Today's edition features:
• Mineral & Financial Investments (LON:MAFL)
Markets
Europe
The FTSE-100 finished Friday's session 1.10% lower at 7,215.47 whilst the FTSE AIM All-Share index was down 0.64% at 993.82. In continental Europe, the CAC-40 finished 0.22% lower at 5,213.91 whilst the DAX was down 0.17% at 12,518.81.
Wall Street
In New York on Friday, the Dow Jones rose 0.29% to 22,268.34, the S&P-500 added 0.18% to stand at 2,500.23 and the Nasdaq gained 0.3% to finish the week at 6,448.47.
Asia
In Asian markets this morning, the Nikkei is closed for a holiday, while the Hang Seng was recently 1.05% higher at 28,098.25.
Oil
In early trade today, WTI crude was 0.04% higher at $49.91 per barrel and Brent was up 0.13% at $55.69 per barrel.
Headlines
PwC reveals black and Asian workers are paid 13% less
Black, Asian and minority-ethnic staff (BAME) who work at PwC in the UK earn almost 13% less than other employees, according to figures provided by the professional services firm. The firm said its BAME workers were statistically paid less because more of them worked in administrative and junior roles, rather than senior ones. PwC said it had published the data to help it speed up progress on the issue. Currently reporting on BAME pay isn't required under government regulations. PwC said it hoped that publishing the data would help the firm to tackle "ethnicity challenges". "The more transparent we are with our diversity and social mobility data, the more we hold ourselves accountable to achieving real change," said PwC chairman Kevin Ellis.
Source: BBC News
Latest Video
On Wednesday, 13th September 2017 Jon Forster, CEO of Cora Gold answered questions posed by private investors at the Beaufort offices ahead of the company's planned IPO on AIM later this month. Click here to see the interview.
Beaufort Securities is acting as corporate broker to the Cora Gold IPO
Company news
Mineral & Financial Investments (LON:MAFL, 11.75p) - Speculative Buy
Mineral & Financial Investments (MAFL), the metals and mining focused investment company, announced its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2017. The Company realised a net loss of £0.1m (or 0.3p per share) during the period compared with a net profit of £0.21m (or 1p per share) during the corresponding period in 2016. MAFL's NAV at the end of the period was 7.05p, up 12.8% from the end of the last financial year. As at 30 June 2017, MAFL had a cash and cash equivalent position of £0.92m. The Company holds, amongst others, a 49% interest in TH Crestgate, a private investment company that owns the Lagoa Salgada project in Portugal. The 13,400ha Lagoa Salgada project is a polymetallic deposit with a preliminary resource estimate of 4.5Mt grading 2.79% Pb, 2.85% Zn, 0.34% Cu, 53.43g/t Ag and 0.81g/t Au for the LS-1 Zone. TH Crestgate has an exploration target of between 8.0Mt and 10.0Mt on the LS-1 Zone. An updated resource estimate incorporating the recently completed drill programme is expected to be completed by year end.
Our View: Whilst the above interim results are academic we continue to be encouraged with the exploration results from Lagoa Salgada suggesting that the deposit a large mineralised system with potentially numerous ore zones. Recent drilling has intercepted thicker mineralised zones than expected which should bode well for an expanded resource targeted between 8Mt and 10Mt. We look forward to further drill results from the recently completed drill programme and the subsequent resource update for the LS-1 Zone by year end. In the meantime, we maintain a Speculative Buy on the Stock.
Beaufort Securities acts as a corporate broker to Mineral & Financial Investments Limited