Sovereign Metals Ltd (ASX:SVM, AIM:SVML) predicts the production cost of flake graphite co-product from its Kasiya rutile operation will require some of the lowest expenditure in the global market, estimated at US$352 per tonne in operating costs.
The company believes it’s positioned to potentially dominate the market, given the potential production scale for a coarse flake, high purity and highly crystalline product from the project, which may be suitable for lithium-ion batteries and wider traditional industrial uses.
The energy transition is set to be a “megatrend of our generation” and the incumbent majors are well positioned for it, that’s according to Credit Suisse which today took a bullish view on Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL).
Credit Suisse analyst Amy Wong, in a note, said that ‘big energy’ is part of the climate solution, but there’s pressure on them to accelerate towards renewables.
Next Fifteen Communications Group PLC (AIM:NFC) confirmed its agreed M&C Saatchi PLC (AIM:SAA) takeover offer is final and won't be raised.
M&C Saatchi is also facing a rival bid from AdvancedAdvT insisting and said on Monday its offer for the London-based advertising agency was worth more than Next Fifteen’s.
Canaccord Genuity (TSX:CF, LSE:CF) analysts repeated a 'Speculative Buy' rating and 105p price target on Southern Energy Corp (TSX-V:SOU, AIM:SOUC, OTC:MAXMD) following news the first of three wells the company has drilled on its Gwinville Field, targeting the underdeveloped Selma Chalk reservoir, has delivered very encouraging initial results.
The analysts noted that well, GH 19-3 #2 is flowing at an initial 7.7 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), substantially ahead of expectations, and as it continues to clean up, further improvements can be expected. The #2 well is already tied into the production facilities, and so total company production has increased by 60% to around 3,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) - 96% gas - with negligible additional operating cost impact.
Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD) recovered slightly from its drop on open, now down 1.4% to US$8.27 after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suggested new rules on free trading.
Retail brokers may no longer be allowed to offer trading via ‘payment for order flow’ (PFOF) as the SEC chair Gary Gensler looked for ways to give investors better prices.
Just as new research showed a worrying skew of gambling losses to more deprived areas of the UK, it is the lure of huge growth in the US that makes shares in FTSE 100 players Flutter Entertainment PLC (LSE:FLTR) and Entain PLC (LSE:ENT) attractive, according to Citigroup and JPMorgan.
The recent sell-off of the gambling sector "provides an attractive entry point" for both Entain and Flutter, Citi said in a note, with JPM also rating both companies positively in a note today.
Moderna Inc has unveiled a new Omicron Covid-19 vaccine that it says is five times more effective at boosting antibodies compared to its previous jab.
The vaccine, which would also protect against the first Wuhan strain, might only need to be administered once a year as a result.
Energy and infrastructure services companies such as Balfour Beatty plc (LSE:BBY), Babcock International PLC (LSE:BAB) and Smart Metering Systems PLC (AIM:SMS) should benefit as the UK seeks to balance energy security with cost and decarbonisation goals.
Liberum Capital highlighted the trio in its report ‘The 4S's: Support Services & Special Situations: The Energy Trilemma and how to play it,’ with construction firm Kier Group PLC (LSE:KIE) also seen as a winner.
Peel Hunt has issued a cautious Buy recommendation for Hungarian no-frills airline Wizz Air Holdings PLC (AIM:WIZZ), despite the headwinds currently facing the airline operator.
It issued a target price of 4,700p for Wizz Air’s shares in a broker note this morning, which were trading at about 2,347p at midday on Thursday.
New Zealand has unveiled plans to become the first country to charge farmers for the methane emissions produced by their cattle and sheep.
It has been proposed to be implemented from 2025.
Mitie Group PLC (LSE:MTO) shares reached a six-month high after a positive trading update was paired with a reinstated dividend, a new share buyback programme and an acquisition.
Full year revenues rose 58% to £3.99bn, with operating profit jumping from £4mln to £72ml, the outsourcer said.
The government is proposing a right-to-buy scheme for housing association tenants, where a new home will be built for every one sold off and mortgage lending rules will be loosened.
It is expected that the government will work with the private sector to build the new homes, but the exact process is not yet clear.
