Petrofac Ltd (LON:PFC) was a mid-afternoon gainer, up 7% at 475.3p after the FTSE 250-listed firm said it has won a US$2.0bn contract over just under four years from Oman's Duqm Refinery & Petrochemical Industries LLC.
The oil services firm, in a joint venture with South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, will work an a 47-month oil refinery project to provide engineering, procurement, construction and commission, training and start-up operations for all utilities and offsites at Duqm.
Elsewhere, Anglo African Oil & Gas Plc (LON:AAOG) gained 8% at 23.5p after the AIM-listed firm said it has completed its acquisition of the remaining stake in Petro Kouilou, the majority owner of the Tilapia oil field in the Republic of the Congo.
Anglo African paid US$2.5mln in March to Sister Holding SAS for an initial 49% interest in Petro Kouilou, which has a 56% interest in the producing field.
And Entu (UK) PLC (LON:ENTU) surged 219% higher to 4.15p in on fresh speculative interest after the home improvement group revealed on Wednesday that it is proceeding with a small number of interested parties for a potential refinancing, with the support of existing lenders.
On July 6, Entu had said it would undertake a strategic review of the doors and windows company to ensure that the action plan explained in its trading update on June 14 is carried out efficiently and in a suitable timescale.
12.30pm: Billington Holdings up after winning two contracts
Billington Holdings PLC (LON:BILN) was a strong gainer at lunchtime, up 13.5% to 252.5p after it revealed its structural steel division has been awarded two contracts with a combined value of £14.0mln.
The structural steel and construction safety company said the contracts have been awarded by two "prominent " contractors who it did not name. The first contractor is a distribution centre in south-west England, and the second a London university.
Elsewhere, shares in pollster YouGov PLC (AIM:YOU) gained 6.7% at 277.5p after it indicated that trading in the full year to end July was ahead of internal expectations and the sector overall.
In a pre-close statement, the AIM-listed firm said revenue growth was well ahead of the global market research sector.
But Gordon Dadds Group PLC (LON:GOR) was the market’s biggest gainer as the enlarged legal services group started life on AIM, with its shares surging 230% higher to 146.5p after announcing a placing to bring in £20mln at 140p as it sees a big opportunity in consolidating a fragmented UK market.
The fund-raising comes after Work Group made an £18.8mln reverse takeover bid to buy Gordon Dadds Group and carried out the placing, keeping the Dadds name.
11.10am: Housebuilders take a hit on reports review could call for an early end to the Help-to-Buy scheme
Housebuilders were under pressure in late morning trading, with blue chip Persimmon PLC (LON:PSN) falling 3.4% to 2,480p and mid caps Barratt Developments PLC (LON:BDEV) and Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW.) both losing over 3% as well, on reports that an independent review commissioned by the UK government could call for an early end to its Help-to-Buy scheme.
Initially introduced in 2013, the Help-to-Buy scheme aids first time buyers get on the property ladder by enhancing the buyer’s deposit.
Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG, said: “In the week we saw a sharp deterioration in the UK construction PMI, this latest news is a major blow to a sector which already has clouds of uncertainty over it.”
Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HL.) was the top FTSE 100 faller, dropping 4.6% to 1,319p after the investment platform group said it won’t pay a special dividend this year.
The firm said it had found that it won’t have sufficient regulatory capital surplus for a special payout after assessing its requirements by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The regulator notified Hargreaves yesterday on its plans to reassess its regulatory capital requirements given the group's strong recent growth in scale and complexity.
And educational publisher Pearson PLC (LON:PSON) lost 0.7% at 664.5p as it slashed its interim dividend and announced a further 3,000 jobs cuts as it attempts to mitigate some of the damage caused by a slowdown in the US higher education market.
Pearson’s revenues were flat on a constant exchange rate basis at £2.05bn in the six months ended June 30, though it did emerge from the red, posting statutory operating profit of £16mln.
But Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (LON:RBS) remained a good blue chip gainer late morning, albeit drifting off earlier highs to gain 1.8% at 260.8p as the part-state-owned bank posted a return to a half-year profit despite litigation and conduct charges as it cut costs as part of its ongoing restructuring.
The lender - which remains more than 70% owned by the government following its 2008 bailout - posted an attributable profit of £939mln for the first six months to 30 June, compared to a loss of £2.1bn the same period a year ago. It marked its first half-year profit in three years.
9.35am: Echo Energy higher, but Providence Rescources drops on news
Echo Energy PLC (LON:ECHO) was a strong gainer in early morning trading, jumping almost 17% higher to 11.25p after the explorer said it has had a very busy start since its recent relaunch.
New chief executive Fiona MacAulay said in Echo’s interim results statement: “We have already taken our first steps of creating the building blocks of a mid-cap E&P company alongside building a portfolio with multi-Tcf potential.”
The company ended the six month period, ended June 30, with £25.5mln of cash and equivalents. The pre-revenue explorer reported a £1.6mln loss for the six months.
But another oiler was the markets' biggest faller early on, with Providence Resources PLC (LON:PVR) shares plunging by almost 40% to 9.63p after it told investors that its drilling operation offshore Ireland encountered the Druid target on-prognosis, but, that the reservoir was found to be water bearing.
The first of the well’s two targets has disappointed. Druid accounted for slightly more than 3bn barrels of the well’s 5bn barrel resource potential. Drilling will now continue down to the Drombeg target, which is anticipated some 1,000 metres beneath Druid.
Elsewhere, Getbusy PLC (LON:GETB) shares started trading today, changing hands at 32.5p, each, against a 28.3p float price, after the developer of SmartVault and Virtual Cabinet document management software raised £3.0mln via a fully underwritten rights issue, giving it an initial market capitalisation of approximately £13.7mln.
The Cambridge-based group was formed by the demerger of the document management software business and assets of Reckon Limited (ASX:RKN) an ASX listed technology group.
Proactive news headlines:
Currency-card specialist FairFX Group PLC (LON:FFX) has confirmed it is in advanced talks over the acquisition of a payments services business to be funded by a £25mln placing. The brief statement followed a 30% spike in the share price to 75p from 58p over the past six weeks.
Computer games localisation specialist Keywords Studios PLC (LON:KWS) has bought four of the leading businesses in France supplying similar services. La Marque, Dune Sound, Asrec and Around the Word are all based in Paris and provide French audio recording and localisation services to the video games industry.
Faron Pharmaceuticals Ltd (LON:FARN) said it is planning to provide its lead drug on a compassionate use basis once its Phase III clinical trial has concluded. The study, codenamed INTEREST, should be wrapped up by the fourth-quarter.
Rapid diagnostics specialist Akers Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:AKER, LON:AKR) said quarterly sales were the strongest since the company’s admission to America’s NASDAQ market in 2014. Revenues were US$1.2mln for the three-month period ended June 30, up around 25% on the same period last year and 1.8-times the turnover recorded in the first-quarter.
ECR Minerals PLC (LON:ECR) told investors it has appointed Weili (David) Tang as the group’s new director and non-executive chairman, meanwhile, William Howell is leaving the company.
Shares in specialist lender S & U PLC (LON:SUS) jumped higher at the opening bell this morning after it told investors that its Advantage motor finance subsidiary is trading at “record levels”. New loan transactions are up by 20% year-on-year, while monthly collections from its 49,000 customers hit an all-time high of £10mln in July – a 27% increase on the same month in 2016.