron International Corporation to settle all claims between the companies related to the Deepwater Horizon accident and spill.

Cameron International is the designer and manufacturer of the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer,

BP and Cameron have concluded that the settlement is in their mutual best interests, and the agreement is not an admission of liability by either party.

Oil and gas explorer Aminex (LON:AEX) said today that Brian Hall has elected to retire from his role as executive chairman at the end of the year.

The statement ranked at number five of the most read LSE releases.

Hall will continue to serve as a non-executive chairman until an independent chairman is appointed, the firm said.

The group also announced executive director and chief operating officer Didier Murcia has elected to resign his posts at the end of this year. He will remain as a special advisor to the board on legal matters and government relations.

The transition is part of a succession plan established by the board early this year that included the hiring of Stuard Detmer as chief executive officer in September, the company had said.

Also making the list was Red Emperor Resources (LON:RMP, ASX:RMP), which is raising £4.09 million in a placing to provide additional funds for the current exploration programs in the Puntland region of Somalia and in Georgia.

Fox-Davies Capital in the UK and Max Capital in Australia will place 37,178,123 new ordinary shares at 11 pence and 17 cents per share, respectively.

Executive Director Greg Bandy said: "This is a very exciting time for our company as we are funded to drill major transformational prospects in Puntland and a second well in Georgia, both expected to spud in January.

“The additional funds raised in the placing will allow Red Emperor to commit to a second well in Puntland, should we choose to do so, as well as provide us certainty about our future beyond these two major wells,” he added.

Investors were also keen to read the news of ANGLE (LON:AGL), which revealed this morning that the potentially revolutionary cell separation device being developed by its Parsortix business had been successful in capturing cultured lung cancer cells.

This is an important milestone in that it proves the technology is capable identifying different solid tumor forms without modification.

It has already successfully identified breast and prostate cancer cells in blood. The next advance will be to repeat the exercise with blood drawn directly from cancer patients.

COMPANY SNAPSHOT including Dragon Oil, ANGLE Plc, Botswana Diamonds, VANE Minerals, GGG Resources and Sirius Minerals

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:58:00 +0000

Dragon Oil (LON: DGO) announced this morning the completion of the zheitune (Lam) 28/164 development well, which was drilled to a depth of 1,865 metres.

Dr Abdul Jaleel Al Khalifa, the chief executive, said: "Having successfully put on stream the Dzheitune (Lam) 28/164 well, we reached the production rate of 70,000 barrels of oil per day. This solid progress gives us further comfort in achieving the target gross production growth of above 25 per cent for 2011."

Elsewhere, ANGLE (LON:AGL) revealed that its medical diagnostics business Parsortix achieved another important milestone - by confirming that its cell separation device can capture cultured lung cancer cells.

"This new validation is a further important step towards demonstrating that the Parsortix separation technology works well with any solid tumour cancers without the need for modification or dependence on cancer specific antibodies, unlike existing antibody affinity based technology," the firm said.

The company's founder and chief executive, Andrew Newland, said it substantiated the "potential for the Parsortix separation technology to become a market-leading product, which is simple, effective and affordable".

Botswana Diamonds (LON:BOT), which was admitted to AIM in February, released its final results for the period from September 22 to June 30 today, in which chairman John Teeling said: "The dynamics of the diamond business are improving with demand growing at over 6 per cent a year and supply flat.

"We are in the best locations to find new mines. We will apply new technology on our existing licences and new ground in Botswana while a sampling programme will commence in early 2012 on our palaeoplacers discovery in Cameroon."

The pre-tax loss for the period stood at £696,472.

The firm also revealed today it was in advanced negotiations to partner with a group that has “new technologies and approaches” to finding diamonds.

Meanwhile, VANE Minerals unveiled promising drilling results from its Rose uranium project. One hole showed an intercept of 1445.5 feet to 1458 feet averaging 1.82 per cent equivalent uranium.

Chief executive David Newton said: "These are promising drilling results, particularly when coupled with the results of the previous drilling on the project.

"Further drilling will continue at Rose with the aim of establishing an NI 43-101 compliant resource, which will add to our existing resource of 1.118m pounds at our Wate project."

In other news, GGG Resources (LON:GGG, ASX:GGB) announced further details of the proposed merger to take place between the company and Auzex Resources (ASX:AZX).

It said the first step involved will be the firm's acquisition by Bullabulling Gold Limited. Then GGG shares trading on AIM and DIs on the ASX will be cancelled and BBG shares will be admitted to trading on the ASX and DIs representing shares in BBG will be admitted to AIM.

GGG today posted a Scheme Circular setting out full details of the proposed change of capital structure.

Potash firm Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) announced today the approval by the North York Moors National Park Authority of three additional planning applications for drill sites at its York potash project and to provide an update on drilling at the SM2 hole.

Managing director Chris Fraser said the additional sites would help the firm further define the extent of the world class resource in the area and that Sirius continued to progress the drilling phase as quickly as possible.

Elswewhere, Nyota Minerals (LON: NYO) expects to publish a new JORC-compliant resource estimate for its Tulu Kapi gold prospect in the first quarter of 2012.

Chief executive Richard Chase said: “The emphasis has clearly been on the Tulu Kapi DFS and resource estimation and upgrade, which remains on track in spite of the aggressive timetable that we are targeting. Good progress has also been made with exploration of the northern blocks.”

MARKET PREVIEW: FTSE 100 to open marginally higher after advances in Asia

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:55:00 +0000

The FTSE 100 is predicted to open marginally higher in opening deals, building on the gains it made yesterday and underpinned by the advances in Asia overnight.

Cantor Fitzgerald is calling the Britain’s blue-chip index 28 points higher at 5,429.

Corporate news is expected to be thin on the ground today as we head into the traditional Christmas lull so the focus will be on two pieces of domestic economic data and a dribble of US stats.

Here in the UK we are expecting trade figures mid-morning, while the monthly CBI Producer Price Index is also published around the same time.

Stateside we have November PPI, Industrial Production and third quarter current account numbers.

Overnight the mood has been one of cautious optimism as the green shoots of a recovery were spotted in the US.

The Nikkei closed 24.35 points higher at 8,401.72, while the Hang Seng ended the session 176.73 to the good at 18,203.57.

The propellant for those gains came from Wall Street, which nudged up 45.33 points to 11,868.

In the US better than expected employment and regional factory activity numbers temporarily bumped the deepening Euro-crisis from the headlines.

UPDATE: FTSE 100 rallies, US stocks seen higher after retail data

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:41:00 +0000

UK stocks rose sharply today with the FTSE 100 rallying 112 points (2.2 percent) to reach 5,277 in early afternoon, driven by speculation that Italy is due to receive a massive aid package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

A report in Italian newspaper La Stampa claims that the debt-ridden Italy and the IMF are in talks over a €600 billion loan, which should help the euro zone’s third largest economy service its €1.9 trillion debt pile and avert a default.

However, the IMF has already denied that any such negotiations are taking place.

Nevertheless, the FTSE 100 held on to its gains and showed no signs of weakness this afternoon.

“Less excitable voices were also heard to wearily point out that the IMF only has around €285 billion in emergency funds, meaning that IMF members would have to stump up lots more cash,” said analyst at IG Index Christopher Beauchamp.

“However, the voices of sanity have been ignored this morning, as the FTSE 100 looks to continue the remarkable turnaround that it started on Friday.”

The markets also shook off today’s report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which called on the EU to act swiftly to stem the debt crisis. If Europe fails to address its debt problems, OECD said it could face “massive escalation of economic disruption”.

Banking stocks were in demand as concerns over their exposure to the European debt crisis eased. Barclays (LON:BARC, up 6.4pct at 165.55p) topped the leaderboard, followed by part-nationalised bank Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS, up 5.3pct at 19.73p).

Miners including Kazakhmys (LON:KAZ, up 4.9pct at 844.5p) and Vedanta Resources (LON:VED, up 4.8pct at 972.5p) also did well in morning trade as base metals surged.

Despite a sharp rise in the price of gold, Randgold Resources (LON:RRS, down 6.1pct at 6,365p) slid to the bottom of the FTSE 100 pile after warning investors that a series of setbacks at its Tongon mine in Côte d'Ivoire is expected to have a negative impact on its fourth quarter production.

US markets

Financial bookmakers are currently expecting US stocks to open sharply higher today. In addition to the reports of talks between the IMF and Italy, American stock markets were supported by upbeat US retail sales data that came out this morning.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rallied 273 points (2.45 percent) and futures for the broader S&P 500 index advanced 34.5 points (3 percent).

Retail research company ShopperTrak reported that sales during the four day period starting on the Thanksgiving Day and including Black Friday jumped 16 percent compared to the same period of 2010.

While ShopperTrak estimated that Black Friday sales were up 6.6 percent, the National Retail Federation reported a 9.1 percent increase from a year earlier.

UK corporate news

Back in the UK, other corporate updates included a report from mining major Rio Tinto (LON:RIO, up 5pct at 3,181p), which said that customer sentiment has become more negative as a result of the euro zone debt crisis and a weaker outlook for the US economy.

“But while there are signs of nervousness, we believe the impact of current economic concerns on our business is manageable, unless financial markets substantially deteriorate,” said chief executive of Rio Tinto Tom Albanese.

Fellow mining company BHP Billiton (LON:BLT, up 5pct at 1,843p) today announced changes at the top. BHP said its chief financial officer Alex Vanselow will retire from the company at the end of February 2012 to be succeeded by Graham Kerr.

Kerr has recently served as president of its BHP’s Diamonds and Specialty Products business.
The group added that president of marketing Michael Henry will join the group management committee as group executive and chief marketing officer.

In other news in the top flight, Rolls-Royce (LON:RR., 2.6pct at 696p) rallied after announcing a longevity swap agreement with its pension fund that it said would “give additional security to all members of the company's final salary pension scheme.”

The contract with Deutsche Bank reduces the risk on approximately £3bn of the fund's liabilities, said Rolls-Royce.
“This is the latest in a series of measures we have taken to achieve greater certainty for our future funding requirements,” said finance director of Rolls-Royce Andrew Shilston.

Euro zone optimism lifts FTSE 100

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:07:00 +0000

Monday's most followed: Yell Group, AEA Technology, Orogen Gold, Globo, Patsystems, Rockhopper Exploration, Desire Petroleum

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:11:00 +0000

Today’s announcement of a new banking facility from Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) drew attention to other stocks that are currently engaged in discussions with their lenders.

One of them, Yellow Pages publisher Yell Group (LON:YELL), emerged among the most searched for UK stocks on Google Finance with investors looking for the latest updates on the group’s funding talks.

It has been speculated that Yell, which has a debt pile of £2.6 billion, is close to reaching an agreement with its lenders to change the terms of its loans to avoid breaching covenants and an announcement is imminent.

The proposals that were made earlier this month, included providing Yell headroom of 20 percent under the net debt to earnings covenant, saying the current headroom is “much less than was expected at the time of the 2009 refinancing.”

Yell emerged among the top risers in the FTSE 250, seeing its share price rise 23 percent to 5.5 pence.

AEA Technology (LON:AAT), which did not have any news out today, also did well, soaring 33 percent to 0.36 pence.

The microcap climate change consultant was driven by optimism ahead of its interim report, which will be released on Wednesday, November 30.

Earlier this month, the group saw more than 80 percent of its value wiped out as it issued a profit warning and announced it was in discussions with its lender Lloyds relating to its banking facilities.

On message boards, investors following AEA were hoping that the company would secure more funds from Lloyds, noting that shares in Thomas Cook soared 32 percent after the tour operator secured a further £100 million from its lenders to avert a default.

In the profit warning, AEA said its operating profit performance for the full year would be for the full financial year would be significantly below expectations.

The group said this was due to weaker than expected trading at its Washington based business PPC, which was “adversely impacted” by late placement of some orders and some expected orders not being won.

Meanwhile, today’s most read RNS statements included an update from Orogen Gold (LON:ORE), which has raised £1.16 million by placing over 231 million shares in the company at a price of 0.5 pence per share, which represents a substantial discount to yesterday’s closing price of 0.76 pence.

Following the update, shares in Orogen slipped 20 percent to trade at 0.61 pence.

Orogen said it will use the proceeds to fund further exploration at its Deli Jovan gold project in Serbia.

The company holds an option to earn a 55 percent of the project from reservoir Capital Corp by covering C$1.5 million of exploration expenditures and a further 20 percent by commiting an additional C$2 million, bringing its total interest to 75 percent.

In oil and gas, Falklands focused firms against emerged among the most followed companies after Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) spudded the 14/15-4 well on license PL004b, in which the company will earn a 60 percent interest by drilling this well.

The 14/15-4 well, which is expected to be the final well in the current drilling campaign, will investigate reservoir presence and hydrocarbon charge towards the southernmost mapped limit of the Sea Lion field.

After reaching its target depth, the well will be sidetracked if it encounters a significant hydrocarbon charged reservoir in either the Sea Lion Main Complex or the Beverley prospect.

Initial drilling and logging operations are expected to take approximately 20 days.

Following the completion of this well, partner Desire Petroleum (LON:DES) will hold a 40 percent interest in the license and Rockhopper will have a 60 percent interest.

Other popular stock exchange statements included updates from AIM quoted stocks Globo (LON:GBO) and Patsystems (LON:PTS), which both did very well in morning trade.

IT firm Globo rallied 9 percent to 15.25 pence in early deals after announcing the full commercial launch of its GO!Enterprise Server product.

Globo said using the product enables companies to access all mainstream, vertical or customized software, business tools and applications using any handset or tablet with any operating system.

According to Globo, the product has generated “substantial” interest from potential partners and end-users around the world following its introduction at the Mobile World Congress at Barcelona in February this year.

Shares in Patsystems also were in demand after the electronic trading specialist announced that its largest shareholder ION Trading proposed to acquire the company for 14 pence per share, a premium to yesterday’s closing price of 9.63 pence.

“The board acknowledges the Company's strong commercial fit with ION, their greater financial stability, as well as the potential benefits to staff, customers and product development,” Patsystems said in today’s statement.

“The board will therefore carefully assess the merits of the proposed combination.”

Demand for Patsystems shares was high following the update, driving its share price up 32 percent to 12.75 pence.

And finally, Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) also generated interest this morning, reporting chemical assay results from its first hole at the York Potash project in the UK, which it said confirmed it as one of the world’s “most significant potash projects”.

The highlights of the “outstanding” results were that 22.1 metres of high grade polyhalite was found across all three beds, while an average grade of 95.7 per cent including 5.83 metres of continuous more than 99.5 per cent polyhalite was discovered across 15.1 metres of assays.

Last week the firm said that the next hole at the project, which lies between Scarborough and Whitby - the SM2 at Howlett Hall - was approaching coring depth.

Preliminary results from this hole are expected within a few weeks of the beginning of coring.

COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Thomas Cook, Cove Energy, Aurelian Oil & Gas, Green Dragon Gas, Range Resources, Thor Mining, Condor Resources

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:20:00 +0000

Embattled tour operator Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) again was in the spotlight this morning, announcing that it has secured a £200 million banking facility to replace its £100 million short-term facility announced on 21 October 2011.

The group’s lenders including Barclays (LON:BARC), HSBC (LON:HSBA), RBS (LON:RBS) and UniCredit have also agreed a “further relaxation” of the financial covenants under the existing facilities.

The funds should carry Thomas Cook through the traditionally quiet Christmas period.

Last Tuesday, shares in Thomas Cook plummeted 70 percent after it announced it was in talks with its lenders.

Oil and gas companies, including Cove Energy (LON:COV), which today announced a “major appraisal success” and a resource upgrade, also garnered plenty of attention this morning.

