By Geoff Foster
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Excitable punters have helped shares of North Sea oil explorer Xcite Energy gush more than 40 per cent over the past month. They chased them up further to 112.5p yesterday amid continuing speculation that Norwegian oil and gas giant Statoil is stalking the company, before closing 6.5p better at 112p on turnover of 7m shares.
Ever since Cairn Energy, 13p up at 287p, splashed out ?414m on Nautical Petroleum in June to bolster its presence in the North Sea, analysts have been expecting more corporate activity in the area.
Xcite is a likely target. It owns the Bentley heavy oil field, and its recoverable reserves are around 160m barrels of oil. The total oil in place is estimated at about 690m barrels.
JKX Oil and Gas, on the other hand, remained friendless and flat at 85p. The stock has been in the doghouse since the surprise resignation of chairman Ian Prosser in July to ?pursue other interests?.
Elsewhere, the market awaited the content of Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke?s speech at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for any clues on further stimulus measures. When Wall Street opened 80.60 points higher, the Footsie responded with a gain of 43 points, before closing 7.97 points down at 5,711.48.
Dealers will be glad to see the back of August and are hopeful that the return of traders from their summer holidays on Monday will help volumes improve. Although they will have to do without Wall Street, which is closed for Labor Day.
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Data from Peter Lenardos, analyst at RBC Capital Markets, shows that the average daily value of shares traded on the London Stock Exchange in August was down 13 per cent on the month, at ?3.14bn, and 49 per cent lower than August 2011?s ?6.17bn.
Meanwhile, Oriel Securities? strategist Darren Winder tells us that the Footsie is trading more than 10pc higher than a year ago. Including the contribution from dividends, the total return from UK equities has been well over 5 per cent so far in 2012. He continues to forecast returns of more than 10 per cent for the year.
Awaiting confirmation of a contract from the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission in India to supply temporary power in Delhi, Aggreko jumped 66p to a 52-week peak of 2374p. It ended the day 55p higher at 2360p.
Still unable to operate its mines in South Africa following violence at its Marikana platinum mine, Lonmin succumbed to renewed nervous selling and closed 11.5p cheaper at a 52-week low of 573p.
Recovery hopes helped Dixons Retail touch 18.07p and close a fraction dearer at 17.55p. Philip Dorgan, analyst at Panmure Gordon, expects a decent first-quarter sales performance when the group reports on Thursday. He says it is improving its products, its stores and its operations, and that it will easily repay its bonds in November. His target? price is 28p.
Frankie & Benny?s-to-Chiquito chain Restaurant Group rose 7.5p to 329.5p following solid interim figures. Pre-tax profits improved 7 per cent to ?26.1m on a 7.5 per cent rise in revenues to ?252m. It opened eight new sites during the first six months and has opened an additional five in the second half so far.
Upmarket housebuilder Berkeley Group erected a gain of 8p to 1444p ahead of Wednesday?s AGM. Analysts anticipate that the board will have to answer searching questions about the Long Term Investment Plan (LTIP) agreed at last year?s meeting.
The maximum potential of LTIP would grant ?280m worth of shares to directors at the current share price on completion of the ?1.7bn capital return.
Torotrak, the developer of novel automotive transmission systems, was sold down to 34.15p on news of chief executive Dick Elsy?s departure before rallying to close 0.5p up at 38.5p. Boss since 2006, he is leaving to head a new UK high-value manufacturing initiative and will be replaced by Jeremy Deering, commercial director.
NomuraCode has a target price of 63p and says the change does not signal problems or represent discontinuity.
Despite reporting interim profits ahead of expectations and a 10 per cent dividend increase to 1.72p, bwin.party digital entertainment declined 4.9p to 94.1p. Scrappy selling followed accompanying news that current trading is mixed with average daily net revenue down 8 per cent compared to the second-quarter, reflecting its seasonality and the late start to the German Bundesliga.
Beowulf Mining firmed 0.25p to 9.75p after reporting record iron ore grades from its? first nine holes at the Kallak North drill? programme in Sweden.
Online dating services company Cupid, recently rumoured to be a US takeover target, put on 4p to 207p ahead of Monday?s half-year figures. Management said in July that it was confident of meeting full-year expectations.
Placed on the junior AIM market by broker Fox Davies at 20p, shares of Fox Marble touched 21.9p and closed at 21.62p.
It is a UK holding company of a group which has been granted mining licences in respect of five quarries in Kosovo.
The ?9.65m raised in the flotation will help fund its plans to commence quarrying operations at two of its quarries, build a processing plant and develop a sales network for the marble.
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