Aim shares continued to unsuccessfully play catch-up on high-flying blue-chips, as macroeconomic factors continued to favour FTSE 100 stocks.
With mining stocks in demand after Chinese export data surprised to the upside, the FTSE 100 was up 89 points, or 1.4%, at 6,332, despite supermarket giant Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) slumping 5.6% to 185.35p after its full-year results proved less triumphal than the market had been expecting.
The FTSE Aim 100 was up 21 points at 3,448 and the FTSE Aim All-Share index was four points firmer at 730.
Mining stocks on the rise was welcome news for Global Resource Investment Trust PLC (LON:GRIT), which invests in resource companies. It found itself sitting atop of the tree today, sporting an 80% rise at 6.53p.
That rise even surpassed the 62.5% surge by iEnergizer PLC (LON:IBPO), the digital services group that upgraded profit guidance this morning.
The company attributed the increase to renewed business momentum, contract wins and the successful implementation of a transformation plan.
Kimberly Enterprises N.V. (LON:KBE), the Eastern European residential property developer, put on a spurt, rising 24% to 0.803p after it revealed yesterday evening that a district court had intervened to smooth the process of a shares transfer that will ultimately see Gabay Group Limited, an Israeli real estate company, become the group's controlling shareholder.
More legal wrangling, this time involving Churchill Mining PLC (LON:CHL), which climbed 1.75p to 14.875p after it announced the Republic of Indonesia had failed to pay its share of an advance payment sought by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). This means Indonesia is in default of its payment obligation in the ICSID arbitration proceedings.
Churchill filed its Request for Arbitration against the Republic of Indonesia at ICSID on 22 May 2012 in relation to breaches by the Republic of Indonesia of its obligations under the UK-Indonesia bilateral investment treaty. The dispute relates to Churchill's investment in Indonesia and the East Kutai coal project.
“We are taking Indonesia's silence and failure to pay its share of the fifth advance payment as a sign that Indonesia may no longer wish to participate in the arbitration. It is too early to tell if this is the case, and our lawyers have written to clarify the situation,” said David Quinlivan, chairman of Churchill.
Elsewhere in the resources sector, Range Resources Ltd (LON:RRL) was off the top, but still up more than 11% in lunchtime trading, after revealing multiple hydrocarbon zones have been identified the in newly drilled MD 250 well, onshore Trinidad.
The oil junior described the result as ‘highly encouraging’.
Shares rose as high as 0.47p at one point before ebbing to 0.405p.
Going the other way was SeaEnergy PLC (LON:SEA), the up-for-sale offshore energy services company that has an 18.7% stake in Ireland-focused offshore oil and gas company Lansdowne Oil & Gas PLC (LON:LOGP).
Lansdowne drew attention to an announcement by Providence Resources PLC (LON:PVR) about its legal dispute with US firm Transocean, in which it said it expects to pay around US$7mln to Transocean, while Lansdowne, through its 20% interest in Providence's Barryroe field, will need to raise capital to meet any liabilities arising from the recent court ruling.
Lansdowne's shares remain suspended pending clarification of its financial position, making SeaEnergy's stake illiquid.
SeaEnergy's shares fell 20% on the news.