Cove Energy reported that the Barquentine-3 appraisal well Windjammer, Lagosta, Barquentine and Camarão gas complex encountered more than 202 net meters of natural gas pay in two high-quality Oligocene-aged fan systems.

Recoverable resource ranges for the WLBC gas complex are now estimated to be 15 to over 30 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, with an estimated 30 to over 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in place.

A large-scale LNG development is currently being designed to consist of at least two trains with the flexibility to expand to six trains.

Fellow oil and gas company Aurelian Oil & Gas (LON:AUL) has signed a relationship and area of mutual interest (R&AMI) agreement with Kulczyk Investments S.A. for joint co-operation in oil and gas activities in Poland.

Kulczyk, a 13.77 percent shareholder in Aurelian, has interests in a broad range of sectors in Poland, including integrated energy, which it is seeking to grow further through increased investment in the Polish upstream sector.

“Excellent synergies exist between our technical capability and Kulczyk Investments' M&A and Gas Commercialisation skills. We see this agreement as key catalyst to support the growth of Aurelian's Polish business going forward,” said chief executive of Aurelian Oil & Gas Rowen Bainbridge.

Staying with oil and gas firms, coal bed methane (CBM) gas producer Green Dragon Gas (LON:GDG) reported that its third quarter production reached 406 MMcf, an increase of 227 percent over the same period of 2010.
Production came entirely from the Shizhuang South (GSS) block.

The Company remains on track to achieve its previously-stated annualised production rate target of 18 Bcf following an expenditure programme of US$250 million.

Another oil and gas company Range Resources (LON:RRL) and partner Red Emperor Resources (LON:RMP) announced that new fault trap and trapping potential has been identified in the vicinity of the Mukhiani-1 well in the Republic of Georgia.

Based on these findings, the partners have the option to side-track and test these targets. However, the companies have elected to continue on the next proposed Kursebi well based on their exploration schedule and the availability of the drilling rig.

As a result, Range will suspend the Mukhiani-1 well and move the rig to the next proposed well site.

In the mining sector, Thor Mining (LON:THR) told investors that the outcomes from the drill core assay results generated by the 2011 resource development drilling program at its Molyhil tungsten-molybdenum project in Australia were positive.

The results included intersections of 16.4 metres grading 0.84 percent tungsten and 0.56 percent molybdenum and 9 metres grading 1.48 percent tungsten and 0.1 percent molybdenum.

A re-estimation of the Molyhil resource is currently underway and expected to be finalised before the year end.

Another small cap mining company Condor Resources (LON:CNR), which is focused on gold, announced a maiden mineral resource estimate – compliant with the JORC standard - for its wholly owned Rio Luna Concession in Nicaragua, located 70 kilometres (km) southeast of its flagship La India project.

The inferred resource at Rio Luna has been estimated at 695,000 tonnes at 3.5 grammes per tonne (g/t) for 80,000 oz of gold on three veins which includes a total of 280,000 tonnes at 56 g/t for 500,000 oz silver.

In total this is a gold equivalent mineral resource of 87,000 oz gold equivalent at 3.9 g/t gold equivalent.

Fellow gold miner Hummingbird Resources' (LON:HUM) said its chairman Ian Cockerill has upped his stake in the firm and is now interested in around 1 per cent of the company.

The exploration company also revealed today that its managing director Daniel Betts had increased his holding.

On Friday last week (November 25), Cockerill has, via his family trust, bought 40,000 shares at £1.23 per share for £49,200 and is now interested in 531,083 shares, representing around 1 per cent of the firm's share capital.

In other news, diamond miner Stellar Diamonds (LON:STEL) has completed the initial resource drilling programme at its Droujba kimberlite pipe project in eastern Guinea.

The company has completed 31 holes for 7,457 metres in Droujba pipe; the deepest intersection reached 414 metres and the body remains open at depth, said the company.

Bulk sampling is expected to start in December this year, while processing of overburden yielded 57 carats, including two stones of over 4 carats.

The company remains on track for a JORC compliant resource estimate in the first quarter of 2012.

Moving to coal miners, Continental Coal (LON:COOL) reported that development activities at its Penumbra coal mine in South Africa are proceeding in line with this budget and are slightly ahead of schedule.

The mine, which has a planned production of 750,000 tonnes per annum, is set to become the company’s third thermal coal mining operation in South Africa.

The company also told investors that it has received a preliminary draft of the bankable feasibility study on the De Wittekrans coal project, which shows that the project is both technically and economically viable and has the potential to generate significant returns for shareholders.

Peer Strategic Natural Resources (LON:SNRP) reported its interim results covering the six month period to end August.

The company highlighted the progress it has made with contracting out the mining operations and sourcing plant and equipment.

“We remain confident we will be able to deliver our first orders on schedule and we anticipate being able to update our competent persons report in the first quarter of 2012 and will update our resource statement at that time,” said chief executive officer David Nel.

In the biotech sector, ReNeuron (LON:RENE) updated investors on the ongoing PISCES (Pilot Investigation of Stem Cells in Stroke) clinical trial of its ReN001 stem cell therapy for disabled stroke patients.

The company said that five patients have been treated in the study to date. No cell-related adverse events have been reported in any of the patients treated to date, while assessments showed no deterioration in the health of any of the patients as a result of the ReN001 treatment.

ReNeuron expects that all remaining patients in the PISCES clinical trial will be treated over the course of 2012.

“We look forward to providing further updates on the study as the higher dose cohorts are treated and to progressing our planning for the efficacy study that will follow it,” said chief executive of ReNeuron Michael Hunt.

Meanwhile, Eco Animal Health (LON:EAH) announced that the Veterinary Drugs Directorate (VDD) of Health Canada has granted the company a marketing authorisation for Aivlosin 625 mg/g water soluble granules for pigs.

This formulation of Aivlosin will be marketed for the treatment of ileitis, an enteric disease of pigs.

Canada is currently enjoying an increase in its pig population following consolidation among producers, which the company said bodes well for its business.

Elsewhere in the markets, power generation company Rurelec (LON:RUR) provided an update on its pending international arbitration against the Government of Bolivia following the nationalisation of its controlling stake in Empresa Guaracachi SA in May last year.

The arbitral tribunal has now been appointed and Rurelec said it has commissioned an independent firm to prepare formal open market valuation of its holding in Guaracachi prior to the nationalisation.

The report will be presented to the arbitral tribunal, together with Rurelec's detailed statement of claim, supporting documents and witness statements, in March 2012.

MARKET PREVIEW: FTSE 100 seen higher on IMF Italy report

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:06:00 +0000

UK stocks are set to open sharply higher today after Italian newspaper La Stampa reported that Italy is due to receive a €600 billion package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The FTSE 100 is currently expected to open at 5,221, up 55 points (1.1 percent) from Friday’s close.

Italy, the euro zone’s third largest economy, saw its borrowing costs jump to record levels over the past weeks as confidence in its ability to service its massive €1.9 trillion debt pile waned.

In addition to the La Stampa report, sentiment was lifted by reassuring statements from member of the European Central Bank (ECB) Christian Noyer, who said today that the Italian economy is strong and a breakup of the euro zone was not an option.

Noyer, however, stopped short of confirming that Italy is currently in talks with the IMF.

“Some analysts have discredited La Stampa reports surrounding IMF financial aid for Italy, saying the fund simply does not have such resources... without being overly pessimistic, traders will be waiting for a bit more confirmation before rushing back in to equities,” said analyst at IG markets Stan Shamu.

European stocks received more help from another report, which said Germany could agree to issuing joint bonds with five other euro zone members that have a top notch triple-A rating.

Asian stocks were in buying mode today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 stood 127 points (1.55 percent) higher at 8,287 at the end of the session, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index added 1 point (0.1 percent) to reach 2,381 just before close of play.

FTSE 100 news summary: Compass Group, Weir Group, Severn Trent, Centrica, Resolution, Pearson, Royal Dutch Shell

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 15:21:00 +0000

This week’s news in the top flight included the formal inauguration of Royal Dutch Shell's (LON:RDSB) Pearl Gas to Liquids (GTL) project in Qatar by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

Pearl GTL turns natural gas into liquid fuels and products, which Shell said “realizes the full upside of accessing the oil markets”.

When fully operational, Pearl GTL will have the capacity to produce 140,000 barrels a day of products such as gasoil, naphtha, kerosene, normal-paraffin and lubricants base oils. It will also produce 120,000 barrels a day of natural gas liquids and ethane.

Elsewhere in the FTSE 100, Compass Group’s (LON:CPG) has acquired African cleaning company Supercare Services Group, which provides services including contract cleaning and washroom hygiene services.

In the year to end February 2011, Supercare generated revenue of £63.6 million and gross assets £12 million.

“This acquisition is in line with Compass Group's ongoing strategy to invest and expand in fast growing markets and we continue to see many exciting opportunities,” Compass said in a statement.

Weir Group (LON:WEIR) has also made an acquisition this week. The engineering group bought US operating wellhead specialist Seaboard for US$675 million.

Based in Houston, Texas, Seaboard supplies engineered wellhead and pressure control equipment to the oil and natural gas exploration and production industries and provides associated field and support services.

The firm is focused on the North American unconventional oil and gas drilling and production markets.

Fellow blue chip Severn Trent (LON:SVT) reported its interim results. The utility group saw its pre-tax profits slide 35.4 percent to £65.3 million despite a 2.1 percent increase in sales to £886 million due to losses due in part to exceptional charges of £21.9 million of its Italian business.

In other news, chemicals and precious metals group Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT), reported strong interim results and forecast that the second half will be slightly ahead of the first.

Revenue in the six months to September 30 2011 rose to £5.9 billion from £4.56 billion a year earlier, an increase of 29 percent, while underlying pre-tax profit soared 24 percent to £203 million.

Centrica (LON:CNA) has secured a ten year deal for the supply of 50 billion cubic metres of gas to the UK worth £13 billion from Norwegian oil major Statoil.

In addition, Centrica has also made a £1 billion acquisition of producing and development assets in the Norwegian North Sea.

Insurance focused investor Resolution (LON:RSL) also caught the eye of investors, announcing that it has terminated takeover talks with FTSE 250 constituent Phoenix Group (LON:PHNX).

Phoenix said that it has also received approaches from other companies including CVC Capital Partners.

Meanwhile, Financial Times publisher Pearson (LON:PSON) has agreed to acquire Global Education and Technology Group, a provider of test preparation services for students in China who are learning English.

Pearson acquired the business for US$155 million.

From 2013, Pearson said it expects the acquisition to enhance adjusted EPS and to generate a cash return on invested capital above Pearson's weighted average cost of capital.

Other news in the top flight included updates from mining majors Anglo American (LON:AAL) and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO).

Anglo American announced first copper from the expanded Los Bronces project in Chile.

The Los Bronces mine, at peak production, is expected to be the fifth largest copper mine in the world.

The firm said it was expecting to more than double the mine's existing production of 221,000 tonnes per annum over the next three years.

Rio Tinto reported that it has received Canadian Competition Bureau clearance for its offer for Canadian uranium miner Hathor Exploration for C$4.70 per share.

The latest offer from Rio Tinto, which values Hathor at 654 million, trumped a C$4.50 per share bid from Saskatchewan operating uranium major Cameco.

Mid and small cap news: Thomas Cook, YCO Group, Blacks Leisure, Dixons Retail, Halfords Group, Balfour Beatty, Premier Foods

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Embattled tour operator Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) emerged as the most followed company in the FTSE 250 this week after revealing that it was in talks with its lenders on Tuesday.

Shares in Thomas Cook tanked 70 percent on Tuesday’s announcement, at one point slipping below 10 pence.

Later in the week, the stock rebounded to end the week at 18 pence, driven by speculation that it is close to securing a banking facility of up to £100 million to carry it through the traditionally quiet Christmas period.

Other notable fallers in London included YCO Group (LON:YCO) and Blacks Leisure (LON: BSLA), which both issued profit warnings.

Manager of luxury yachts YCO said its profits for the full year 2011 will be significantly below market expectations as “difficult economic and challenging market conditions” has led to an increase in costs and delays of part of its contracted revenues into 2012.

YCO added that it anticipates a breakeven trading position for the full year.

On a positive note, the group said that a higher level of investment has resulted in a “satisfying” operational performance as the number of yachts under management has increased during the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, retailer of clothing and equipment for the outdoors Blacks Leisure said that the already challenging trading conditions that it reported at its interim stage had continued to weaken during the last few weeks.

Blacks put this down to continuing pressure on consumer spending, particularly discretionary spending, and consumer confidence in general.

As a result, the firm is experiencing lower-than-expected sales and has been taking action to manage margins in order to drive sales.

“As in previous years, the outcome for the full financial year is substantially dependent on the group’s trading performance over the important Christmas period but based upon recent trading, we now expect the outcome to be below expectations,” it said.

Another retailer Dixons Retail (LON:DXNS) did better this week as its interim results topped expectations, seeing its shares add more than 10 percent on Thursday.

Total group sales were up and the company was growing share across most markets - particularly in the UK and Nordics, it said.

"In what remains a challenging environment, the pace and impact of improvements in our operating model is driving outperformance versus our competitors and market share gains, said chief executive John Browett.

The firm's service-led model enabled the UK and Ireland division to deliver an encouraging performance and the underlying loss for the 24 weeks to October 15 narrowed to £3.9 million (2010: £10.7 million loss) although total sales in the division were down 5 per cent to £1,529.7 million (2010/11 £1,616.0 million).

Sticking with retailers, UBS has downgraded Halfords Group (LON:HFD) from “neutral” to “sell”, predicting a “tough” second half after the car accessories retailer saw its profits slip 20 percent in the first six months of the year.

In a note this week, UBS analysts led by Adam Cochraine said Halfords needs to identify new ways to increase sales as growth in its Leisure business has failed to fully offset a structural decline in the Car Enhancement segment.

The note followed Halfords’ interim results report for the period to end September, which was released earlier this month, revealing a 20 percent drop in its pre-tax profits to £54.7 million.

Fellow FTSE 250 constituent Balfour Beatty (LON:BBY) secured the £110 million Whitechapel Crossrail contract.

Crossrail is London’s new high-frequency railway that will serve 37 stations, from Maidenhead and Heathrow to the west of the capital to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

Balfour, along with its partners Morgan Sindall Group (LON:MGNS) and Vinci Construction, will demolish the existing Whitechapel station before constructing a new ticket hall behind the retained station facade and upgrading and extending the Hammersmith & City Line and District Line platforms.

In other news, Premier Foods (LON:PFD) has replaced its chief financial officer (CFO) Jim Smart with Mark Moran, who is now facing the difficult task of sorting out the struggling food group’s financial problems.

Earlier this month, Premier Foods, which has a debt pile of £1.27 billion, signed an agreement with its lenders to defer an upcoming covenant test from December 31 this year to the end of March 2012.

Elsewhere in the markets, mobile messaging firm Synchronica (LON:SYNC, TSE:SYN) said this week that its larger recurring revenues, along with a cost control programme, will move the company closer to a cash positive position.

Reporting its third quarter results Synchronica said it produced a 900-per cent improvement in revenue to US$7 million for Q3 2011, although the firm also saw its overall costs increase as a result of its Nokia OBM acquisition earlier this year.

Losses before exceptional items were US$7.5 million (Q3 2011: US$3.6 million) while operating losses on the EBITDA level were US$3.5 million (Q3 2010: US$2.2 million).

In other news, medical devices group Deltex Medical (LON:DEMG) has received another endorsement for its oesophageal doppler monitor after a Spanish study found it reduced both total and major complications after surgery.

The study found the use of Deltex’s CardioQ-ODM monitor also reduced costs due to the fewer complications, shorter hospital stays and shorter surgery times.