Audioboom PLC’s share price continued its slide today as Spotify identified podcasts and audiobooks as one of the new areas it is targeting.
At an investor day, the streaming giant said it generated €200mln from podcasts last year, but predicted the overall value of ad spending in this area would hit US$2.1bn this year and by 2030 the value of the podcast market overall would rise to US$30bn.
Poundland Group PLC (LSE:PLND) owner Pepco has highlighted the UK as particularly hard hit by the cost-of-living crisis, saying it has squeezed customers' disposable income and led them to "scale back even essential purchases in the short term".
South Africa's Pepco Group, which also ows Dealz in Ireland and its eponymous chain in Europe, is the latest retailer to warn that inflation is taking a serious toll on consumers, in an earnings statement.
Move over tech and consumer products, it’s the age of natural resources stocks on London’s junior market, AIM.
Analysis of the market capitalisations of companies listed on AIM reveals that oil & gas companies comprised 6.3% of the total value of AIM at the end of April, up from 3.9% at the end of 2021, while mining companies represented 7.5% of the market, up from 5.8%.
VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities PLC (LSE:GSEO) has set out plans to raise between £150mln and £280mln of new cash to invest in an identified pipeline of projects spanning wind, hydroelectric and carbon capture.
The investment trust has kicked off a placing, open offer, subscription and intermediaries offer at an issue price of 110p per share - a discount to the 114p at which the shares closed overnight.
Ant Group Co, a financial-technology giant based in China, plans to raise at least US$34.4bn in what will be the world's biggest-ever initial public offering (IPO) in both Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Founded by Jack Ma of Alibaba fame, Ant is reportedly looking to raise US$17.2bn in each city, based on prices of 68.8 yuan and HK$80 per share, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission has formed a team to reassess the share sale plans.
Ethereum has taken the next step towards the less energy-intensive proof-of-stake (PoS) validation via a successful merge with the Beacon Chain PoS consensus chain.
A test network, called Ropsten testnet, merged its proof-of-work (PoW) execution layer with Beacon.
Southern Energy Corp (TSX-V:SOU, AIM:SOUC, OTC:MAXMD) has released successful early flowback results from the first well of the three-well horizontal pad site located in the Gwinville field.
The company highlighted well GH 19-3 No. 2, which is flowing at an initial level of 7.7 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d), or 1,280 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), at a highly restricted flowing pressure, exceeding the company's modelled type curve.
April saw a massive fall in the mining royalty and streaming, with the average share price down 5.2%.
Any hopes of a May recovery were quickly shelved as the negative pressure on share prices not only continued, it accelerated with the average share price falling by a massive 7.9% during May. This is the biggest one month fall in mining royalty and streaming companies' share prices since we started collecting this data in September 2020.
Keywords Studios PLC (AIM:KWS, OTC:KYYWF) was kept as a 'buy' by Shore Capital after what it said was a well-attended capital markets day for the video game services group on Wednesday.
Shares rose 2% to 2,458p today and although no new information was released at the event the broker remains keen on the investment story after KWS explained its longer-term strategy.
The owner of Yves Saint Laurent plans to make the luxury clothing designer a “mega-brand” - and some analysts are convinced they will.
Citigroup's Pavan Daswani advised clients on Thursday to buy the stock and said the share price could soar more than 40% to €740.
Peel Hunt Ltd (AIM:PEEL), which floated in London last autumn, saw a sharp drop in full-year revenue and profit following what the company described as “exceptionally low levels of capital markets activity” in the second half.
Revenue in the year to 31 March 2022 came in at £131mln, down from £196.9mln the year before but ahead of revised analyst expectations, the investment bank revealed in its results statement.
John Lewis Partnership will construct its first build-to-rent homes over Waitrose shops in Bromley and West Ealing in Greater London, as well as on the site of a vacant John Lewis warehouse in Reading.
Locals in Bromley and West Ealing will be invited to public consultations to discuss the plans, which include improvement to the Waitrose stores as part of the redevelopment process.
