Investors moved back into UK equities today, searching for bargains after the recent shake-out.
After suffering its worst day since 2009, shedding 288 points, the FTSE 100 had clawed back 175 points by 1.30pm, up 3% at 6,078.
Just one FTSE 100 constituent was missing out on the party; precious metals miner Randgold (LON:RRS) was down 2p at 4,146p, as this not a day for risk averse investments.
Top of the Footsie tree was Antofagasta (LON:ANTO), up 7.6% at 573.5p, even as it revealed underlying earnings virtually halved to US$561.6mln at the half-way point.
Anglo-Aussie mining behemoth BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) was up 6.4% at 1,029p after it maintained its full-year dividend and pledged to cut capital investment from US$11bn in the year just gone to US$8.5bn this year.
On any other day, RSA Insurance’s (LON:RSA) bid-fuelled rise of 4.8% to 518.5p would likely have propelled it to the top of the blue-chip rankings, but it has not even made the top 10.
Zurich Insurance has made a long-awaited approach to the insurer, valuing it at £5.6bn.
“Traders will be welcoming a revised offer from Zurich as evidence the Swiss insurer is still serious about the deal. RSA has cautioned that the situation is ‘still fluid,’ but there’s not much else out there likely to get a bite at the moment. It does beg the question though – was the disclosure deliberately made yesterday, in the middle of a global market rout? If so, that’s some shrewd and arguably ingenious behaviour!” said Augustin Eden, at Accendo Markets.
Among the mid-caps, James Fisher (LON:FSJ) was on the rocks, down 3.5% at 976p, after disappointing interims.
The marine services provider’s revenue was down just a tad at £213.1mln but underlying profit before tax slipped to £20mln from £24.4mln the year before.
In the small cap space, Totally (LON:TLY) was wanted, adding one-ninth to its market value, after it raised £1.05mln through a share subscription.
The shares advanced to 0.25p as sit provisionally issued shares at 0.175p a pop, though thanks to a proposed share consolidation the shares will actually be priced at 17.5p.
The City welcomed news that Bob Holt, chairman of Mears Group, will take over from Dr Michael Sinclair as non-executive chairman of the healthcare services provider.
Magnolia Petroleum (LON:MAGP) came up smelling of roses after it told investors it remains cash generative and profitable despite reduced oil prices.
A production update today revealed output of 309 barrels oil equivalent per day (boepd), as at August 1, which is an increase from 281 boepd since the start of 2015.
The shares climbed 6.38% to 0.5p.
InfraStrata (LON:INFA), the independent petroleum exploration and gas storage company, lost more than a third of its value as it revealed Larne Oil & Gas will not, after all, be participating in the PL 1/10 licence in Northern Ireland, having run into funding difficulties.