Ewan Phillips, Deltex Medical's chief executive, said: "The Spanish health technology assessment follows those already published by the US and UK governments, but is the first to look only at bowel surgery.”

In the meantime, the winter deal signing season appears to have started well for Lo-Q (LON:LOQ), according to analysts at investment research boutique Edison.

Edison’s Richard Jeans said that Monday’s extension to Lo-Q’s relationship with US theme park operator Six Flags substantially underpins the market’s consensus forecasts for 2012 and beyond.

Additionally, the analyst points out that a three-month smartphone-based pilot at the EDF London Eye begins next week.

"We understand that Lo-Q is receiving a lot of interest elsewhere for this (smartphone) product,” he added.

“Further contract announcements over the coming months could lay the foundation for positive earnings surprises and lend substantial credence to management initiatives to broaden both the product offering and customer base.”

Mining news summary: Serabi Mining, Noricum Gold, Triple Plate Junction, Chaarat Gold, Nyota Minerals, Metminco, Alecto Minerals

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:27:00 +0000

While the price of gold fell, most of this week’s updates from small cap mining companies focused on the yellow metal were positive.

Starting with Serabi Mining (LON:SRB, TSE:SBI), the Brazil-focused gold explorer said drilling on the south-eastern strike extension of the Palito deposit has returned bonanza grades.

The company reported preliminary analytical results from shallow infill and step out drilling on the strike extension of the main zone of mineralisation at its Palito mine in the Tapajos region of Brazil’s Para state.

It has now received the results for 5 of the 8 holes that were drilled for a total of 937 metres of shallow diamond drill holes.

PDD0522 returned 0.9 metres with 20.6 grams per ton gold and 3.56 percent copper, PDD0523 showing 1.36 metres with 48.07 g/t gold and 2.64 percent copper and PDD0519 cutting 0.72 metres with 9.26 g/t gold and 0.40 percent copper.

Sector peer Noricum Gold (LON:NMG) this week announced that it had received “significant multi-element results” from regional reconnaissance fieldwork at Rotgülden in south-central Austria.

The work, undertaken at three targets along both the northern and southern extension of the 51-square kilometre Rotgülden licence area, delivered “highly encouraging results from a variety of mineralising styles” that continue to “highlight the regional scale and high grade potential of the Rotgülden licence”, said the firm.

At Seeleiten, surface sampling returned assays with bonanza grades of up to 28 grams per tonne of gold and 147.3 grams per tonne of silver.

Triple Plate Junction (LON:TPJ) also had positive news to report this week. Shares in the firm rallied on news that its joint venture partner in the Crater Mountain project in Papua New Guinea has announced a maiden resource of 790,000 gold ounces at a prospect there.

The group relayed a statement from Australia-listed partner Gold Anomaly (ASX:GOA) about completion of a maiden JORC resource for Crater Mountain’s Nevera gold prospect.

Nevara now has 24 million tonnes grading 1.0 grams per ton gold, using a 0.5 g/t cut-off grade, for 790,000 ounces of gold in the inferred category.

Meanwhile, Chaarat Gold (LON:CGH) has reported a positive result from its ongoing drilling programme in the Tulkubash Project in north western Kyrgyzstan.

The Kyrgyz - focused gold group said its Tulkubash mineralisation had extended from a previous strike of 360 metres to 920 metres and is still open towards the northeast.

Dekel Golan, chief executive, said the group was “very encouraged” by the results as they demonstrated the significant extension, potential and actual, of the Tulkubash zone.

Another gold mining company Nyota Minerals (LON:NYO, ASX:NYO) indicated that investors should look forward to news as the firm moves towards completing its definitive feasibility study required to support project financing of its more than 1.5 million-ounce resource at Tulu Kapi in Ethiopia.

In an AGM statement released this week, Nyota said: “Having secured the assets at the bottom of the market, at a significantly discounted value of less than US$2 million, your board has enabled the transformation of Tulu Kapi's resource from zero to over one and a half million ounces through the drilling of over 230 holes within two years.

Elsewhere in the sector, London Mining’s (LON:LOND) partner in the Wadi Sawawin iron project in Saudi Arabia has signed a pre-construction agreement with Korean engineer STX.

First production from the deposit is now scheduled for late 2015 with London Mining to retain a 25 per cent carried interest and to continue to be the manager and operator of the project alongside its Saudi partner, the National Mining Company.

An agreement has also been signed with Korea Development Bank (KDB) to act as financing adviser to the project, with full financing expected to come from a substantial loan from KDB and Saudi Arabian private finance and governmental sources.

Metminco (LON:MNC, ASX:MNC) this week confirmed that it has now closed its US$40 million share placing.

It will issue over 285 million new shares to institutional investors at a price of 8.8p per share.

The company also plans to raise a further US$10 million through a one-for-twenty rights issue, also priced at 8.8p.

"We are delighted to have successfully concluded this fundraise in very challenging market conditions,” said chief executive William Howe.

Africa-focused resource investment company Alecto Minerals (LON:ALO) is acquiring the holder of the 945.5 square kilometres Waya Boda gold and emerald licence in the central-southern Adola greenstone belt in southern Ethiopia.

Alecto is acquiring Rift Valley Resources Ltd for an initial £409,200 in cash and shares.

Should Alecto decide to continue to fund the exploration programme and commitment beyond July 1 2012, it will pay an additional £250,800 in shares and if not, it will transfer 51 percent of Rift Valley back to the sellers at a nominal amount.

KEFI Minerals (LON:KEFI) said results from first phase mapping, ASTER satellite imagery processing and soil and rock chip sampling on the Selib North exploration licence in Saudi Arabia are encouraging , and more exploration work is warranted.

KEFI is usuing its first-mover advantage in the kingdom, where it has established a strategic alliance with construction and investment group ARTAR, represented by the Gold & Minerals Joint Venture (G&M).

G&M, operated by KEFI, has been for three years prospecting and assembling a carefully selected portfolio of applications for exploration licences.

Herencia Resources (LON:HER) boss Michael Bohm this week told investors that drill results from the Paguanta’s Patricia deposit continue to impress.

The South America focused metals explorer revealed the results of two further holes from the project in northern Chile. These were drilled on the Cathedral vein.

The results have high grade within broad widths of mineralisation and they include one of the best assays to date from Patricia.

One hole (PTDD093) encountered 20 metres containing 8 per cent zinc, 3.8 per cent lead, 180 grams per tonne silver and 0.54 grams per tonne gold. Within this intersection there was 7.1 metres with 12.9 per cent zinc, 5.1 per cent lead, 266 g/t silver and 1.27g/t gold.

Oil and gas news summary: Gulf Keystone Petroleum, Ascent Resources, Rockhopper Exploration, Falkland Oil and Gas, Sound Oil, Solo Oil

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 13:54:00 +0000

This has been an eventful week in the oil and gas sector as Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP) updated investors on its exploration campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan, while Ascent Resources (LON:AST) soared 80 percent on Friday after reporting a well success in Slovenia.

Ascent Resources said gas flows from the second well, PG-10, on its Petisovci project in Slovenia were more than twice the rate expected.

Preliminary testing of the shallowest of two stages of the PG-10 well flowed at a stabilised rate of 8.5 MMscfd (240,000 m3; 1,420 boepd).

As the frac stimulation moved further away from the original well the rock quality got “better and better”, Ascent added.

Earlier in the week, Gulf Keystone announced that it had completed the testing programme for the Shaikan-2 deep appraisal well.

The company now plans to build a second extended well test production facility. This will allow the firm to establish oil production in the order of 40,000 barrels of oil per day from the Shaikan field.

"Following these successful well tests at Shaikan-2 and in anticipation of equally positive results from the Shaikan-4 appraisal well, we plan to design and build an additional testing and production facility for Shaikan-2 capable of producing a minimum of 20,000 bopd,” said chief operating officer John Gerstenlauer.

In addition, investors had more updates from the closely followed exploration campaign in the Falkland Islands to digest this week.

Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) this week confirmed that it has completed coring operations for the sidetrack to the 14/10-9z well.

Earlier this month Rockhopper revealed that the latest appraisal well on the Sea Lion complex was a success. Additionally the well also made a new oil discovery in the Casper exploration target.

A sidetrack was subsequently drilled to help gather more information on these reservoirs.

The sidetrack was drilled to a total depth of 2600 metres. And 60 metres of core was cut through Casper and Sea Lion reservoirs.

Rockhopper’s next well will be a joint venture with Desire Petroleum (LON:DES) in the recently agreed farm in area.

The well will target the most southerly extent of the Sea Lion Main Complex, and it will also test the Beverley exploration prospect.

Meanwhile, Falkland Oil and Gas (LON:FOGL) told investors that the Leiv Eiriksson rig is expected to arrive in the Falklands in late January.

The rig is currently contracted to Cairn Energy for its exploration programme in Greenland.

Once it arrives in the Falklands the rig will first drill two wells for Borders and Southern (LON:BOR). Then FOGL expects to spud its first well during the second quarter of 2012.

Its first well will target the Loligo prospect in FOGL's Northern licence area.

Elsewhere in the sector, Sound Oil (LON:SOU) said drilling was due to begin in early to mid December this year at the Cataka-1 well on the Citarum production sharing contract (PSC) in Java.

One location - the Jatayu-1 - has been completed and the second - Cataka -1 - is almost ready for drilling after a delay due to the annual monsoon rains, the firm said.

Sector peer Solo Oil (LON:SOLO) is set to increase its stake in the Ausable field development project, located in Ontario, Canada, from 23.8 to 38.1 per cent.

It is buying the additional equity for C$1.5 million.

The additional investment comes as a result of Solo’s joint venture partner Reef Resources (CVE:REE) raising C$1.69 million through a placing, as that funding triggered a clause in the joint venture agreement.

"We are extremely pleased that Reef has raised the additional funds envisaged under the agreement with Solo announced on 11 July 2011,” said executive director Neil Ritson.

In other news, Xtract Energy (LON:XTR) is expecting drilling of the appraisal well on the P2 block offshore the Netherlands and the high-impact Luna exploration well in Danish waters to get underway in December.

Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) operates the P2 block and Xtract, via its wholly owned subsidiary Elko Energy, has an overriding royalty arrangement of up to 5 percent of the sales value from Chevron's share of gas delivered into the Dutch national transmission system and Chevron condensate delivered onshore.

Bowleven (LON:BLVN) this week revealed that it has found more oil reservoirs in the Sapele-3 exploration well, offshore Cameroon.

It said that Sapele-3 has now been drilled to target depth of 4,480 metres, after it drilled through the Epsilon Complex target.

"Sapele-3 has been a successful well, our fourth consecutive well in the Douala Basin to encounter significant hydrocarbon intervals at multiple levels,” said chief executive Kevin Hart.

A further 8 metres of net hydrocarbon pay was intersected in the deeper reservoirs. This adds to the 11 metres of net pay that was encountered within the Deep Omicron, as announced in October.

Trap Oil (LON:TRAP) has farmed out an 80 percent interest in the Kew asset in the UK North Sea to Centrica (LON:CNA) and JX Nippon to fund a drill programme required to take the project to the development stage.

Centrica’s subsidiary Centrica North Sea Oil Limited now holds a 60 percent operating interest in Kew, while JX Nippon has a 20 percent stake.

“The opportunity to work with Centrica and JX Nippon on this exciting appraisal project means that Trapoil will be able to see Kew through to development, without the requirement for the financing of what will be expensive wells,” said chief executive of Trap Oil Mark Groves Gidney.

Max Petroleum (LON:MXP) told investors that its ZMA-A19 development well in the Zhana Makat field in Kazakhstan was successful, intersecting 28 metres of net oil pay with “excellent” reservoir quality.

The well will now be completed and placed on production immediately after obtaining necessary governmental approvals, while the rig will move to drill the SAGW-2 appraisal well in the Sagiz West field, also located in Kazakhstan.

Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA, TSE:CAZ) reported that re-entry operations at its McMillan No.1 well in Texas were successful.

The well was perforated at two intervals and fracture stimulated, resulting in initial production rates of 1.375 million cubic feet of natural gas and 57 barrels of oil on November 20.

The well is still recovering fracturing fluid and is expected to be online at the sales point within the next ten days.

“This new well is producing at expected levels and will quickly add to our current cash flow and production levels,” said chief executive of Caza Oil & Gas Michael Ford.

This week’s research reports included a note on SacOil Holdings’ (LON:SAC, JSE:SCL) from Edison Investment Research.

The research house sees potential for SacOil to re-rate upon further announcements on operating success in Nigeria or the democratic Republic of Congo.

The research house said in a note that the shares trade at a substantial discount to its core net asset value of 19 pence for SacOil.

“The discount is likely to persist while current market conditions are not favouring risky junior plays. However, imminent funding issues have been eased,” it said.

Oil prices post weekly losses on euro zone concerns, US data

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:08:00 +0000

Oil prices fell this week as fears that the European debt crisis is spiralling out of control and lacklustre US data outweighed concerns about the possibility of a European ban on oil imports from Iran and a drop in US inventories.

France this week called on the EU to impose further sanctions against Iran, including an oil embargo, after a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the country may be developing a nuclear weapon.

Iran, one of the most influential members of the Organization of petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is currently the world’s fifth largest exporter of crude oil and has the world’s third largest oil reserves.

Apart from the possibility of Iranian oil supplies being taken off the market, crude futures were supported by this week’s US inventories data.

The US Department of Energy said on Wednesday that oil stockpiles shed a massive 6.2 million barrels last week, suggesting that energy demand in the US was on the rise.

However, this was not enough to push crude prices higher as demand for oil and other riskier assets was hit by Europe’s escalating debt crisis.

Friday’s debt auction held by Italy saw yields on its six month noted jump from 3.5 percent at the previous auction to 6.5 percent, while yields on its two year bonds rallied to a euro era high of 7.83 percent.

Likewise, an auction held by Germany earlier in the week was disappointing as the euro zone’s largest economy offered €6 billion in ten year bonds, it received demand for only €3.9 billion, causing yields on its benchmark ten year bonds rise above two percent.

Oil prices faced more pressure from this week’s downward revision of the this quarter US GDP growth estimate by the Commerce Department from 2.5 percent to two percent.

US light, sweet crude for January delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), ended the week at US$96.77/barrel.

January Brent crude closed at US$106.64/barrel on the ICE Exchange on Friday.

Major oil and gas companies were in decline this week.

Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) slipped from 2,294 pence to 2,171 pence over the past five days of trading, while fellow supermajor BP (LON:BP.) retreated from 449.95 pence to 425.4 pence.

Cairn Energy (LON:CNE) fell from 289.3 pence to 264 pence, BG Group (LON:BG.) eased from 1,320 pence to 1,245 pence and Tullow Oil (LON:TLW) dropped from 1,311 pence to 1,252 pence.

PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: Ascent Resources, Triple Plate Junction, Medusa Mining, Allocate Software, Camco International

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:49:00 +0000

One of today’s main stories by Proactive Investors was dedicated to today’s top riser in the oil and gas sector Ascent Resources (LON:AST), which was boosted by excellent results from a gas well in Slovenia.

Shares in the company soared by more than 70 percent in morning trade as it said gas flows from the second well, PG-10, on its Petisovci project in Slovenia were more than twice the rate expected.

Preliminary testing of the shallowest of two stages of the PG-10 well flowed at a stabilised rate of 8.5 MMscfd (240,000 m3; 1,420 boepd).

As the frac stimulation moved further away from the original well the rock quality got “better and better”, Ascent added.

Today’s result followed flows from the fracture stimulation of a first well, Pg-11A, in Petisovci that showed stabilised gas flow rate of 2.1 MMscfd.

Options to allow the production and associated cash flow generation of both the wells by mid 2012 are now being evaluated, the oil and gas explorer added.

