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Other Articles:	12-03-201011-03-201010-03-2010

Wolseley, Segro, Hammerson and Legal & General lead FTSE 100 rally

Overview: the FTSE 100 was weighed down by the commodities sector early in the day as mining and energy stocks were responding to declines in oil and metals prices with silver, gold, copper and nickel continuing their freefall. Wall Street also fell the day before, contributing to the Footsie’s weakness, which also wasn’t helped by the US stock index futures, which remained flat this morning. However, its losses were limited to a small decline by strong gains from plumbing and heating equipment manufacturer Wolseley (LSE: WOS), which rallied more than 11% after releasing yearly results, reporting lower profits, which, however, beat estimates and fuelled the stock’s surge.

Wall Street later added to the positive sentiment, with the Dow Jones industrial average rallying 1.3% early, adding 125 points and further boosting the Footsie’s climb, helping the UK blue chips to a 85 point increase.

Commercial property companies were strong today with Segro (LSE: SGRO) and Hammerson (LSE: HMSO) making it to the top of the leaderboard with gains of about 4%. Insurer Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) also made it to the top three, climbing almost 5%.

There weren’t that many fallers among the blue chips on Monday with only three FTSE 100 constituents losing 1% or more. Home Retail Group (LSE: HOME) once again emerged as the top faller in the top tier index with a 3% slide. Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) were the other two blue chips to decline more than 1% as the two slid 1.5% and 1% respectively.

Mining stocks picked up after a slow start with almost all major stocks raking in gains. Most oil and gas companies also performed well.

Commodities

Oil prices showed some improvement, but didn’t move up by much. Brent Crude for November delivery traded at US$65.30/barrel today. US benchmark crude for November delivery was at US$66.45/barrel.

Oil equities were mixed in London. Supermajors BP (LSE: BP) and Shell (LSE: RDSB) added about 1% each. BG Group rose less than 1%, improving to 1,091 pence per share. However, Cairn Energy (LSE: CNE) and Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW) both shed 1.3%.

Petrofac (LSE: PFC) added 2%.

Mid caps also were mixed on Monday. Dragon Oil (LSE: DGO) rose 2%, while Dana Petroleum (LSE: DNX) and Heritage Oil (LSE: HOIL) declined 2.2% and 1.2% respectively.

European focused oil and gas developer Ascent Resources (AIM: AST) and Eastern Europe operating junior Aurelian Oil & Gas (AIM: AUL) were among the leading risers in the sector, climbing over 4%.

Iraq operating Irish oil company Petrel Resources (AIM: PET) shed more than 8% after releasing its interim results, emerging as one of the leading fallers in the sector. Energy investor Xtract Energy PLC (AIM: XTR) and US focused junior Empyrean Energy (AIM: EME) both lost more than 4%.

Gold and Silver inch up, bolster mining stocks

Gold inched higher to US$991/oz, Silver improved to US$16.06/oz, while Platinum added US$, rising to US$1,276/oz.

Mining stocks improved slightly following the modest recovery in metals prices.

Blue chips gold producer Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS) added 1.5%, while platinum miner Lonmin (LSE: LMI) improved 1.2%. Silver miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) rose 2.3%.

Specialty chemicals firm Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT) also added 2.3%. Yamana Gold (LSE: YAU) climbed 1.6%.

In the FTSE 250, yellow metal miner Petropavlovsk (LSE: POG) rose 1.5%, while silver miner Hochschild Mining (LSE: HOC) added 2%. However, Aquarius Platinum (LSE: AQP) failed to catch the momentum from the upward movement in the sector, sliding 2.7%.

Uzbekistan focused gold miner Oxus Gold (AIM: OXS) was one of the leading fallers among the juniors, slumping 9%. Philippines focused gold producer Medusa Mining (AIM&ASX: MML), Argentina operating gold explorer Patagonia Gold (AIM: PGD) were among the leading fallers among the small caps in the sector, sliding 9%, 7% and 6.5% respectively.

Australian gold and copper prospector Solomon Gold (AIM: SOLG) joined in with a loss of 6%. Platmin (TSX, AIM: PPN) slid 4.5%.

Kryso Resources (AIM: KYS) was the top performer in the sector after reporting impressive results from drilling at its Pakrut project in Tajikistan with multiple high-grade intersections. The company rallied over 13% on the update.

South Africa and Botswana operating diamond miner Firestone Diamonds (AIM: FDI) also rose, adding 4%. Commodity asset development company Mercator Gold (AIM: MCR) climbed 3.7%.

Copper and Nickel remain low, but miners climb

Copper and Nickel did not show much improvement, but did not extend the recent losses either. Copper was at US$2.68/pound, while Nickel held steady at US$7.50/pound. Zinc was at US$0.83/pound.

With the exception of Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED), all major mining stocks were on the rise in the afternoon, erasing early losses after copper and nickel prices picked up.

BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT), Eurasian Natural Resources (LSE: ENRC) and Xstrata (LSE: XTA) led the way, rising about 1.7%. Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO), Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ) and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) gained a little over 1%. Anglo American (LSE: AAL) was flat.

London's only listed pure iron ore producer and FTSE 250 constituent, Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO) outperformed the sector with a solid 4% climb.

