Markets
Europe
The FTSE-100 finished yesterday's session 0.65% lower at 7,513.11, whilst the FTSE AIM All-Share index was up 0.04% at 1,045.94. In continental Europe, the CAC-40 finished 0.48% lower at 5,480.64, whilst the DAX was down 0.66% at 13,379.27.
Wall Street
In New York on last night, the Dow Jones closed 0.04% higher at 23,557.23, while the S&P-500 fell 0.02% to end the session at 2,590.64 and the Nasdaq finished 0.27% weaker at 6,767.78.
Asia
In Asian markets this morning, the Nikkei 225 was down 0.19% at 22,894.21 and the Hang Seng was 0.14% lower at 28,954.57.
Oil
In early trade today, WTI crude was 0.42% lower at $56.96 per barrel and Brent was also weaker at $63.50 per barrel.
________________________________________
Headlines
M&S finance chief to quit as profit falls
Marks and Spencer has announced that its chief financial officer will step down as it revealed a 5.3% fall in profits for the first six months of its financial year. The retailer said Helen Weir had informed the board "of her her desire to pursue a plural career" and would stay on until a successor was found. Pre-tax profit fell to £219.1m, while sales rose 2.6% to £5.1bn. Like-for-like sales for the period fell by 0.3%. M&S said that like-for-like sales for food, which strip out revenue from new stores opened in the six months to 30 September, fell by 0.1%. Like-for-like sales in clothing and homeware were also ahead of forecasts, down 0.7%. They had been expected to fall by 1.4%.
Source: BBC News
Company news
Armadale Capital (LON:ACP, 1.92p) – Speculative Buy
Yesterday Armadale announced excellent drill results from its wholly owned Mahenge Liandu graphite project in Tanzania. Results from a recent 1,500m drill programme comprising 28 reverse circulation drill holes returned wide intercepts of high-grade graphite mineralisation near surface in 24 of the 28 holes. The best intercepts returned 6m grading 12.8% TGC (total graphite content), 14m grading 16.7% TGC, 15m grading 14% TGC, 11m grading 14.8% TGC and 10m grading 18.5% TGC. These high-grade results underpin Mahenge Liandu's potential to produce high-quality graphite concentrates, which should be suitable for a number of commercial applications. Work continues to enhance the current high-grade JORC-compliant resource of 40.9Mt grading 9.41% TGC as well as a Feasibility Study to be completed in Q2 2018 targeting a 400,000tpa operation with a head grade of 10-15% TGC.
Our view: We continue to be impressed with the exceptional high-grade, shallow intercepts coming from Mehange Liandu, representing some of the highest grades reported from graphite deposits in Tanzania. These latest results bode well for a significant increase in the updated JORC-compliant resource which is expected by year end. Armadale is looking to capitalise on the expected growth in the graphite market driven by increasing applications particularly in the energy storage market. We look forward the updated resource estimate by year end as well as results from the feasibility study in Q2 2018. In the meantime, we maintain a Speculative Buy rating on the stock.
Beaufort Securities acts as a corporate broker to Armadale Capital PLC
Bushveld Minerals (LON:BMN, 9.88p) – Update
Bushveld Minerals, the diversified mineral development company with a portfolio of vanadium, titanium, iron ore, tin and coal in southern Africa, announced today an update on the demerger of its subsidiary Greenhills Resources and the transferring of 85% of Greenhills to AfriTin Mining. Bushveld shareholders will be issued approximately 0.0899 of a AfriTin share (rather than 1 AfriTin share as envisaged in the Circular). This is to avoid AfriTin having too many shares in issue and ensure that the number of shares issued and their pricing are in line with market practice and expectation. Bushveld Mineral sharehlders will hold the same interest in AfriTin as they do in Bushveld Minerals, prior to any further share issuances that will occur upon admission of AfriTin Mining.
Beaufort Securities acts as a corporate broker to Bushveld Minerals plc
Lionsgold (LION.L, 0.98p) – Speculative Buy
Lionsgold has appointed Alan Davies the former Chief Executive of Rio's Diamonds & Minerals and former CFO of Rio Tinto Iron Ore. He will be Global Strategy Consultant for Lionsgold, working 2 days per month for shares, over an initial 12 month contract.
Our view: An interesting hire, Mr Davies has a high quality background and through his time at Rio Diamonds, extensive experience in India. Mr Davies said "I believe Lionsgold shall prove to be in an enviable position as the only AIM-quoted company with substantial exposure to India's mining industry, a market I know well and that I believe has massive potential over the coming years and decades". India is an under exploited country but has been an extremely difficult place to operate (especially as a foreign mining company). The expectation is that the operating environment will improve and Lionsgold is well positioned to take advantage.
Beaufort Securities acts as corporate broker to Lionsgold Limited
N4 Pharma (LON:N4P, 5.75p) – Speculative Buy
The specialist pharmaceutical company which reformulates existing drugs and vaccines to improve their performance, this morning announced the results of the latest study it has conducted for its nuvec® silica nanoparticles ('nuvec® SiNPs') delivery system. As well as investigating tolerability, the objective of this study (funded via a biomedical Catalyst Grant) was to determine the in-vivo capacity for the Company's nuvec® SiNPs system to deliver DNA to generate local expression of a protein. This is a key indicator as to whether a vaccine delivery system is likely to successfully generate an immune response. The Company completed two tests in this study, the first was an injection directly into a cancerous tumour and the second was a subcutaneous injection; two routes of administration typically used for vaccination. In conclusion, a single injection of the nuvec® SiNPs is effective in delivering DNA to generate localised protein expression at the site of the injection and draining lymph nodes and release cytokines into the systemic circulation. These are all crucial elements for successful cancer therapy treatment. No tolerability issues were encountered for the duration of the study.
Our view: An important step forward! As well as preparing to take its sildenafil reformulation into clinic, N4 have been scoping out the potential for its nuvec® SiNPs delivery system. This latest study demonstrates further encouraging progress in demonstrating the nanoparticles' capability and signifies another prominent step forward on the road to commercialising this innovative system. The evidence is that it has many desirable features for use in either a vaccine approach or to deliver therapeutic proteins to tissues and N4 is now uncovering key commercial advantages compared to, for example, lipids. This increases the scope of nuvec® SiNPs' application which, in turn, enhances the value of the technology to potential commercial partners. Following these results, further in-vivo studies will be conducted to demonstrate capability to deliver specific antigens to promote an adaptive immune response (i.e. as a vaccine) or to deliver functional proteins that can have a biological effect and to undertake comparison studies showing how its performance compares to other widely used as delivery systems for cancer vaccines and therapies. The value of the global nanotechnology drug delivery market is forecast to grow from US$4.1 billion in 2014 to US$11.9 billion in 2023 according to Transparency Market Research (July 2014). Beaufort reconfirms its Speculative Buy rating on N4 Pharma, with a 12p/share price target.
Beaufort Securities acts as corporate broker to N4 Pharma Plc