Managing director Jeremy Eng said, "This result from Pg-10 is excellent and exceeds our expectations. It follows the commercial, although less prolific, result from the Pg-11A stimulation, and gives us confidence that redevelopment of the Petisovci field can and will now proceed.”

Precious metals focused miners also generated plenty of interest today with Proactive dedicating two feature stories to gold mining stocks, Triple Plate Junction (LON:TPJ) and Medusa Mining (LON:MML).

Philippines-focused Medusa Mining has reiterated its upbeat forecasts for the next few years at a meeting with broker Seymour Pierce.

Chairman Geoff Davis and chief executive Peter Hepburn-Brown confirmed a forecast of 90-100,000 ounces gold production this year to June, rising to 120,000 ounces in 2012/13 and 200,000 ounces the year after, Seymour Pierce said.

Costs were also forecast to remain below US$220 an ounce, while Medusa’s team reaffirmed their commitment to a 10 US cents a share dividend, according to the broker.

Medusa is currently producing gold at the Co-O mine in the Philippines and developing a second deposit in the country at Bananghilig.

Cash and equivalents now stand at US$81 million and the company is starting to build up its reserves to put towards the development of Bananghilig.

This is slated to become the company's second 200,000 ounce a year operation with very early estimates of capex at around US$200 million and operating costs around US$500 per ounce.

Another article took an in depth look at Triple Plate Junction, whose joint venture partner Gold Anomaly yesterday announced a maiden resource of 790,000 gold ounces at a prospect at the Crater Mountain project in Papua New Guinea ahead of schedule by six months.

The news marks a “major milestone” for both the project and the company, according to independent broker Optiva Securities.

However, in a research note published today the broker added that “there is much more to TPJ than just Crater Mountain, as four core projects are being pursued in Papua New Guinea, all of which hold the potential of discovering a world class gold deposit”.

Optiva pointed out that a number of gold deposit discoveries of over 10 million ounces have been made in Papua New Guinea, the most notable being the colossal Wafi-Golpu porphyry discovery, which has 27 million ounces of gold and nine million tonnes of copper.

“The Wafi‐Golpu discovery lies tantalisingly close to TPJ’s projects at Wamum and Morobe, with both licences bordering the Wafi‐Golpu tenement,” said the broker.

“Such elephant hunting country has attracted a number of mining majors to the region, three of which are project partners to TPJ, namely Newmont, Newcrest and Barrick.”

Two other feature stories focused on staff rostering specialist Allocate Software (LON:ALL) and carbon emissions and clean energy-focused group Camco International (LON:CAO).

Broker Brewin Dolphin recently included Allocate Software in a group of healthcare IT firms that it says have a once in a lifetime opportunity because of the current environment.

Allocate is already a major supplier to the National Health Service in the UK, where it is has seen strong growth over the past four years.

Sales have risen from £8.3 million in 2007 to £30.1 million in the year to end May, with healthcare accounting for nearly 80% of that total last year. The remainder of sales are to established customers such as the British Army, Nato and Australia’s armed forces.

Profits have also picked up smartly, with the operating total before amortisation charges last year rising from £3.75 million to £5.77 million.

Brewin Dolphin expects underlying profits to rise to £5.9 million in the current year and to £6.6 million in the year after.

The story on Camco noted that the company is currently involved in several environmentally-friendly projects around the world. Recently, it has benefited from an improving regulatory environment for low carbon and clean energy projects.

Camco comprises three business divisions. The largest division focuses on carbon reduction project development, while the group also has a business that invests in clean energy projects as well as another operation that provides advice to other companies, and governments, about energy and carbon matters.

The carbon division works with power generators and large industrial companies to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly with regard to meeting regulatory requirements as set out by the United Nations’ Kyoto Protocol.

Camco develops these carbon projects “at risk”, which means working with the project owners and sharing the profits in much the same way as a property developer.

It then earns its payback from revenues generated by the projects or by banking valuable carbon credits; the creation and commercialisation of carbon credits is an important part of this business.

Earlier this year, Camco announced it was “seeing tangible benefit from the high rate of registration of emission reduction projects” by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board.

US crude rallies on Iran tensions, Brent dips as euro zone fears persist

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:10:00 +0000

Oil prices in New York rose on supply concerns as France called on other European countries to stop importing oil from Iran, which a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said may be developing a nuclear weapon.

The Iranian issue is expected to dominate the agenda of the upcoming meeting of EU foreign ministers, who will convene in Brussels on December 1.

Iran, one of the most influential members of the Organization of petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), is currently the world’s fifth largest exporter of crude oil and has the world’s third largest oil reserves.

While US benchmark crude was on the rise, Brent crude dropped in London under pressure from persisting concerns over the European debt crisis.

Fears that the situation is spiralling out of control intensified after Italy saw yields on its six month noted jump to 6.5 percent during today’s auction compared to 3.5 percent a month ago, while yields on two year bonds set a new euro era record at 7.83 percent.

The auction followed statements from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who explicitly rejected the idea of common euro zone bonds.

She has also spoken against broadening the mandate of the European Central Bank (ECB) to make it the lender of last resort for struggling euro zone economies.

US light, sweet crude for January delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), climbed US$1.01 to US$97.18/barrel in morning trade in new York.

January Brent crude dropped 27 cents to US$107.49/barrel on the ICE Exchange this afternoon.

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

Ascent Resources (LON:AST), up 80 percent at 2.97 pence at midday

Petroceltic International (LON:PCI), up 15 percent at 6.89 pence

Mediterranean Oil & Gas (LON:MOG), up 6.5 percent at 6.67 pence

Gold Oil (LON:GOO), up 6 percent at 2.84 pence

Xtract Energy (LON:XTR), up 5.5 percent at 1.95 pence

The top fallers were:

Woburn Energy (LON:WBN), down 14.5 percent at 1.5 pence at midday

Petro Matad (LON:MATD), down 10.5 percent at 19 pence

Oilex (LON:OEX), down 9.5 percent at 14 pence

Europa Oil & Gas (LON:EOG), down 8 percent at 6.1 pence

Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP), down 6.5 percent at 157.56 pence

UPDATE: FTSE 100 rebounds, JP Morgan reduces S&P 500 target

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:33:00 +0000

The FTSE 100 is looking to snap its losing streak as nine sessions after reversing early losses to rise 9 points (0.2 percent) to reach 5,136 in early afternoon.

The UK’s blue chip index was lifted by a positive start in the US, where traders returned from a one day break for the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

UK stocks slumped this morning as the results of today’s Italian bond auction disappointed the markets with the euro zone’s third largest economy seeing its borrowing costs hit 14 year highs, a sign that confidence in its ability to avert a default is fading.

Italy sold bonds worth a total €10 billion including €8 billion in six month notes, yields on which jumped from 3.5 percent at the previous auction to 6.5 percent.

“Debt yields across the currency zone are on the rise, and even the most sanguine of individuals are beginning to wonder if we have actually entered the end game for the euro,” said market analyst at IG Index Christopher Beauchamp.

“Political paralysis will be the norm, as it has been for almost two years. At some point, one country will leave the euro, but whether this will herald a rush of departures is hard to say.”

Vedanta Resources (LON:VED, down 2.8pct at 928.5p) was the heaviest faller in the top flight, pressured by concerns over the mining major’s ability to service its massive debt.

Utility group Severn Trent (LON:SVT, down 2.7pct at 1,482p) also was in decline as its interim figures disappointed investors.

Other notable fallers included asset managers Man Group (LON:EMG, down 1.8pct at 123.5p) and Schroders (LON:SDR, down 2.3pct at 1,183p).

Meanwhile, shares in part-nationalised banks were in demand with RBS (LON:RBS, up 3.8pct at 18.65p) and Lloyds (LON:LLOY, up 1pct at 22.64p) making the FTSE 100 leaderboard.

US markets

US stocks were off to a positive start today in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rallied 86 points (0.75 percent) to reach 11,343 and the broader S&P 500 index advanced 9 points (0.8 percent) to 1,170.

JP Morgan today reduced its year end forecast for the S&P 500 index from 1,475 to 1,350 to reflect the recent sell-off in global equity markets.

However, JP Morgan analysts said stocks are undervalued compared to other risky assets and could get a boost from a flow of positive US data in the final month of the year.

UK corporate news

Back in the UK, today’s corporate updates in the FTSE 100 included Compass Group’s (LON:CPG, up 1.4pct at 553p) acquisition of African cleaning company Supercare Services Group, which provides services including contract cleaning and washroom hygiene services.

In the year to end February 2011, Supercare generated revenue of £63.6 million and gross assets £12 million.

“This acquisition is in line with Compass Group's ongoing strategy to invest and expand in fast growing markets and we continue to see many exciting opportunities,” Compass said in the statement.

Fellow blue chip Severn Trent (LON:SVT, down 2.4pct at 1,486p) reported its interim results. The utility group saw its pre-tax profits slide 35.4 percent to £65.3 million despite a 2.1 percent increase in sales to £886 million due to losses due in part to exceptional charges of £21.9 million of its Italian business.

In the FTSE 250, Premier Foods (LON:PFD, up 4.7pct at 4.75p) has replaced its chief financial officer (CFO) Jim Smart with Mark Moran, who is now facing the difficult task of sorting out the struggling food group’s financial problems.

Investors welcomed the appointment as shares in the FTSE 250 firm rallied five percent to 4.75 pence, valuing the business at £114 million.

Earlier this month, Premier Foods, which has a debt pile of £1.27 billion, signed an agreement with its lenders to defer an upcoming covenant test from December 31 this year to the end of March 2012.

FTSE 100 rebounds after Dow Jones and S&P 500 rise in early trade

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:02:00 +0000

The FTSE 100 is looking to snap its losing streak as nine sessions after reversing early losses to rise 9 points (0.2 percent) to reach 5,136 in early afternoon.

The UK’s blue chip index was lifted by a positive start in the US, where traders returned from a one day break for the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

UK stocks slumped this morning as the results of today’s Italian bond auction disappointed the markets with the euro zone’s third largest economy seeing its borrowing costs hit 14 year highs, a sign that confidence in its ability to avert a default is fading.

Italy sold bonds worth a total of €10 billion including €8 billion in six month notes, yields on which jumped from 3.5 percent at the previous auction to 6.5 percent.

“Debt yields across the currency zone are on the rise, and even the most sanguine of individuals are beginning to wonder if we have actually entered the end game for the euro,” said market analyst at IG Index Christopher Beauchamp.

“Political paralysis will be the norm, as it has been for almost two years. At some point, one country will leave the euro, but whether this will herald a rush of departures is hard to say.”

Vedanta Resources (LON:VED, down 2.8pct at 928.5p) was the heaviest faller in the top flight, pressured by concerns over the mining major’s ability to service its massive debt.

Utility group Severn Trent (LON:SVT, down 2.7pct at 1,482p) also was in decline as its interim figures disappointed investors.

Other notable fallers included asset managers Man Group (LON:EMG, down 1.8pct at 123.5p) and Schroders (LON:SDR, down 2.3pct at 1,183p).

Meanwhile, shares in part-nationalised banks were in demand with RBS (LON:RBS, up 3.8pct at 18.65p) and Lloyds (LON:LLOY, up 1pct at 22.64p) making the FTSE 100 leaderboard.

Friday's most followed: Thomas Cook, Angel Mining, Berkeley Mineral Resources, Fuller, Smith &Turner, Severn Trent

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:24:00 +0000

Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) was the most searched for UK company on Google News with investors looking for the latest updates on the company’s financial situation.

It has been speculated that the embattled tour operator, which earlier this week revealed it was in talks with lenders, is close to securing a banking facility of up to £100 million to carry it through the traditionally quiet Christmas period.

Shares in Thomas Cook tanked 70 percent on Tuesday’s announcement, at one point slipping below 10 pence. The stock has since rallied to reach 19.26 pence this morning.

The financial situation at Angel Mining (LON:ANGM) has also been at the centre of attention today after the company amended the terms of its debt facility, giving it “greater flexibility” over the coming months as it continues bringing its Nalunaq gold mine in Greenland up to target production.

Back in July, Angel entered into a promissory note with YA Global Master for up to US$3.65 million and subsequently made two drawdowns. Following an initial repayment, US$1.85 million was due to be repaid January 15 next year.

Angel will now repay US$0.53 million by issuing 25 million shares at 1.37 pence per share, a premium of 5.4 percent to yesterday’s closing price, while YA Global Master has agreed to extend the repayment schedule for the promissory note.

Under the revised terms, the company will also have to extend the repayment of its outstanding loan from Cyrus Capital to December 31 2012 or a later date. Angel said it was confident that such an agreement will be reached on or before December 11.

The news emerged among the most discussed topics on message boards.

Investors following Angel Mining were hopeful that the company will manage to reach an agreement with Cyrus, noting that it gave a specific date when it expects to sign this agreement.

This was interpreted as a sign that the company has reasons to be confident that it will be able to come to terms with its lender.

Meanwhile, today’s interim results from Berkeley Mineral Resources (LON:BMR) topped the list of the most read RNS statements.

In the report, Berkeley revealed that it is currently in advanced discussions over a significant copper tailings acquisition in Zambia, adding that it is also in talks to acquire a license to all of the residual partly mined or unmined underground ore bodies remaining at the former Kabwe mine.

For the year to end June, Berkeley posted a loss of £2.5 million before tax compared with a loss of £0.5 million for the prior year, while net assets increased from £0.3 million a year earlier to £18.6 million.

Another financial results report that made the list of the most popular stock exchange statement of the day came from pub operator Fuller, Smith &Turner (LON:FSTA), which reported increases in both revenues and profits.

The group said sales in the 26 weeks to October 1 were up 6 percent at £128.2 million as all parts of its business achieved growth, leading to a 5 percent increase in profits to £16.5 million.

Fuller, Smith &Turner also highlighted the increase of £120 million in its bank facilities, giving it additional funds to “invest in new opportunities as they arise”.

“Our strategy is to be highly selective and we have the patience to wait for the right assets to become available at the right price,” said chairman of Fuller, Smith &Turner Michael Turner.

Half-yearly results from Severn Trent (LON:SVT) also were of interest.

The water group saw its pre-tax profits slide 35.4 percent to £65.3 million despite a 2.1 percent increase in sales to £886 million due to losses due in part to exceptional charges of £21.9 million of its Italian business.

Meanwhile, today’s biggest movers included Cosalt (LON:SCLT), which saw half of its value wiped off as it agreed to a buyout offer from its chairman, and Ascent Resources (LON:AST), which soared 80 percent after reporting “excellent” flow rates from a gas well.

Starting with Cosalt, the group has agreed to a 0.1 pence per share offer tabled by chairman David Ross, who will now take the group private.

The offer values the group’s share capital at around £400,000 and implies an enterprise value of £14.4 million and represents a discount of 87.18 percent to the closing price of 0.78 pence on November 16, the last day of trading before the offer period.

In contrast, Ascent was among the top risers in London as flow rates from the PG-10 well on its Petisovci project in Slovenia were reported at 8.5 million cubic feet of gas, which is equivalent to 1,420 barrels of oil.

“This result from Pg-10 is excellent and exceeds our expectations. It follows the commercial, although less prolific, result from the Pg-11A stimulation, and gives us confidence that the redevelopment of the Petisovci field can and will now proceed,” said managing director Jeremy Eng.

Shares in Ascent traded at 2.98 pence this morning compared to yesterday’s close of 1.65 pence.

COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Blacks Leisure Group, YCO, Cosalt, Compass Group, Solo Oil, Ascent Resources, Harvey Nash Group, Gulf Keystone Petroleum

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:22:00 +0000

Retailer of outdoor equipment Blacks Leisure Group (LON:BSLA) and luxury yacht company YCO (LON:YCO) were at the centre of attention in London this morning after both companies released profit warnings.