Mozambique operating tantalum miner Noventa (LSE: NVTA) led the fallers among the juniors, dipping 26% to 4.88 pence per share. Tunisia focused metal miner Maghreb Minerals (AIM: MMS) dropped 8.7%. Philippines operating nickel miner Rusina Mining (ASX: RML; AIM: RMLA) lost 6%, while South Africa operating chrome miner Chromex Mining (AIM: CHX) declined 4%.

Indonesia operating coal miner Churchill Mining (AIM: CHL) and nickel and iron ore exploration junior Landore Resources (AIM: LND) moved in a different direction, with Churchill rallying 14% and Landore climbing 6.5%. Australian focused coking coal producer Caledon Resources (AIM: CDN) also rose, advancing 5%.

Banks, insurance, private equity

Financial stocks mostly rose today with the exception of bailed out banks Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS), which declined 0.5% and 1% respectively. Barclays (LSE: BARC) and HSBC (LSE: HSBA) both added 2.4%. Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN) rose 1.5%.

Insurer Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) led the sector, rising 4.6%. Old Mutual (LSE: OML) added 3%, while Aviva (LSE: AV) climbed 2.2%. Standard Life (LSE: SL) was up 1.5%.

Prudential (LSE: PRU) was flat.

Private equity group 3i (LSE: III) added 3.4%.

Large and Mid Cap News

Kesa Electricals PLC (LSE: KESA) said it appointed Dominic Platt as finance director, and he will join as an executive director of the board in early January 2010. Platt is currently group financial controller at Cable and Wireless PLC (LSE: CW), the electrical retailer added.

888 Holdings PLC (LSE: 888) said its subsidiary Dragonfish has signed an exclusive agreement with South African Tsogo Sun Gaming Group (TSG) to set up a joint venture in South Africa providing a licensed and regulated ‘sportsbook’ online service.

British software group Autonomy Corp (LSE: AU) announced a license agreement with US pharmaceutical group Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) to provide Autonomy’s propriety ‘Intelligent Data Operating Layer’ software.

Small Cap News

Stratex International PLC (AIM: STI) said it has signed an option/joint venture agreement with Teck Resources Ltd’s (TSX, NYSE: TCK) Turkish unit Teck Madencilik Sanayi Ticaret AS, to advance the Hasançelebi high-sulphidation gold project.

Petrel Resources PLC (AIM: PET) said it narrowed its pretax loss in the first half to end-June 2009 to €228,000 from €417,000 a year earlier, but it has no news to report on developments in Iraq, a market it remains focused on because of the immense potential.

Western Europe operating oil and gas company Northern Petroleum (AIM: NOP) said the Geesburg-1 well in the Dutch Drenthe III license area flowed “beyond expectations” after the completion of hydraulic fracturing.

Kazakhstan focused oil and gas explorer Roxi Petroleum (AIM: RXP) said it is seeing signs of financial markets  returning to “a more positive state”, as it reported  first half revenues and significantly narrowing its losses in the period which saw a successful fundraising  for further development of its projects through continued seismic, testing and drilling operations.

Plant Impact PLC (AIM: PIM), which develops and markets ecologically friendly crop nutrition and crop protection products, announces it has triggered the first regulatory milestone payment from its BugOil licensing agreement with Arysta LifeScience Corp.

Churchill Mining PLC (AIM: CHL) confirmed it has received three separate and unconnected non-binding approaches, all of which are at various stages.

Oil and gas exploration and production company Ascent Resources PLC (AIM: AST) said its 45.23 percent owned subsidiary PetroHungaria Kft has begun a further sidetrack of the PEN-104 well (PEN-104AA), to test a substantial Miocene volcani-clastic prospect in the Penészlek field in the Nyírség permits of north eastern Hungary.

Shares in Kryso Resources (AIM: KYS) jumped over 20% this morning after the Tajikistan operating gold miner reported on drilling results from its wholly owned Pakrut gold project, which it said were “highly encouraging,” intersecting a number of high-grade intervals.

Chariot Oil & Gas (AIM: CHAR) said it had secured extensions of initial explorations periods of its licenses for areas offshore Namibia, buying more time to evaluate the blocks and look for farm-out partners.

Eurasia Mining (AIM: EUA) announced today it was now debt-free following a full capital reorganization which was completed in June, and it reported “excellent progress” at its West Kytlim project in the Urals.

Oil and gas junior Resaca Exploitation (AIM: RSOX), which is focused on the Permian Basin in the US, reported increases in its oil and gas reserves along with higher production rates at its flagship Copper Jal Field following increases in water injection. With the oil prices picking up, Resaca said it was restoring production from previously shut-in minor properties and was “well positioned” to further expand its activities.

Marketing software specialist smartFOCUS Group PLC (AIM: STF) said it won a contract with cruiseline operator Carnival UK (LSE: CCL) under which the company will implement, support and enhance Carnival's marketing campaigns across its P&O Cruises, Cunard Line, Princess Cruises and Ocean Village brands.

UK based software developer Advanced Computer Software (AIM: ASW) announced the acquisition of Indian developer Oak Labs Private Ltd. The deal sees ACS significantly enhance its development operation for an undisclosed fee, which will be paid by a combination of cash and equity. Shares in ACS rose 3% this morning as investors welcomed the latest acquisition in their development strategy.

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