Powerhouse Energy Group PLC (AIM:PHE, ETR:BT81) said planning approval has been granted for a hydrogen facility in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland that will use Powerhouse’s technology to turn waste plastic into hydrogen.
Peel NRE, part of Peel L&P, has been granted planning approval for a £20mln, 13,500 tonne facility at Rothesay Dock on the north bank of the River Clyde. The hydrogen will be used as a clean fuel for vehicles, with plans for a linked hydrogen refuelling station on the site.
Tate & Lyle PLC (LSE:TATE) reported growth in revenue and underlying profit for its continuing operations for the year to 31 March 2022 and forecast profit in line with market expectations for the current year.
The food and drinks ingredients company announced revenue for its continuing operations of £1.37bn for the year to end-March, a rise of 18% from the previous year. Adjusted pre-tax profit from continuing operations grew 14% to £145mln.
The chief of the US financial regulator proposed a new set of rules to reform the way retail brokers enable free share trading via a practice called ‘payment for order flow’ (PFOF).
PFOF is where some retail brokers, including Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD), Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) Corp, E*Trade and TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD), sell their customers’ orders for a profit to giant Wall Street market makers such as Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial.
Fuller Smith & Turner PLC (AIM:FSTA) said sales were up 4% on pre-pandemic levels in the first 10 weeks of the current fiscal year.
The pubs group noted that total sales were up 130% on the same period last year when pubs were heavily affected by lockdown restrictions.
UK economic growth will "grind to a halt" this year before dipping briefly into negative territory as global events continue to weigh heavily on the UK economy, the British Chambers of Commerce warned.
The business network cut its expectations for UK GDP growth for 2022 to 3.5% (from 3.6%) and warned inflation will hit 10% in Q4 2022, far outpacing average earnings growth.
Altus Strategies PLC (AIM:ALS, TSX-V:ALTS, OTCQX:ALTUF) said it received record quarterly royalty income for the first quarter from the Caserones copper mine in Chile.
The mining royalty company received US$1.54mln (before tax), up 24.2% quarter on quarter, from its 0.418% net smelter return royalty interest in Caserones.
Psych Capital PLC (AQSE:PSY), a psychedelic medicines media and investment company, completed its initial public offer in London on the Aquis Exchange
The company operates the PSYCH business-to-business data, intelligence and media platform for the psychedelic science and healthcare industry and has started to carry out events under the PSYCH Symposium banner, with its inaugural conference last month being sold out and a second planned for next year.
AO World PLC (LSE:AO.) has called to an end its ill-fated expansion into Germany.
The online electricals retailer has concluded its strategic review of the German business and decided that closure of the operation is the best course of action.
Oracle Power PLC (AIM:ORCP) (Oracle Power PLC (AIM:ORCP)) reported positive metallurgical results from the first of three samples from its Northern Zone gold project in Western Australia.
The results indicate gold recoveries of 83.3% can be achieved within six hours and recoveries of up to 90.4% over 72 hours.
British American Tobacco PLC (LSE:BATS) reiterated its revenue guidance for 2022 in a trading update today, anticipating that its diversification into the vapour and non-cigarette market will finally begin to pay off.
Its new business line “is increasingly contributing to group performance, and we are confident in delivering our £5bn New Category revenue and profitability targets by 2025”, the company said in a statement.
Supermarket Income REIT PLC (LSE:SUPR, OTC:SUPIF) has confirmed it will be included in the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 250 index following the latest quarterly reshuffle.
The trust will also be included in the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Global Real Estate Index Series, it said in a statement.
The board of FirstGroup PLC (LSE:FGP) has unanimously rejected the takeover offer from US private equity group I Squared Capital.
In May, the US firm proposed an offer of up to 163.6p, comprised of 118p per share cash with another 45.6p per share contingent on how much was made from the sale of its American business, including Greyhound.
Scotgold Resources Ltd reported record production for April and May from its Cononish gold mine in Scotland.
The AIM-traded miner produced a combined 1,984 ounces of gold and 10,810 ounces of silver for the two months.
Bitcoin and Ethereum continued to tread water Thursday, mirroring an uninspiring session on Wall Street overnight and a lacklustre start to the trading day in wider European markets.