Workwear provider Cosalt (LON:CSLT) also caught the eye of investors, announcing that it has agreed to chairman David Ross’ buyout offer of 0.1 pence per share, cauing its share price to plummet in early deals.

Blacks Leisure Group said it is set to miss expectations for the full year after experiencing lower than expected sales amid weakening trading conditions.

The group added that the outcome for the full year will be “substantially dependent” on the Christmas trading period.

Meanwhile, YCO said its profits for the full year will be significantly below market expectations as a result of “difficult economic and challenging market conditions”.

On a positive side, the group noted that the number of yachts under management in the Y.CO fleet has increased during the second half of 2011, while the number of charter weeks booked for 2011 will exceed that of 2010.

Today’s trading update from recruitment specialist Harvey Nash Group (LON:HVN) was far more positive.

The group said trading from the start of August to 24 November has been in line with expectations. Revenues for the October quarter rose 21 percent compared to the same period of 2010, while pre-tax profits were up 17 percent.

“We are encouraged by the continued growth of the Group and, despite the uncertain global economic outlook and the ongoing crisis in the Eurozone, the Board is confident that the Group will continue to make good progress and achieve its expectations for the full year,” said Harvey Nash.

Back to Cosalt, the chairman’s offer values the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Cosalt at around £400,000 and implies an enterprise value of £14.4 million.

The offer price represents a discount of 87.18 percent to the closing price of 0.78 pence for each Cosalt share on November 16, the last day of trading before the offer period.

“The company is in a difficult situation. A practical solution is required to secure the future of the business and therefore the Independent Directors are unanimously recommending the offer to shareholders,” said senior independent non-executive director of Cosalt Maurice White.

In the oil and gas sector, Ascent Resources (LON:AST) has completed the fracture stimulation of the Pg-10 well at the Petišovci Project in Slovenia, achieving a flow rate of 8.5 million cubic feet per day, which is equivalent to 1,420 barrels of oil, calling it an “excellent result”.

Stimulation work on both the Pg-10 and Pg-11A wells is now complete. Ascent plans to recomplete both wells during January and February 2012.

The company is currently studying options to allow the production and associated cash flow generation of the Pg-10 and Pg-11A wells by mid 2012.

Peer Parkmead Group (LON:PMG) reported its results for the financial year ending June 30, which saw revenues jump 58 percent to £3.75 million. Parkmead added that it is fully funded following the provision of a shareholder loan for £8 million.

In the report, Parkmead highlighted the acquisition in the Platypus gas field and Possum gas prospect, which it said offers near term drilling and significant upside potential, and its joint venture deal with DEO Petroleum.

Another oil and gas company Solo Oil (LON:SOLO) announced that its joint venture partner Reef Resources has raised C$1.69 million via a private placement, triggering a second tranche of funding from Solo to increase its stake in the Ausable field development from 23.8 percent to 38.1 percent.

Moving to mining companies, Alecto Minerals (LON:ALO) has acquired the Waya Boda gold and emerald licence in the “highly prospective” central-southern Adola greenstone belt in southern Ethiopia.

The company noted that the Adola belt hosts significant and commercial deposits of gold, including MIDROC's Lege Dembi mine located 82 kilometres to the north of the licence.

Alecto already holds a 1,953 square kilometre gold exploration licence in Ethiopia.

Sector peer Nyota Minerals (LON:NYO, ASX:NYO) told investors to look forward to news as it moves towards completing its definitive feasibility study required to support project financing of its more than 1.5 million-ounce resource at Tulu Kapi in Ethiopia.

“Having secured the assets at the bottom of the market, at a significantly discounted value of less than US$2 million, your board has enabled the transformation of Tulu Kapi's resource from zero to over one and a half million ounces through the drilling of over 230 holes within two years,” said Nyota.

Nyota added that its current board has built strong relationships with the Ethiopian government and regional figures, and that it views the locality as an upcoming region for gold production and mineral exploration.

At the end of last month, Nyota reported that assay results for a further 32 drill holes will help it to upgrade its Tulu Kapi resource.

In other news, FTSE 100 constituent Compass Group (LON:CPG) has acquired African cleaning company Supercare Services Group, which provides services including contract cleaning and washroom hygiene services.

In the year to end February 2011, Supercare generated revenue of £63.6 million and gross assets £12 million.

“This acquisition is in line with Compass Group's ongoing strategy to invest and expand in fast growing markets and we continue to see many exciting opportunities,” Compass said in the statement.

Elsewhere in the markets, Equatorial Palm Oil (LON:PAL) announced senior management changes today as it strengthens its board to develop its activities in Liberia, Africa.

Declan Griffin has been appointed as Head of Country with immediate effect, while Sashi Nambiar has been hired as head of operations based in the West African country.

Meanwhile, managing director Peter Bayliss is to resign from the board to pursue other business interests, said the firm.

Today’s appointments included Gulf Keystone Petroleum’s (LON:GKP) hiring of Mark Hanson as a non-executive director.

Hanson, a qualified barrister and solicitor, has previously served as chief executive officer of Global Banking Corporation in Bahrain.

MARKET PREVIEW: FTSE 100 set to extend losing streak as euro zone concerns persist

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:06:00 +0000

The FTSE 100 is set to extend its losing streak to ten sessions after German Chancellor Angela Merkel dashed hopes that euro zone members will agree to issue joint bonds to resolve the debt crisis.

The UK’s blue chip index is currently expected to open at 5,101, down 26 points (0.5 percent) from Thursday’s close.

Following yesterday’s meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, Merkel said the idea of common euro zone bonds was inappropriate.

The leaders of the euro zone’s three largest economies also agreed not to extend the mandate of the European Central bank (ECB), which would make it the lender of last resort for struggling European countries.

“The question traders are asking however is how much higher do borrowing costs (yields) have to rise and risk assets fall before price stability becomes an issue for the ECB? As it stands, liquidity is drying up and funding costs are getting more expensive; the situation threatens to really spiral out of control,” said research analyst at IG markets Stan Shamu.

Traders are now looking to today’s auction of Italian six month notes. The debt ridden country is hoping to raise €8 billion.

Asian markets were in selling mode today after official Japanese data showed that consumer prices fell 0.1 percent in October, marking the first decline in four months.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 5 points (0.1 percent) at 8,160 at the end of the session, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index stood 18 points (0.75 percent) lower at 2,379 just before close of play.

US markets were closed for the Thanksgiving Day holiday yesterday.

PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: Metminco, Noricum Gold, Hummingbird Resources, New World Oil & Gas, Wentworth Resources

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:37:00 +0000

Metminco’s (LON:MNC) US$50 million fundraising to fund next year’s drill campaign at the Los Calatos copper-molybdenum emerged among the main stories of the day.

A total of US$40 million is being raised via a share placing at 8.8 pence per share – a modest discount to last night’s closing price – with the remainder coming from a 1-for-20 rights issue.

Chief executive William Howe said he was delighted with the institutional support the company received as a result of the placing.

“We are now fully funded to deliver our 2012 work programme and make significant progress in delineating the world class Los Calatos porphyry system and position ourselves to bring Mollacas towards near term production as planned,” said Howe.

In today’s article on the cash call, Proactive Investors pointed out that raising US$50 million at such a small discount to the prevailing price is no mean feat, given the volatility seen of late in the equity market.

According to one person close to the process, there has been “exceptional demand” for Metminco stock.

Metminco said it is now funded to take Los Calatos to an updated interim JORC resource statement by the third quarter of 2012 and a second JORC resource estimate in the first quarter of 2013.

It explained that drilling results from the ongoing 32,000 metre diamond drilling programme confirm that Los Calatos is a world-class project.

Proactive dedicated two other main stories of the day to precious metals focused mining companies Noricum Gold (LON:NMG) and Hummingbird Resources (LON:HUM).

Noricum saw its shares improve by 4.35 per cent to hit three pence each in late-morning trading today thanks to reconnaissance fieldwork by the firm identifying new targets on its Rotgülden licence area in south-central Austria.

The work, undertaken at three targets along both the northern and southern extension of the 51-square kilometre licence area, delivered “highly encouraging results from a variety of mineralising styles” that continue to “highlight the regional scale and high grade potential of the Rotgülden licence”, said the firm.

Analysts from Old Park Lane Capital agreed. “The early stage surface sampling results and the identification of yet more targets on the Rotgülden trend demonstrates the widespread distribution of high grade mineralisation,” said the broker.

Moving to Hummingbird, the company today unveiled results from new drilling at the Tuzon target, which show the firm's best gold intersections in Liberia so far.

The results are from 12 new holes at Tuzon, which lies just 3km east of the main Dugbe F 1.8 million-ounce resource. The record set at the target last month from the ongoing 47-hole programme was beaten.

The results included an accumulation of gold in hole TDC016 where 9.26 grammes per tonne of gold was hit over 10.25 metres, which exceeded the previous record gold accumulation of hole TDC003, set in October, which showed 1.31 g/t Au over 22.0 metres.

Headline figures included 125.44 metres at 2.41 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold in hole 16, and 44.88 metres with 1.49 g/t gold in hole 5 and 85.96m at 1.48 g/t of the precious metal in hole 8.

Away from the mining sector, New World Oil & Gas (LON:NEW) became one of the most followed oil and gas stocks after taking a step closer to securing a farm-in deal for the Danica Jutland project in south-west Denmark.

It has now been formally approved as the operator of licences 1/09 and 2/09 by its partner, the government-owned North Sea Fund.

The company expects formal approval from the Danish Energy Agency in the next two weeks.

The group can earn up to 80 per cent of the onshore project, which covers 4,107 square kilometres and is prospective for gas.

Initially New World will carry out a 50 line-kilometre 2D seismic survey over the area. It will begin the tendering process for this work before the end of the year.

The cost is expected to be in the order of US$1.25 million.

Chief executive William Kelleher said: "The approval from our partner, North Sea Fund, for our operatorship of Licences 1/09 and 2/09 is another encouraging step forward as we progress towards commencing a 2-D seismic acquisition programme at the Danica Jutland project.”

Other news in the sector included an update from Wentworth Resources (LON:WRL), which today confirmed that exploration drilling on the potentially huge Mnazi Bay gas resource in East Africa will start late this year or early 2012.

Seismic work on the onshore Rovuma Basin prospect is also scheduled for next year, ahead of an exploration drilling programme in 2013.

Up to seven exploration/appraisal wells are also planned for the Rovuma Basin Area 1 Offshore Mozambique over the next 12 months, the group added.

Geoffrey Bury, Wentworth’s managing director said: “Now that exploration work programmes have been approved for both Mnazi Bay and the Rovuma Basin, our partnership groups are preparing to embark on an extensive drilling programme over the next two years.”

“The recent exploration successes in East Africa have only further proven what we believe: that our assets are in an exceptional area," he added.

Oil prices rise on German data, US inventories

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:37:00 +0000

Oil prices rose this afternoon, tracking gains in stock markets, which came after today’s German business confidence data topped expectations.

Trading volumes were low as most traders in the US took the day off for the Thanksgiving holiday.

European stock markets reversed earlier losses this afternoon after the German Ifo business climate index for November came in at 106.4, up from 106.4 in the previous month, while expectations were for a decline to 105.1.

The data provided some comfort for jittery investors, which were unnerved by the disastrous results of yesterday’s auction of German bunds.

The euro zone’s largest economy offered €6 billion in ten year noted, but received bids for only €3.9 billion. As a result, yields on German bonds jumped to over two percent.

It has also been reported that members of Germany’s ruling coalition have softened its stance on issuing common euro zone bonds and could accept the proposal under certain conditions.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has previously denounced the idea of joint euro zone bonds “inappropriate”.

Elsewhere in Europe, the UK’s Office for National Statistics left its third quarter GDP growth estimate unchanged at 0.5 percent compared to growth of just 0.1 percent in the previous three months.

Besides the German and UK economic data, demand for crude oil futures was supported by yesterday’s upbeat US inventories report. The US Department of Energy reported that oil stockpiles shed a massive 6.2 million barrels last week, suggesting that energy demand in the US was on the rise.

US light, sweet crude for January delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), rose 43 cents to US$ 96.61/barrel.

January Brent crude added 49 cents to reach US$107.55/barrel on the ICE Exchange this afternoon.

Today’s top risers in the sector were:

Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP), up 12 percent at 164.5 pence at midday

Aurelian Oil & Gas (LON:AUL), up 4.5 percent at 17 pence

Petroceltic International (LON:PCI), up 4.5 percent at 6.16 pence

Nighthawk Energy (LON:HAWK), up 4.5 percent at 2.93 pence

Max Petroleum (LON:MXP), up 3 percent at 12.88 pence

The top fallers were:

Woburn Energy (LON:WBN), down 14.5 percent at 1.5 pence at midday

BowLeven (LON:BLVN), down 10 percent at 66.5 pence

Sirius Petroleum (LON:SRSP), down 9.5 percent at 3.5 pence

San Leon Energy (LON:SLE), down 8 percent at 9.2 pence

Argos Resources (LON:ARG), down 8 percent at 18.68 pence

UPDATE: FTSE 100 rallies on German business confidence data

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:55:00 +0000

The FTSE 100 is poised to snap its longest losing streak in nearly nine years after tacking on 28 points (0.55 percent) to reach 5,168 in early afternoon as the market cheered today’s upbeat German data.

Investors decided to move money back into the stock market after today’s reading of the German Ifo business climate index came in ahead of projections, showing an increase from 106.4 in October to 106.6 this month against expectations for a decline.

The data partly offset the negative impact of yesterday’s disastrous auction of German bunds. The eurozone’s largest economy and the main provider of financial aid for struggling European countries offered €6 billion in ten year bonds, but received bids for just €3.9 billion.

“We tend to think that if Germany is truly worried that yesterday’s failed auction is a sign of a buyers strike then it may finally bow to pressure to allow the ECB to step in to provide a “buyer of last resort” role,” said analyst at forex.com Kathleen Brooks.

In addition, stocks received support from speculation that Germany’s ruling coalition is softening its stance on the idea of issuing common eurozone bonds. Chancellor Angela Merkel has previously called the idea of introducing common eurozone area bonds “inappropriate”.

In the UK, the Office for National Statistics today confirmed its UK GDP growth estimate of 0.5 percent for the third quarter compared to growth at an annualised rate of just 0.1 percent in the previous three months.

Trading volumes were low as US markets were closed for the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Mining major Vedanta Resources (LON:VED, up 5.4pct at 979p) emerged as the top riser in the FTSE 100 this afternoon after rating agency Fitch assigned a long term rating of A-(ind) with a stable outlook to its subsidiary Vedanta Aluminium.

Banks Barclays (LON:BARC, up 4.3pct at 154.25p) and Lloyds (LON:LLOY, up 4.3pct at 22.77p) also did well as concerns over their exposure to the European debt crisis eased following a decline in eurozone bond yields.

Other notable risers included interdealer broker ICAP (LON:IAP, up 4.9pct at 326.9p) and engineering firms IMI (LON:IMI, 4.2pct at 710p) and GKN (LON:GKN, up 3.9pct at 172.8p).

Food processing company Tate & Lyle (LON:TATE, down 1.3pct at 660p) and National Grid (LON:NG., down 1.3pct at 624p) went against the tide today, sliding to the bottom of the FTSE 100 pile.

UK corporate news

Today’s corporate news in the top flight included financial results from mining company Antofagasta (LON:ANTO, down 0.5pct at 1,025p), where revenues surged 31.7 percent to US$4.17 billion in the first nine months of the year.

The increase in revenues was largely due to higher realised copper prices and copper volumes compared with the same period of 2010, as well as higher volumes of gold sales.

As a result, group earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) climbed 28 percent to US$2.5 billion.

