Markets
Europe
The FTSE-100 finished yesterday's session 0.17% lower at 7,755.93, whilst the FTSE AIM All-Share index was down 0.20% at 1,063.23. In continental Europe, the CAC-40 finished 0.08% higher at 5,513.82 whilst the DAX was up 0.35% at 13,246.33.
Wall Street
Last night in New York, the Dow Jones ended an up-and-down session 10.33 points lower at 25,792.86, the S&P-500 was off by 9.82 points at 2,776.42 and the Nasdaq fell 37.38 points to stand at 7,223.69.
Asia
In Asian markets this morning, the Nikkei 225 was 86.08 points lower at 23,865.73 and the Hang Seng was down 98.76 points at 31,805.99.
Oil
In early trade today, WTI crude was down 0.06% at $63.69 per barrel and Brent was off by the same amount at $69.11 per barrel.
Headlines
Nestle sells Crunch, Nerds and other US brands to Ferrero for $2.8bn
Nestle is selling its US sweets and chocolate business to Ferrero Group for 2.7bn Swiss Francs ($2.8bn; £2bn). The Swiss food giant said it was offloading brands such as Crunch, Nerds, Runts and Butterfinger to focus on other products. Italy's Ferrero, which makes Nutella spread, Tic Tac and Ferrero Rocher, will become the US's third biggest confectionery maker. The deal is expected to go through by March this year. Ferrero said the brands would give it "substantially greater scale" and "a broader offering of high-quality products" for US customers.
Source: BBC News
Company news
AfriTin Mining (LON:ATM) 2.40p – Speculative Buy
AfriTin Mining announced an update on operations at its Uis tin project in Namibia. The Group has purchased the entire front-end crushing component for its processing plant comprising a jaw crusher, three cone crushers, stacking and conveying equipment and electrical switchgear. The above equipment represents the entire comminution circuit of the Phase 1 processing plant with planned production of 780t of tin concentrate per annum. AfriTin has also appointed Namibian based engineering firm, Crushplant & Utility Spares, specialising in the construction and installation of crushing equipment.
Our view: AfriTin has made good progress since listing on 9 November 2017. The above announcement is very encouraging as it means the Company has now procured at least 30% of the Uis plant. The engineering team has begun work procuring the ancillary infrastructure for the plant footprint. With the procurement of the comminution equipment and appointment of an engineering firm for installation, AfriTin should be able to reach its goal of commercial production in 2018. We look forward to further updates as mine development progresses. In the meantime, we maintain a Speculative Buy rating on the stock.
Beaufort Securities acts as a corporate broker to AfriTin Mining Limited
Mineral & Financial Investments (LON:MAFL) 13.00p – Speculative Buy
Mineral & Financial Investment announced yesterday that TH Crestgate, a private investment company in which MAFL holds a 49% interest, received mineralogical test results on the LS-1 deposit within the Lagoa Salgada zinc-copper project in Portugal. Tests were done on samples from three lithologies including massive sulphides, gossan and stockwork mineralisation. Sphalerite is the main zinc-bearing mineral representing 99% of the contained zinc. At a grind size of 60µm an average of 72% of the sphalerite was liberated. Surprisingly, the gossan hosted high contents of cassiterite up to 2.25% SnO2 (i.e. high grade). Samples from drill hole LS-MS-01 will now be re-assayed for tin as it was not one of the metals initially assayed in the 2017 drill programme. Lagoa Salgada is a polymetallic deposit with a current 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. A resource update is expected shortly incorporating the above results. In addition to the LS-1 Zone, Lagoa Salgada hosts at least 16 other gravimetric anomalies which have yet to be fully tested.
Our view: The above metallurgical test results are encouraging with good recoveries of zinc (sphalerite) and lead (galena). We note that the galena concentrates will carry most of the recoverable silver which should improve the payability of silver. Unexpected where the high-grade tin (cassiterite) contents from the gossan zone. As tin was not initially assayed during the 2017 drill campaign, drill hole LS-MS-01 will be reanalysed for tin. We are encouraged will the potential for a clean zinc concentrate that can be produced from the Central Sector of LS-1 which could improve the overall value of the LS-1 through blending. We look forward to the updated resource estimate for the LS-1 Zone once the metallurgical results have been incorporated. In the meantime, we maintain a Speculative Buy on the Stock.
Beaufort Securities acts as a corporate broker to Mineral & Financial Investments Limited