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Shell's investment offshore Scotland bodes well for Hurricane Energy as it advances the Lancaster field

Last updated: 10:30 15 Jan 2018 EST, First published: 04:26 15 Jan 2018 EST

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3.30pm: Signs of North Sea revival give Hurricane Energy PLC a lift

News that Anglo-Dutch giant Shell is to build its first manned platform in the North Sea for almost thirty years gave a lift to all oilers operating in the region.

Hurricane Energy PLC (LON:HUR) rose 4% to 39.9p for example even though technically it is not in the North Sea, rather the West of Shetland UK Continental Shelf.

But it's close enough to benefit from oil investors extrapolating the benefit of Shell's U-turn on the whole region.

Capable of producing 45,000 barrels of oil per day, Shell's new floating vessel will be located at the Penguins field some 150 miles north of Shetland. Shell shares rose 6p to 2,606p.

2:30pm: Versarien shares rise on Chinese graphene plans, Velocys shares hit by new funding

Versarien Plc (LON:VRS) was up around 35% driven by news that it is to establish a graphene manufacturing base in China, with a letter-of-intent signed with the Shandong Institute of Industrial Technology Fund along with other Chinese groups.

The initial aim is to set up a 100,000 square foot facility, which will produce and sell proprietary graphene based products, ahead of establishing a larger ‘industrial park’.

Elsewhere, Tri-Star Resources Plc (LON:TSTR) was probably the standout small-cap share, leaping around 90% at one point, although there was no tangible news item for investors.

Internet-of-things (IOT) investor Tern PLC (LON:TERN) shares advanced more than 54% as the company gave details of a planned investor call, due to take place on January 24.

Equity dilution was a factor for Velocys (LON:VLS) which was down more than 50% as the renewable fuels group unveiled a £18mln funding – with new shares being sold to investors/

Greatland Gold plc (LON:GGP) was another faller as it was revealed that the Newmont Mining will no longer be involved in the Ernest Giles project in Australia.

11:30am: Gem Diamonds soars on “exceptional” discovery

Gem Diamonds Limited (LON:GEMD) shares shot up 15% trading at 92.5p on Monday after it unearthed an “exceptional” stone.

In a statement, the company confirmed it recovered a 910 carat diamond from its Letšeng mine in Lesotho, which is described as “the highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world”.

GEM added that the find is believed to be the fifth largest gem quality diamond ever recovered.

 

 

Shares of Carclo PLC (LON:CAR) lost nearly half their value Monday morning after the plastics maker issued multiple profit warnings and announced the departures of key executives, including the chairman.

Investors sent shares about 47% lower to £66.30 on news that the group faced unexpected delays securing big contracts in its Technical Plastics and Wipac units that would negatively affect results.

The board said it now expects to miss second-half guidance and anticipates full-year profits for the year ending March 31 to be “significantly” below guidance due to the setbacks, though the board did say that it still expects healthy year-on-year growth.

9:30am: Carillion aside, GKN and Mitchells & Butlers provide Monday morning highlights 

Strictly speaking, Monday morning’s big stock market mover didn't move at all, though sadly for shareholders it is unlikely to move again at all.

News of Carillion PLC’s (LON:CLLN) seemingly overdue demise - it has now finally entered into liquidation - came over the weekend, and, in London the share (which, before today, had fallen 92% since July 2017) was suspended from trading ahead of this morning’s open.

Amidst the trading debris will be the happy short traders whose bets against the construction and services contractor will have paid off royally – but, also spare a thought for any brave souls who took attempted to catching the falling knife with punts on a recovery.

Engineer GKN PLC (LON:GKN), up 3.45% to 434.5p, was an trading highlight with investors buoyed by continuing commentary around the possibility of a £7bn deal with Melrose.

Pubs group Mitchells & Butlers Plc (LON:MAB) moved into plus territory thanks to a positive Christmas trading update last Friday. The stock was up around 1.2% to 273p each.

Bookmaker William Hill plc (LON:WMH), meanwhile, edged only slightly higher after its trading update found some favour with investors.