In the FTSE 250, property company Grainger (LON:GRI, up 3.5pct at 91p) was at the centre of attention in the FTSE 250 after reporting that it swung back to profits in the year to end September.

Grainger posted a pre-tax profit of £26.1 million for the period compared to £20.8 million loss in 2010 as its gross net asset value per share increased 8.2 percent to 216 pence.

The group said that while it is “mindful of the challenges presented by the external environment, we are confident the residential market will provide good medium term opportunities.

Fellow mid-cap Pennon Group (LON:PNN, down 3.5pct at 672p) also reported its financial results this morning, calling the first half of the year a successful period for the group and saying its businesses are well positioned in current difficult economic conditions.

The water and waste management group saw its pre-tax profit rise 11.6 percent to £107.4 million as its South West Water business performed strongly with its profits climbing 8.5 percent to £76.2 million.

Another results report came from retailer Dixons (LON:DXNS, up 6pct at 9.93p). The owner of Currys said total group sales in the 24 weeks to October 15 fell from £3.35 billion in the same period of 2010 to £3.3 billion and like for like sales were down five percent.

Underlying pre-tax losses increased from £6.9 million a year earlier to £25.3 million. The electrical retailer’s net debt was reduced from £215.1 million to £143.2 million.

Elsewhere in the FTSE 250, construction group Balfour Beatty (LON:BBY, up 4pct at 218.4p) has secured the Whitechapel Crossrail contract worth £110 million. Crossrail is London’s new high-frequency railway that will serve 37 stations, from Maidenhead and Heathrow to the west of the capital to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

In oil and gas, mid-cap Heritage Oil (LON:HOIL, down 6pct at 160p) said that the Tax Appeals Tribunal in Uganda has dismissed its challenge of the Ugandan tax assessments on the disposal of HOGL's entire interests in Blocks 1 and 3A to Tullow Oil in July last year.

FTSE 100 rallies on German business confidence data

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 14:26:00 +0000

The FTSE 100 is poised to snap its longest losing streak in nearly nine years after tacking on 28 points (0.55 percent) to reach 5,168 in early afternoon as the market cheered today’s upbeat German data.

Investors decided to move money back into the stock market after today’s reading of the German Ifo business climate index came in ahead of projections, showing an increase from 106.4 in October to 106.6 this month, while expectations were for a decline.

The data partly offset the negative impact of yesterday’s disastrous auction of German bunds. The euro zone’s largest economy and the main provider of financial aid for struggling European countries offered €6 billion in ten year bonds, but received bids for just €3.9 billion.

“We tend to think that if Germany is truly worried that yesterday’s failed auction is a sign of a buyers strike then it may finally bow to pressure to allow the ECB to step in to provide a “buyer of last resort” role,” said analyst at forex.com Kathleen Brooks.

In addition, stocks received support from speculation that Germany’s ruling coalition is softening its stance on the idea of issuing common euro zone bonds. Chancellor Angela Merkel has previously called the idea of introducing common euro area bonds “inappropriate”.

In the UK, the Office for National Statistics today confirmed its UK GDP growth estimate of 0.5 percent for the third quarter compared to growth at an annualised rate of just 0.1 percent in the previous three months.

Trading volumes were low as US markets were closed for the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Mining major Vedanta Resources (LON:VED, up 5.4pct at 979p) emerged as the top riser in the FTSE 100 this afternoon after rating agency Fitch assigned a long term rating of A-(ind) with a stable outlook to its subsidiary Vedanta Aluminium.

Banks Barclays (LON:BARC, up 4.3pct at 154.25p) and Lloyds (LON:LLOY, up 4.3pct at 22.77p) also did well as concerns over their exposure to the European debt crisis eased following a decline in euro zone bond yields.

Other notable risers included interdealer broker ICAP (LON:IAP, up 4.9pct at 326.9p) and engineering firms IMI (LON:IMI, 4.2pct at 710p) and GKN (LON:GKN, up 3.9pct at 172.8p).

Food processing company Tate & Lyle (LON:TATE, down 1.3pct at 660p) and National Grid (LON:NG., down 1.3pct at 624p) went against the tide today, sliding to the bottom of the FTSE 100 pile.

Thursday's most followed: Man Group, Grainger, Pennon Group, Finsbury Food Group, Avesco Group, Caza Oil & Gas, Max Petroleum

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:03:00 +0000

Yesterday’s heaviest faller in the FTSE 100, hedge fund manager Man Group (LON:EMG), emerged as the most searched UK company on Google Finance today as investors tried to find out the reason for yesterday’s steep decline in the share price.

Shares in Man Group tumbled ten percent in Wednesday’s session with the decline blamed on the probe launched by Italian police into former fund manager Albert Micalizzi, whose US$550 million fund Dynamic Decisions Capital Management (DDCM) went bust in 2009.

The fund’s clients, among others, included Man Group’s asset management business RMF.

It has also been speculated that Man Group and fellow asset managers Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HL.) and Schroders (LON:SDR), which also fell yesterday, were hit by expectations of further declines in assets under management.

Meanwhile, property company Grainger (LON:GRI) was at the centre of attention in the FTSE 250 after reporting that it swung back to profits in the year to end September.

Grainger posted a pre-tax profit of £26.1 million for the period compared to £20.8 million loss in 2010 as its gross net asset value per share increased 8.2 percent to 216 pence.

The group said that while it is “mindful of the challenges presented by the external environment, we are confident the residential market will provide good medium term opportunities.

Fellow FTSE 250 constituent Pennon Group (LON:PNN) also reported its financial results this morning, calling the first half of the year a successful period for the group and saying its businesses are well positioned in current difficult economic conditions.

The water and waste management group saw its pre-tax profit rise 11.6 percent to £107.4 million as its South West Water business performed strongly with its profits climbing 8.5 percent to £76.2 million.

Pennon’s recycling and waste management division Viridor also did well as its profits were up seven percent at £30.6 million.

Other popular statements included trading updates from Finsbury Food Group (LON:FIF) and Avesco Group (LON:AVS), which were both well received by the markets as both companies saw their shares rise in morning trade.

Finsbury, which manufactures cake, bread and morning goods, reported that its sales reached £68.3 million in the first four months of the financial year, an increase of 17 percent over the same period of 2010.

The UK Cake, Bread and Free From businesses all grew strongly delivering just over half the total group growth with the rest coming from the group’s 50 percent owned joint venture Lightbody Europe (LBE).

The group expects its sales growth to moderate as it reaches the anniversary of last year’s new product launches.”The Group has continued to grow and improve despite this most difficult of trading environments, which is encouraging,” said chief executive of Finsbury John Duffy.

Meanwhile, media services group Avesco expects its results for the year to end September to “comfortably” exceed current market expectations after the positive trends in revenues and margin seen earlier this year continued into the final quarter.

Avesco highlighted the strong performance at its Creative Technology business in North America (CTUS), MCL and Fountain Studios.

The group added that cash generation has been very strong following an investment of around £18 million in new equipment.

In oil and gas, today’s most followed stocks included Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA) and Max Petroleum (LON:MXP), which both reported drilling successes.

Starting with Caza, the US focused firm reported that re-entry operations at its McMillan No.1 well in Texas were successful.

The well was perforated at two intervals and fracture stimulated, resulting in initial production rates of 1.375 million cubic feet of natural gas and 57 barrels of oil on November 20.

The well is still recovering fracturing fluid and is expected to be online at the sales point within the next ten days.

Fellow small cap Max its ZMA-A19 development well in the Zhana Makat field in Kazakhstan was successful, intersecting 28 metres of net oil pay with “excellent” reservoir quality.

The well will now be completed and placed on production immediately after obtaining necessary governmental approvals, while the rig will move to drill the SAGW-2 appraisal well in the Sagiz West field, also located in Kazakhstan.

On bulletin boards, investors following Max argued that the share price does not take into account the company’s increasing oil production as well as a 70 percent increase in its provided and probable reserves to 13.3 million barrels in the six months to end September.

The company’s debt pile US$95.6 million is seen as a concern, however, according to broker Northland Capital, increasing oil output and plans to bring another seven wells on stream before the end of the year should make the debt less of a problem.

COMPANY SNAPSHOT: BowLeven, Max Petroleum, Dixons Retail, Balfour Beatty, Xtract Energy, New World Oil & Gas, Hummingbird Resources

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:17:00 +0000

The oil and gas and retail sector were in focus this morning as investors digested drilling reports from BowLeven (LON:BLVN) and Max Petroleum (LON:MXP) along with interim results from electrical goods retailer Dixons (LON:DXNS), which saw its losses jump from £6.9 million to £25.3 million.

BowLeven said the Sapele-3 exploration well offshore Cameroon has reached its total depth, having intersected a further eight metres of net hydrocarbon pay in addition to eleven metres of net pay that was announced previously.

Testing of the well will be deferred as the downhole temperatures in one of the intervals exceed the rating of the available surface equipment.

The well is now being suspended for future re-entry, testing and potential use as a development well.

Fellow AIM quoted company Max Petroleum reported that its ZMA-A19 development well in the Zhana Makat field in Kazakhstan has reached its total depth with electric logs indicating 28 metres of net oil pay, while reservoir quality is “excellent”.

The well will be completed and placed on production immediately after obtaining necessary governmental approvals.

The rig is now moving to drill the SAGW-2 appraisal well in the Sagiz West field.

The company added that drilling has started at the KZIE-2 appraisal well on the East Kyzylzhar I prospect in Block E.

Moving to Dixons, the owner of Currys said total group sales in the 24 weeks to October 15 fell from £3.35 billion in the same period of 2010 to £3.3 billion and like for like sales were down five percent.

Underlying pre-tax losses increased from £6.9 million a year earlier to £25.3 million.

The electrical retail’s net debt was reduced from £215.1 million to £143.2 million.

“While we remain cautious about the economic outlook for the second half of the year, we are well positioned and remain focused on delivering world-class value, choice and service for customers,” said chief executive of Dixons Retail John Browett.

“We are confident that customers will benefit from fantastic festive deals across an exciting range of technologies from our knowledgeable store colleagues this Christmas.”

Fellow FTSE 250 constituent Balfour Beatty (LON:BBY) also caught the eye of investors this morning, announcing that it has secured the Whitechapel Crossrail contract worth £110 million.

Back to oil and gas, New World Oil & Gas (LON:NEW) has received the approval of its partner North Sea Fund for its operatorship of Licences 1/09 and 2/09 in Denmark, which it said was “another encouraging step forward”.

The company added that it will start tendering process for the planned 2D seismic acquisition programme before the end of the year with the programme expected to kick off in the second quarter of 2012.

Upon full completion of the earn-in work programme, New World has the option to obtain up to an 80 percent working interest in the licenses.

Another oil and gas firm Xtract Energy (LON:XTR) said its partner in the P2 block in the Netherlands Chevron reported that the Noble Byron Welliver rig has completed its current work program in the Dutch North Sea waters and is now being prepared for towing to the location of the P2-10 well.

It is currently expected that the P2-10 appraisal well will be spud around the start of December 2011. The well program is expected to take up to 100 days.

The company also told investors that the Luna exploration well in Denmark will spud on December 30 2011 and the drilling programme is expected to take one month.

In the mining sector, Hummingbird Resources (LON:HUM) reported “excellent” drilling results from its wholly owned Tuzon project with the twelve new holes returning the company’s best gold intersections to date, beating the record recently set at Tuzon announced last month.

The intersections reported today included 75.43 metres grading 1.97 grammes per tonne (g/t) of gold and 125.44 metres at 2.41 g/t gold.

The project is located just three kilometres away from the 1.8 million ounce Dugbe F project.

“These new results at Tuzon give us increased confidence that the Tuzon deposit will have significant scale in its own right, with what looks to be better grade and width of mineralised zones than has been found to date at Dugbe F,” said chief executive of Hummingbird Daniel Betts.

Sector peer Metminco (LON:MNC) is set to raise US$50 million via a share placing and a right issue to fund its 2012 drilling programme at Los Calatos, the definitive feasibility study and pre-development at Mollacas, the scoping and pre-feasibility study at Vallecillo and additional exploration development and working capital.

In other news, Serabi Mining (LON:SRB) said drilling on the south-eastern strike extension of the Palito deposit has returned bonanza grades.

The company has now received the results for 5 of the 8 holes that were drilled for e total of 937 metres of shallow diamond drill holes.

PDD0522 returned 0.9 metres with 20.6 gramms per ton gold and 3.56 percent copper, PDD0523 showing 1.36 metres with 48.07 g/t gold and 2.64 percent copper and PDD0519 cutting 0.72 metres with 9.26 g/t gold and 0.40 percent copper.

Elsewhere in the markets, mobile messaging firm Synchronica (LON:SYNC) said its revenues in the third quarter reached US$7 million, up 900 percent from the same period of 2010 as recurring revenues were up 1,098 percent.

The company has initiated a cost cutting programme that it expected to save it US$12 million per annum.

“A significantly larger portion of our revenue is now recurring which, along with our cost control program, moves us closer to a cash positive position in future quarters,” said chief executive of Synchronica Angus Dent.

Meanwhile, manufacturer of the CardioQ-OD system Deltex Medical (LON:DEMG) noted that Spain's Entralgo Agency has published the results of its Health Technology Assessment into the use of oesophageal Doppler monitoring (ODM) in colorectal surgery.

The agency found that ODM was associated with lower costs, mainly due to fewer complications, shorter hospital stays and shorter surgery times.

The report said further studies are required to see if these results can be converted into practice and lead to the same results in different types of surgery.

And, finally, biotech firm ValiRx (LON:VAL) has appointed a distributor in the East Midlands area to expand the sales and reach of its SELFCheck personal health screening test kits.

The company noted that the East Midlands area has large South Asian communities.

According to the Diabetes UK report, the prevalence of doctor-diagnosed diabetes in the East Midlands, is close to four-fold greater in Bangladeshi, and almost three-fold greater in Pakistani and Indian males than those in the general population.

MARKET PREVIEW: FTSE 100 seen lower after US and Asian stocks slump

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:05:00 +0000

Financial bookmakers are currently expecting the FTSE 100 to extend its losing streak, already the longest since 2003, to nine sessions. The UK’s blue chip index is set to open at 5,128, down 12 points (0.2 percent) from Wednesday’s close.

Confidence in the markets was hit by the results of yesterday’s auction of German bonds. The euro zone’s largest economy offered €6 billion in ten year bonds, but received bids for only €3.9 billion.

The results of the auction added to fears that the debt crisis is spreading to the core of the euro zone.

“While the German finance ministry downplayed the shortfall as ‘technical’ in nature, it strongly suggests that investor fears are now engulfing the bulwark of the euro zone,” said chief currency strategist at forex.com Brian Dolan.

“The failed auction comes on the back of continued insistence by the German government that euro zone common bonds are not an option, not that such bonds would necessarily find takers anymore.”

Trading volumes will be low today due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, which could lead to higher volatility.

No US data will be released today, but traders will have a batch of European macroeconomic updates to digest, including a second UK GDP estimate for the third quarter and German Ifo business confidence for November.

Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) tumbled 236 points (2.05 percent) to end the session at 11,257 and the broader S&P 500 index slipped 26 points (2.2 percent) to 1,162.

Asian stocks took their cues from US markets. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 149 points (1.8 percent) at 8,165 at the end of the session and China’s Shanghai Composite Index shed 3 points (1.2 percent), falling to 2,392 just before close of play.

PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: Beowulf Mining, EMED Mining, Goldplat, Sefton Resources, Lansdowne Oil & Gas

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:34:00 +0000

Proactive Investors dedicated most of today’s main stories to mining companies, including a preview of the upcoming drilling campaign at Beowulf Mining’s (LON:BEM) Kallak iron ore deposit in Sweden.