The largest crypto by market value was 0.7% lower at US$30,306, failing yet again to break out of the key US$30,000 range the token has been mired in for a month. Ethereum continued to stagnate around the US$1,800 mark, down 0.3% to US$1,796.
Shares in DFS Furniture PLC (LSE:DFS) slumped after the furniture retailer revealed slowing market demand in the fourth quarter as the cost-of-living crisis hits customers.
In addition, ongoing COVID-19 linked supply-chain disruption and lower order intake since April meant production and deliveries levels missed expectations.
CMC Markets PLC (LSE:CMCX) is targeting 30% net operating income growth over the next three years as it embarks on a new phase of diversification.
In its results for the year to the end of March 2022, the trading platform operator said its new UK non-leveraged investment platform (CMC Invest), which was launched in April, is being rolled out to the market over the coming year and augurs well for the group's future.
NextEnergy Solar Fund Ltd (LSE:NESF) said it has reached 100 solar power assets across its portfolio and is continuing to pursue a £350mln pipeline of further investments.
The hundredth operating solar asset is located on the roof of a Holiday Inn hotel in Nottinghamshire, with an installed generation capacity of 181kW and a 25-year power purchase agreement for its entire generated energy.
Greatland Gold PLC (AIM:GGP, OTC:GRLGF) said the growth drilling programme continues to expand the mineralised system at the Havieron gold-copper project in Western Australia.
Drilling in the South East Crescent has extended the high-grade zone a further 100 metres below the March 2022 resource estimate with the Crescent zone now continuously intersected to over 1,000 vertical metres and still remaining open at depth.
Chariot Ltd (AIM:CHAR, OTC:OIGLF) said the open offer that accompanied its £20.4mln placing and subscription in May was more than three times oversubscribed.
Shareholders applied for 61mln shares compared to the 17.6mln that were available through the offer, said the oil, gas and renewable energy firm, raising gross proceeds of US$4mln (£3.2mln).
Xpediator PLC (AIM:XPD) said it continues to trade well after a strong start to the year, particular in its Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) operations.
As it enters the traditionally stronger second half, it is “well placed to continue to perform”, the freight management services company said in a trading update ahead of today’s AGM.
SEED Innovations Limited has provided a Term Loan of up to €250,000 to portfolio company Fralis, trading as Leap Gaming.
The loan will be drawn down in tranches, with the first tranche of €100,000 drawn down initially.
The FMQQ Next Frontier Internet & Ecommerce ESG-S UCITS ETF is a potentially preferable exchange-traded fund for investors wanting access to emerging markets but excluding China, according to HANetf.
As one of the world’s two biggest economies, accounting for 20% of global production, China has come to represent an ever-greater share of the MSCI Emerging Market Index, now over 30%, as well as around 35% of the FTSE Emerging index.
Choppy pricing among cryptocurrencies does not spell the end of the nascent digital currency market, according to investment bank Citi.
Despite recent price volatility, analysts still spy opportunities to invest regardless of the prospect of greater regulatory oversight in the largely unregulated crypto market.
A rumoured private equity deal out of the blue this week raises a loaded question, what is the best way to own petroleum assets in the soaring twenties?
At a time when oil prices lurk near all-time highs and there’s scarcely been greater scrutiny on the likes of Shell and BP PLC (LSE:BP.) (oil spills notwithstanding), perhaps there’s a more comfortable way for capital to back oil and gas businesses.
Multiverse, the company run by Euan Blair, the son of former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, has been valued at US$1.7bn (£1.4bn) in its latest funding round, making it the UK's first 'edtech' unicorn.
In just eight months, the apprenticeship business has doubled its valuation and earned a spot among Britain's billion-pound businesses as it secured US$220mln (£175mln) in funding.
Thousands of passengers faced another day of disruption as British Airways cancelled 122 short-haul flights from its Heathrow base on Wednesday, whiles easyJet PLC (easyJet PLC (LSE:EZJ)) and Wizz Air Holdings PLC (AIM:WIZZ) (Wizz Air Holdings PLC (AIM:WIZZ)) also axed services.
Experts warned the situation might get even worse as workers at several airports vote on strike action.