Proactive news headlines:

Graphene specialist Directa Plus Plc (LON:DCTA) said second-half revenues were double those recorded in the first six months of 2017 and added it was in a “robust” financial position. Chief executive Giulio Cesareo gave an upbeat assessment of prospects, telling investors: “Our commercial engagement with customers has grown and deepened significantly, and we expect to announce further material orders, additional collaborations and partnerships over the coming year.

Harvest Minerals Limited (LON:HMI) is stepping up operations at its Arapua fertiliser project in Brazil with the addition of a new plant and expansion of the sales and marketing team. KPfertil was soft launched last year while Harvest waits for the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Supply to certify the product as a remineraliser.

Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) has walked away from Greatland Gold plc's (LON:GGP) Ernest Giles gold project in Australia, bequeathing Greatland some highly encouraging geological work. A 5 km by 1.5 km anomaly has been identified just 1 km north of previous Greatland drilling, and several other anomalies have also been identified nearby. Greatland will shortly lodge a Programme of Work with the regional government as part of the process of initiating follow-up work.

Bango (AIM: BGO) has hooked up with Amazon to enable customers to sign-up to Amazon Prime in India through resellers that offer product bundles.

André Brown, the chief executive and founder of online merchandising specialist ATTRAQT Group plc (LON:ATQT), has stepped down from his role with immediate effect.

Computer-based drug developer e-Therapeutics PLC (LON:ETX) has signed collaboration deals which will enhance and extend its artificial intelligence (AI) technology capabilities. Both Intellegens and Biorelate have AI tools which, after pilot studies, have been shown to complement ETX’s existing computational network-driven drug discovery (NDD) technology.

Iofina plc (LON:IOF) said its new IO#7 IOsorb plant is nearly complete, while it is exploring options for IO#5, which is currently the plant with the highest production cost in the group.

SDX Energy Inc (LON:SDX, CVE:SDX) has told investors that it has now begun drilling the ONZ-7 development well on the Sebou permit in Morocco. This is the fifth well in an ongoing nine well programme onshore Morocco, and the drilling phase is anticipated to take between ten and fifteen days to complete. Big Pic in November.

U.S. Oil & Gas PLC (USOP) told investors, in a statement after Friday’s close, that it has been green lighted for two new wells at its Nevada oil project. The company said it has been awarded permits to drill the planned Eblana-3 and Eblana-6 wells, meanwhile, a proposed re-entry to the Eblana-1 well is still under review.

Zimbabwe-based gold miner Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (LON:CMCL TSX:CAL) has racked up another record quarter at the Blanket mine. Production at the 49% owned mine totalled 16,425 ounces of gold in the three months to December, 14% more than the previous quarter and 21% higher than a year ago.

Orosur Mining Inc (CVE:OMI, LON:OMI) is targeting the lower end of its production guidance at San Gregorio as it focuses on profitability over production.

Base Resources Limited (LON:BSE, ASX:BSE) on Monday confirmed that it is has been cleared to acquire the Toliara Sands project, with the proposed transaction becoming unconditional. The deal to acquire an 85% stake in Mauritian subsidiaries of World Titane Holdings, which own the Toliara Sands project, is now expected to be completed next week.

Sapphire sales from the Capricorn mine owned by Richland Resources Ltd (LON:RLD) amounted to US$183,000 in the period from 4 November to the end of the year. That took the total fourth quarter sales figure to just over US$545,000. Separately, Richland's long-standing chief executive Bernard Olivier is to resign, although he will remain on the board until a successor is found.

Bezant  Resources PLC (LON: BZT) has announces that Laurence Read has assumed the role of chief executive officer of the company following the resignation of Dr Bernard Olivier as CEO, both with immediate effect.

Wishbone Gold PLC (LON:WSBN) has announced the appointment of Oliver Poole as consultant to the company. The group said Poole's remit will be to enable Wishbone Gold's subsidiary Black Sand FZE to begin operations in Uganda. Poole was an award-winning foreign correspondent for the Evening Standard and Independent titles and in recent years has consulted for philanthropic and political initiatives.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

5 hours, 20 minutes ago