Executive chairman of Beowulf Clive Sinclair-Poulton said in an interview with Proactive that the company intends to start more drilling as soon as it receives the proceeds of its recent placing.

Beowulf raised £6.7 million through a placing at 15p per share last week, which will fund up to seven times more drilling than it has carried out historically at Kallak.

The firm posted a maiden JORC resource for the northern portion of its Kallak iron ore deposit in Sweden earlier in the month and ahead of the share issue.

Independent consultant GeoVista estimated the Kallak North resource to be 131.6 million tonnes grading 28 per cent iron.

Those initial resource estimates were based on 800 metres of mineralised strike from a total 3.7 kilometres, but Mr Sinclair-Poulton said the next phase of drilling will cover up to 57,000 metres and include both the north and south parts of the deposit.

Two drill rigs are planned for the north with initially one in the south, though the exact number is still be finalised he added.

“The aim is to complete Kallak north as quickly as possible and to determine where the ore body ends at the northern tip of the Kallak.”

“We also need to drill down to a depth of 250- 300 metres,” he said.

Another mining company EMED Mining (LON:EMED) today reported significant progress made in the past month in the permitting process for the redevelopment of the Rio Tinto project in Andalucía, Spain.

This progress has come through the group’s dealings with the Junta de Andalucía – the local government of Spain’s Andalucía region.

“The company is committed to the timetable to trigger the restart of this major copper mine during third quarter 2012, followed by a ramp-up to target steady-state ore production of 9 million tonnes per annum in 2014,” said managing director Harry Anagnostaras Adams.

He added: "The government has in the past few weeks demonstrated its commitment to administer permitting and access to third party lands in line with these targets, whilst ensuring proper handling of third parties and full regulatory compliance.”

The update drove EMED shares up five percent in morning trade.

Sector peer Goldplat (LON:GDP), which is focused on precious metals, also saw its share price rise today after receiving a 21-year lease for the Kilimapesa gold mine in Kenya.

The stock rallied four percent on the news in the morning.

It is the first gold project to be granted a mining lease in Kenya since it became independent in 1963.

Chief executive Demetri Manolis said: “We look forward to intensifying the mine's development and the erection of the elution plant which will enable us to produce gold bullion in the near future on site.”

In oil and gas, one of today's articles was dedicated to Sefton Resources (LON:SER), which has begun drilling four new wells at the Tapia Canyon oil field in California as part of plans to ramp up production by up to 75 per cent.

The US-focused oil group expects the drilling to take five weeks and production to rise to an estimated 240 barrels of oil per day (bopd) once the new wells are on stream, though during the drilling period about 88 bopd will be taken out in staggered periods.

Sefton added that an interim report from Dr Farouq Ali, of HOR-Heavy Oil Recovery Technologies, had reinforced earlier findings that Tapia Canyon has the potential to become an up to 1,750 barrels of oil per day operation.

Sector peer Lansdowne Oil & Gas (LON:LOGP) also generated interest today, announcing it has moved a step closer today to unlocking the potential of the North Celtic Sea Basin - as it received 3D seismic data from three prospects.

The seismic was shot at the firm's Amergin, Rosscarbery and Midleton prospects off the coast of Ireland this summer and was completed ahead of schedule.

Now, the firm said it had taken delivery of the processed data.

Chief executive Dr Steve Boldy said: "We are pleased to receive our processed 3D seismic datasets on schedule.

"Lansdowne believes 3D seismic will provide the key to unlocking the potential of the North Celtic Sea Basin. Interpretation is now underway and this will be followed by farming down ahead of planned exploratory drilling in 2012."

Oil prices slump on Chinese data

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:46:00 +0000

Oil prices tumbled this afternoon, hit by disappointing Chinese data, which added to concerns that economic growth in the world’s second largest energy consumer is slowing.

HSBC today revealed that its China purchasing managers index (PMI) slumped from 51 in October to 48 this month, the lowest level in nearly three years.

The decline in industrial activity is seen as a result of a series of monetary policy tightening measures implemented by the Chinese government in an effort to curb growth in consumer prices.

Apart from several increases in reserve requirements for banks, China has hiked its interest rates three times so far this year.

Futures for crude oil received some support from today’s US inventories data, which showed that crude oil stockpiles shed a massive 6.2 million barrels last week.

The data was interpreted as a sign that oil demand in the US is one the rise and partly offset the negative impact from yesterday’s downbeat GDP update.

The US Commerce Department said yesterday that it has revised its US economic growth estimate for the third quarter from 2.5 percent to two percent, dampening optimism that the economic recovery is getting back on track.

US light, sweet crude for January delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), fell US$2.36 to US$95.65/barrel in morning trade in New York.

January Brent crude slipped US$1.56 to US$107.35/barrel on the ICE Exchange this afternoon.

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

Serica Energy (LON:SQZ), up 8 percent at 18.75 pence at midday

TXO (LON:TXO), up 6.5 percent at 0.773 pence

Amerisur Resources (LON:AMER), up 5 percent at 15.75 pence

Sterling Energy (LON:SEY), up 4 percent at 41.62 pence

Desire Petroleum (LON:DES), up 4 percent at 22.83 pence

The top fallers were:

Ascent Resources (LON:AST), down 16 percent at 1.62 pence at midday

3Legs Resources (LON:3LEG), down 13 percent at 63.5 pence

Xtract Energy (LOON:XTR), down 8 percent at 1.91 pence

Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP), down 7 percent at 145.5 pence

Chariot Oil & Gas (LON:CHAR), down 6.5 percent at 113.36 pence

UPDATE: FTSE 100 drops, Dow Jones and S&P 500 fall in early trade

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:18:00 +0000

The FTSE 100 is poised to extend its losing streak to eight sessions after falling in morning trade as investors continued dumping riskier stocks amid concerns that the European debt crisis is spiralling out of control.

The UK’s blue chip index stood at 5,173, down 32 points (0.6 percent) from Tuesday’s close.

Yesterday’s downward revision of the US GDP estimate for the third quarter from 2.5 percent to two percent was followed by today’s downbeat Chinese data.

HSBC revealed that its China purchasing managers index (PMI) slumped from 51 in October to 48 this month, the biggest monthly contraction of the manufacturing sector since March 2009.

Minutes from the latest policy meeting of the Bank of England (BoE) added fuel to the fire, saying that the risk posed to the UK economy by the euro zone debt crisis has increased, “exacerbating the already severe strains in bank funding markets and financial markets more generally”.

At the same time, policymakers indicated that no further extensions to BoE's £275 billion quantitative easing programme are planned.

The minutes was released a day after a survey of 68 firms by BoE showed that fear of a major financial crisis has grown to the highest level since 2008.

Financial stocks were in decline as hedge fund manager Man Group (LON:EMG, down 7.1pct at 127.7p) slid to the bottom of the FTSE 100 pile.

Man was followed by asset management firms Ashmore group (LON:ASHM, down 3.4pct at 310p) and Schroders (LON:SDR, down 2.6pct at 1,217p).

Satellite telecommunications firm Inmarsat (LON:ISAT, up 2.8pct at 402p) did better, climbing to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard.

The stock was recovering from yesterday’s decline of 12 pence that came amid speculation that it could soon be demoted to the FTSE 250.

US markets

US stocks were off to a negative start today under pressure from concerns over the slowing economic growth in China and today’s US consumer spending data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down 103 points (0.9 percent) at 11,390 in early trade, while the broader S&P 500 index slipped 13 points (1.1 percent) to 1,175.

This morning, the Commerce Department revealed that consumer spending in the US rose just 0.1 percent in October despite a bigger than expected increase of 0.4 percent in incomes, suggesting that consumer confidence remains as a low level.

Today’s macroeconomic calendar also includes the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index, which will be released later this afternoon.

UK corporate news

Back in the UK, today’s news in the top flight included Weir Group’s (LON:WEIR, down 2.4pct at 1,700p) acquisition of US operating wellhead specialist Seaboard for US$675 million.

Based in Houston, Texas, Seaboard supplies engineered wellhead and pressure control equipment to the oil and natural gas exploration and production industries and provides associated field and support services.

The firm is focused on the North American unconventional oil and gas drilling and production markets.

Other news in the top flight included updates from mining majors Anglo American (LON:AAL, down 1.3pct at 2,203p) and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO, down 1.8pct at 3,001p).

Anglo American announced first copper from the expanded Los Bronces project in Chile.

The Los Bronces mine, at peak production, is expected to be the fifth largest copper mine in the world.

The firm said it was expecting to more than double the mine's existing production of 221,000 tonnes per annum over the next three years.

Rio Tinto reported that it has received Canadian Competition Bureau clearance for its offer for Canadian uranium miner Hathor Exploration for C$4.70 per share.

The latest offer from Rio Tinto, which values Hathor at 654 million, trumped a C$4.50 per share bid from Saskatchewan operating uranium major Cameco.

Fellow FTSE 100 constituent, chemicals and precious metals group Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT, down 1pct at 1,753p), reported strong interim results and forecast that the second half will be slightly ahead of the first.

Revenue in the six months to September 30 2011 rose to £5.9 billion from £4.56 billion a year earlier, an increase of 29 percent, while underlying pre-tax profit soared 24 percent to £203 million.

FTSE 100 falls as euro zone jitters weigh

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:31:00 +0000

Wednesday's most followed: Premier Foods, Cosalt, Frontera Resources, Playtech Limited, Premier Oil, JD Sports Fashion

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:36:00 +0000

Premier Foods (LON:PFD) made its way to the top of the list of the most searched for UK companies on Google Finance this morning as investors looked for the latest updates on the controversy around its Loyd Grossman korma sauce.

Last week, three children in Scotland were hospitalised with suspected botulism that was linked to the sauce. Today, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it could not rule out the possibility that the sauce was contaminated and was indeed the cause of the illness.

The FSA has previously said that it did not find any contamination at the factory where the sauce was made.

Shares in Premier Foods tumbled eight percent to 4.41 pence, valuing the stock at £105.75 million.

Meanwhile, Cosalt (LON:CSLT) replaced yesterday's heaviest faller Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) in the spotlight as it tumbled 35 percent to 0.28 pence after telling the markets that it will run out of cash at the end of the month and it is in urgent discussions with its lenders and shareholders.

In a funding update, which ranked very high on the list of the most read RNS statements of the day, the safety equipment and workwear maker revealed that it had just £900,000 of banking facilities available.

This is the second time in less than a week that Cosalt emerged among the heaviest fallers in the markets.

Last Thursday, shares lost roughly half their value after David Ross tabled an offer to buy the company for a measly 0.1 pence per share.

Today’s funding update from oil and gas small cap Frontera Resources (LON:FRR) was far more positive, sending shares in the group up 4.5 percent to 1.18 pence.

Frontera has issued shares under its Standby Equity Distribution Agreement (SEDA) to YA Global Master SPV at a 59 percent premium to the current share price to pay SEDA arrangement fees of nearly £154,000.

On bulletin boards, investors noted that the company that Frontera said late last month that “certain third parties” accepted payment for their services in shares, which was seen as a sign that the markets are expecting a rebound in the share price.

In its latest operational update, which was released at the end of October, Frontera said testing operations at its Mtsare Khevi No.32 well in the Republic of Georgia showed that a section of the well could produce more gas than previously estimated.

Earlier that month, Frontera said it had discovered “extensive new gas resources” in the undeveloped north-western portion of the Mtsare Khevi field.

In another funding update, Playtech Limited (LON:PTEC) said it has raised £100 million by placing 46.5 million shares at a price of 215 pence, enabling the group to look at potential acquisitions and joint venture opportunities.

In addition, the online gambling software firm reported that trading in the fourth quarter has been in line with the “strong” trading reported in its previous trading statements in November 9. Daily revenues have been five percent ahead of the average level in the third quarter.

Playtech has also reaffirmed its intention to move to the main board of the London Stock Exchange.

Back to oil and gas, today’s operational update from Premier Oil (LON:PMO) also showed up on the list of the most read stock exchange announcements.

The midcap reported that the Gardrofa exploration well in license PL406 offshore Norway will be plugged and abandoned as a dry hole after failing to encounter hydrocarbons.

On a positive note, Premier said the Chim Sáo development well, S9-P, encountered 17 metres of net hydrocarbon bearing pay.

The group’s exploration focus in Central North Sea will now turn to the UK, where it is currently drilling the Erne exploration well with the results expected imminently. A total of six exploration wells will be drilled in the North Sea before the company returns to Asia in 2012.

Fellow FTSE 250 constituent JD Sports Fashion (LON:JD.) also caught the eye of investors, reporting that since its most recent trading update on September 17, gross like for like sales growth for the second half has dropped from 3.3 percent to 0.2 percent.

JD said its performance during this period has been impacted by “downward pressures on all elements of discretionary consumer spending and the recent marked decline in consumer confidence”.

Investors dumped the stock after the update was released as JD’s share price dropped 7.5 percent to 755.5 pence.

COMPANY SNAPSHOT: Weir Group, Salamander Energy, JD Sports, Berkeley Minerals, Highland Gold, Serabi Gold, London Mining, EMED Mining

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 08:18:00 +0000

Weir Group (LON:WEIR) emerged as the most followed company in the top flight this morning after announcing the acquisition of Texas based wellhead specialist Seaboard, which is focused on the North American unconventional oil and gas drilling and production markets.

The FTSE 100 engineering firm is paying US$675 million for Seaboard, which is forecast to post revenues of US$216 million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$58 million for the full year 2011.

Based in Houston, Texas, Seaboard manufactures engineered wellhead and pressure control equipment to the oil and natural gas exploration and production industries. Seaboard also provides a range of associated field and support services.

This was not the only acquisition reported in the oil and gas sector today. FTSE 250 constituent Salamander Energy (LON:SMDR) has agreed to buy Elnusa Chariot International, which has an 11 percent interest in the Bangkanai license in Indonesia for US$6 million.

As a result of the deal, Salamander will increase its total interest in the license to 80 percent.

The license hosts the Kerendan gas field development where a Gas Sales Agreement was signed in 2011 for the supply of 20 billion British thermal units per day for 20 years.

The commercialisation of this gas resulted in approximately 16.5 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) of proved and probable (2P) reserves being bookable net to Salamander.

The field contains a further 31.9 mmboe of gross contingent resource and is expected to be ready to deliver gas in mid-2013.

Salamander will be in a position to book an additional 2.6 mmboe of net 2P reserves.

Investors following the retail sector also had news to digest this morning with JD Sports Fashion (LON:JD.) reporting that since its most recent trading update on September 17, gross like for like sales growth for the second half has dropped from 3.3 percent to 0.2 percent.

JD said its performance during this period has been impacted by “downward pressures on all elements of discretionary consumer spending and the recent marked decline in consumer confidence”.

Other popular news included an update from tailings processing company Berkeley Minerals (LON:BMR), which is continuing verification and assessment work on its resources at the former Kabwe mine site in Zambia.

This is done as part of the pre feasibility (PFS) study, which is currently being completed on all the resources at the project, Washplant, Leachplant and Slags.

The company has also started the re-drilling of the Slag sections of the stockpiles to provide data for the material contained in these stockpiles.

Berkeley added that re-interpretation of the resources has so far concluded that there is an uplift in the quantity of JORC-compliant Washplant tailings resources within the total resources at Kabwe.

Elsewhere in the mining sector, Highland Gold (LON:HGM) has signed an agreement of intent to acquire its joint venture partner LLP Kazzinc’s 48.3 percent interest in the Novoshirokinskoye gold-silver-lead-zinc mine for US$110 million.

As a result of the deal, which is expected to be completed before the end of the year, Highland’s stake in the mine will increase to 96.6 percent.

Peer Serabi Gold (LON:SRB) said that preliminary results from a shallow infill drilling programme on the Piaui prospect on its wholly owned Jardim do Ouro project in Brazil were “encouraging”.

The company has so far reported intersections of 5.21 metres grading 3.25 grammes per tonne (g/t) gold and 1.08 metres at 10.22 g/t gold.

The latest preliminary results continue to confirm the potential of Piaui to host broader width near-surface mineralization with good gold grades, over a significant strike length, said Serabi.

Fellow mining company London Mining (LON:LOND) reported that its Saudi partner National Mining Company (NMC) has signed an agreement with Korean engineering consultancy STX, which will undertake the front end engineering and design of the Wadi Sawawin iron ore project.

NMC has also entered an agreement with Korea Development Bank (KDB), which will provide a “substantial loan” to fund the project.

NMC has submitted an application to the Saudi government for a revised exploitation license for a 20 year mine with an output of five million tonnes per annum.

Meanwhile, EMED Mining (LON:EMED) reported significant progress in its permitting process for the Rio Tinto mine redevelopment programme as the government has in the past few weeks demonstrated its commitment to administer permitting in line with the company’s targets to restart the mine in the third quarter of 2012.

Back to oil and gas, small cap Lansdowne Oil & Gas (LON:LOGP) has received the processed 3D seismic surveys carried out this summer over the Amergin, Rosscarbery and Midleton Prospects in the North Celtic Sea Basin, offshore Ireland.

The company said the data will provide the “key to unlocking the potential of the North Celtic Sea Basin”.

Interpretation is currently underway, which will be followed by farming down ahead of planned exploratory drilling in 2012.

Another oil and gas company IGas Energy (LON:IGAS) announced that it will hold a general meeting on December 9 to seek shareholder approval for the proposed reverse takeover of Star Energy Group.

“This is a transformational deal for IGas Energy. With this acquisition we will be creating a substantial onshore oil and gas company in the UK,” said chief executive of IGas Andrew Austin.

IGas said the enlarged group is expected to have a growing production profile as its combined oil and gas resources are developed.

Shares in the group, which had been temporarily suspended since September 19 when it announced the takeover, resumed trading on the AIM market this morning.

Sefton Resources (LON:SER) also had news to report today, saying it has spudded four new wells at the Tapia Canyon oil field in California, which are expected to take five weeks to complete.

The company expected oil production to rise by up to 75 percent to 240 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in early 2012 once the new wells are on stream.

In addition, Sefton said the North and West parts of the LAGGS gas pipeline system in Kansas have now been certified for operations with the adjacent Vanguard pipeline system expected to also be certified shortly.

In other news, marketing and communications firm Porta Communications (LON:PTCM) today responded to Media Square’s announcement of its intention to take legal action against the company and its chief executive and chairman David Wright, saying it “absolutely refutes these claims”.

The group added that any losses which Media Square may have suffered are “likely to be as a result of their own actions and failings”.

Porta also provided a trading update, reporting that all of its divisions have traded in line with or ahead of expectations and continued winning new clients.

MARKET PREVIEW: FTSE 100 seen lower after Chinese data disappoints

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Financial bookmakers are expecting another sell-off in London on the back of disappointing Chinese data and yesterday’s downward revision of the US GDP estimate. The FTSE 100 is set to open at 5,130, down 76 points (1.45) from Tuesday’s close.

HSBC today revealed that its China purchasing managers index (PMI) slumped from 51 in October to 48 this month, the biggest monthly contraction of the manufacturing sector since March 2009. The data spooked investors, who interpreted it as a sign that economic growth in China is slowing.

As China is the world’s largest consumer of base metals, today’s data hit copper, nickel and other metals, which will keep miners under pressure.

The update followed the Commerce Department’s revision of its US economic growth estimate for the third quarter from 2.5 percent to two percent, which was announced yesterday.

Global stock markets received some support from yesterday’s minutes of the latest monetary policy meeting of the Federal Reserve. A few policymakers voiced support for another round of quantitative easing to stimulate the economic recovery in the US.

“However, the overall tone of the minutes was relatively well balanced as other participants noted core inflation had not fallen as much as would be expected from the broader commodity market declines for the same period providing further confirmation that QE3 may remain sitting on the dock of the bay for months to come,” said senior technical strategist at forex.com Daniel Hwang.

Today's investors in the UK will be looking to the minutes from the latest meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC).

Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 53.5 points (0.45 percent) to end the session at 11,493 and the broader S&P 500 index declined 5 points (0.4 percent) to close at 1,188.

Asian equities moved in the same direction as US stocks today. China’s Shanghai Composite Index was down 15.5 points (0.65 percent) at 2,397 just before close of play and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 371 points (2.05 percent), falling to 17,880 at the end of the session.

PROACTIVE NEWS SUMMARY: Ariana Resources, Orosur Mining, EMED Mining, Thomas Cook, New World Oil and Gas, Mediterranean Oil and Gas

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:48:00 +0000

The mining sector generated plenty of interest today with Proactive Investors dedicating two main stories to precious metals focused mining companies, while another report focused on embattled tour operator Thomas Cook (LON:TCG), which lost more than two thirds of its value in today’s session.

Starting with the miners, Ariana Resources (LON:AAU) said this morning that surface sampling of the Karakaya vein on the Kepez project in Western Turkey has identified higher than previously anticipated concentrations of silver.

Rock chip and float sampling revealed the average grade was 65 grams per tonne of the precious metal to a maximum of 277 grams per tonne.

This is in addition to the existing high gold grades found in the area, and could potentially lead to a doubling of the indicated resource estimate at Kepez.

The indicated resource currently stands at 60,000 tonnes at 4.6 grams of gold for a rather modest total of 8,900 ounces of gold.

Fellow AIM quoted mining stock Orosur Mining (LON:OMI) was the subject of a feature story by Proactive Investors. Orosur has ambitious plans to double output in the coming years.

The firm produces nearly 60,000 ounces of gold each year. Currently all of that comes from the San Gregorio operation in Uruguay.

Thirteen historical pits have been mined at the San Gregorio operation producing more than 1,000,000 ounces of gold over the past fifteen years.

The main San Gregorio operation still has a life of 5 -6 years from open pits but grades have reduced to an average of about 1 gram per tonne, and the mine currently operates at a cash cost target of about $810 an ounce. Sustaining capex is low.

Operating costs in dollars per tonne benchmark the industry.

With current gold prices the firm can net almost $800 an ounce. While this is a tidy sum, San Gregorio is not a low cost operation in terms of dollars per ounce cash costs. But this is changing.

Before the end of this year the Uruguayan government is expected to rubber stamp permits for Orosur’s newly developed Arenal Deeps underground mine. And potentially its first ore could be processed at the plant this month.

“We are in excess of 1,500 metres of development in the mine, in the main decline,”chief operating officer Luis Tondo told Proactive Investors.

Proactive also published an in depth report on EMED Mining (LON:EMED, TSE:EMD), which is preparing to restart the development of the Rio Tinto copper mine in the Andalucía region of Spain.

The project has been mired in a permitting process as a result of legacy issues from previous ownership, said Fairfax analyst John Meyer However Meyer added that Rio Tinto is one of the world’s greatest copper mines. And he believes that the valuable brownfield copper project could be restarted within a short time frame at a low capex.

He highlights that the mine could produce 37,000 tonnes of copper each year after an initial capex spend of around $160 million.

In a note to clients today Meyer said that EMED was a ‘buy’ and the shares were worth 32p each. The analyst's valuation is some 350 per cent higher than the current price of 7p.

A large share of today’s news coverage by Proactive Investors was dedicated to mining companies with

Meanwhile, tour operator Thomas Cook emerged as the most actively discussed company in the FTSE 350 after losing more than two thirds of its value as it announced it was in talks with its banks.

The response of City analysts to the news that Thomas Cook is in talks with lenders has, as could be surmised, been generally negative.

The tour operator’s shares fell more by as much as 80 per cent in opening trade following the revelation that trading had deteriorated further meaning it required short-term funding to cover the Christmas period.

Downgrading his recommendation to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’, Peel Hunt analyst Nick Batram said: “The group is clearly in a very difficult position and it would appear that the route to recovery will have to be a lot more painful for equity holders than previously thought.

“Thomas Cook needs further assistance from its banks and this is unlikely to come cheaply or without preconditions which could involve equity. Therefore, the shares are best avoided until the picture clears.”

In oil and gas, updates from New World Oil and Gas (LON:NEW) and Mediterranean Oil and Gas (LON:MOG) showed up among the most popular stock exchange announcements of the day.

New World Oil and Gas announced the completion of its Phase 2 seismic acquisition programme at the Blue Creek project in Belize.

The junior explorer has now carried out seismic over a total of 139.15 line kilometres in the Peten basin.

"We continue to make excellent progress at our Blue Creek Project since its acquisition in June of this year,” said chief executive William Kelleher.

“The completion of the second phase of our seismic acquisition programme is another significant milestone for New World as we progress towards anticipated phase three completion in Q1 2012.”

Moving to Mediterranean Oil & Gas, the company said the contribution from the 20 percent owned offshore Guendalina gas field has quadrupled the company’s production from 40,000 standard cubic metres per day to 160,000 scm/day.

Operator ENI – which owns the remaining 80 percent of the field – started gas production from there on October 25.

In an operations update, MOG said since the production start, aggregate gross gas production from the field has been approximately 630,000 scm/day (22 million standard cubic feet per day), representing approximately 120,000 scm/day (4.2 mmscf/day) net to MOG.

Oil prices surge on Iran concerns

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:50:00 +0000

Oil prices rallied this afternoon, shrugging off today’s disappointing US GDP data as the Iranian nuclear crisis made its way back into the spotlight.

The West upped the pressure on Iran, a major exporter of crude oil, to halt its nuclear programme yesterday as the United States, Canada and the UK imposed a new wave of economic sanctions against the country.

France urged further action, calling on fellow EU members, the US, Japan and other “willing countries” to stop buying Iranian oil and freeze the assets of its central bank to force the defiant nation to suspend its nuclear programme and enter negotiations.

Apart from a decline in oil supplies, the escalation of the Iranian crisis could lead to further instability in the oil rich Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region.

Commodity markets seemed to ignore today’s US GDP data released by the Department of Commerce, which showed a surprise revision of its economic growth estimate for the third quarter from 2.5 percent to two percent.

The data dampened optimism that the recovery in the world’s largest economy is getting back on track.

US light, sweet crude for January delivery, currently the most actively traded contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), rallied US$1.30 to US$98.22/barrel in morning trade in New York.

January Brent crude climbed US$1.47 to US$108.47/barrel on the ICE Exchange this afternoon.

Today’s top risers in the sector were:

TXO (LON:TXO), up 21.5 percent at 0.728 pence at midday

Gold Oil (LON:GOO), up 9 percent at 2.73 pence

Amerisur Resources (LON:AMER), up 7.5 percent at 15.07 pence

Europa Oil & Gas (LON:EOG), up 5.5 percent at 7 pence

Hardy Oil & Gas (LON:HDY), up 5.5 percent at 157 pence

The top fallers were:

Nighthawk Energy (LON:HAWK), down 16 percent at 0.315 pence at midday

Woburn Energy (LON:WBN), down 11 percent at 1.6 pence

Aurelian Oil & Gas (LON:AUL), down 8.5 percent at 18.75 pence

San Leon Energy (LON:SLE), down 8 percent at 11.5 pence

JKX Oil & Gas (LON:JKX), down 5.5 percent at 146.25 pence

UPDATE: FTSE 100 rebounds, US stocks seen lower after GDP data

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:59:00 +0000

UK stocks performed in line with pre-market expectations in morning trade with the FTSE 100 climbing 22 points (0.4 percent) to reach 5,244 in early afternoon, looking to snap a six day losing streak.

The markets shook off the disappointing results of today’s Spanish bond auction, which saw yields on the debt ridden country’s three and six month bonds top five percent.

The negative impact of the auction was offset by the news that the European Central Bank (ECB) spent nearly €8 billion on euro zone bonds, up from €4.48 billion in the previous seven days.

Bargain hunting also provided support for the market as traders bought into the cheap prices after the UK’s blue chip index fell to a six week low yesterday after Moody’s warned that further increases in borrowing costs could threaten the outlook on its top notch AAA rating.

In addition, it was reported that a bipartisan committee set up to agree on a plan to reduce the US deficit by US$1.2 trillion is set to meet the Wednesday deadline, leading to automatic cuts in budget spending.

However, Moody’s and fellow rating agency Standard & Poor’s told the markets that the anticipated failure of the “super committee” will not have an impact on America’s credit rating.

“There’s a fine balance between picking a bargain and a falling knife, so we think this is likely to keep markets range bound for some time, although when risky assets have heavy sell-offs as they did yesterday we are likely to see some buyers come in causing a short-term bounce before the next round of selling takes place,” said analyst at forex.com Kathleen Brooks.

Car insurer Admiral Group (LON:ADM, up 5.9pct at 864p), which was today identified among 43 stocks that pay dividends of over eight percent by HSBC, was the top performer in the top flight in morning trade.

Miners including Vedanta Resources (LON:VED, up 2.6pct at 972p) and Antofagasta (LON:ANTO, up 2.2pct at 1,031p) also did well as base metal prices rose.

The heaviest fallers included International Airlines Group (LON:AIG, down 5pct at 132p), which fell to the bottom of the FTSE 100 pile, and defence and aerospace group Meggitt (LON:MGGT, down 2.1pct at 376.8p).

US markets

Across the Atlantic, US markets started lower on the back of disappointing US GDP data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 10 points to 11,537, while the S&P 500 was flat.

The Department of Commerce said this morning it has revised its US economic growth estimate for the third quarter from 2.5 percent to two percent, dampening optimism that the recovery in the US is gaining speed.

Traders in the US are now looking to the minutes from the latest policy meeting of the Federal Reserve, which will be released after close of play in London.

UK corporate news

Back in the UK, today’s news in the top flight included the formal inauguration of Royal Dutch Shell's (LON:RDSB, flat at 2,221p) Pearl Gas to Liquids (GTL) project in Qatar by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

Pearl GTL turns natural gas into liquid fuels and products, which Shell said “realizes the full upside of accessing the oil markets”.

When fully operational, Pearl GTL will have the capacity to produce 140,000 barrels a day of products such as gasoil, naphtha, kerosene, normal-paraffin and lubricants base oils. It will also produce 120,000 barrels a day of natural gas liquids and ethane.

In the FTSE 250, tour operator Thomas Cook (LON:TCG, down 73.5pct at 10.89p) lost nearly 80 percent of its value after revealing that that it is currently in talks with its lenders and will delay the release of its full year results.

The group said it entered discussions with its banks as a result of deterioration of trading in some areas of its business and in its cash position in the current quarter.

Consequently, Thomas Cook will not report its results for the full year to end September before the conclusion of these discussions.

Fellow midcap, pub operator Mitchells & Butlers (LON:MAB, up 0.5pct at 218.1p), also garnered attention today with its final results showing up among the most read RNS statements.

The group reported an increase of 1.8 percent in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to £398 million as sales surged 4.9 percent to £1.76 billion, calling it a “resilient set of results despite a challenging year”.

Mitchells & Burlers was cautious about the outlook, expecting the consumer environment to remain challenging and inflationary pressures to persist, especially from energy, duty and food.

And, finally, banknote printer and FTSE 250 constituent De La Rue (LON:DLAR, up 1pct at 884p) said its pre-tax profits improved to £29 million in the six months to September 24 from £23.8 million for the same period of 2010 as revenues rose from £209.2 million to £238.1 million.

The group said that banknote print volumes were materially above the previous half yearly period, adding that it remains confident of meeting its target of an operating profit of over £100 million by the financial year 2013-14.