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Other Articles:	16-03-201016-03-201012-03-2010

FTSE 100 bounces back as Wall Street rallies on jobless claims data

Overview: the FTSE 100 turned early gains into losses following a bullish start on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average rallied 1.5% to start the day as jobless claims data released by the US Labor Department in early morning showed a decline in new unemployment claims to the lowest level since January.

The S&P 500 index rose in unison with the Dow, adding 1.5%, while the technology focused Nasdaq composite tacked on more than 2%.

The UK blue chip index, which lost more than 1% in early trade, stood 0.5% above the opening level in late afternoon, also buoyed by Bank of England’s decision to expand the quantitative easing campaign by £25 billion, while keeping interest rates at 0.5%.

The Footsie could have done better if not for the sizeable losses from telecommunications company Cable & Wireless (LSE: CW), which slipped 7% after reviving demerger proposals. Hospitality company Whitbread (LSE: WTB) and partly nationalised banks Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) weighed on the FTSE 100 with losses of over 3%.

Engineering company Invensys (LSE: ISYS) also showed up among the leading fallers, retreating 2.9% after reporting a 15% drop in operating profit after a sharp fall in orders for its Operations Management (IOM) unit.

Airline British Airways (LSE: BAY) and insurer Old Mutual (LSE: OML) followed with losses of over 2.5%.

Quality and safety services Intertek Group (LSE: ITRK) and commercial property company Segro (LSE: SGRO) gained 2%. Inter-dealer broker ICAP (LSE: IAP) declined about 1.5%.

Consultancy, engineering and project management services company AMEC (LSE: AMEC) emerged atop the leaderboard with a gain of 4%. Pest control giant Rentokil (LSE: RTO) and software developer Autonomy Corporation (LSE: AU) followed, advancing 3.5% and 3% respectively.

Commodities

Oil prices inched slightly higher from the morning levels. December Brent Crude reached US$78.73/barrel, while US light, sweet crude for December delivery improved to US$80.39/barrel.

With the exception of Cairn Energy (LSE: CNE), which posted small losses, all major oil and gas stocks were on the rise today. Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW) led the pack with a 2.4% climb, while Petrofac (LSE: PFC) and BG Group (LSE: BG) tacked on about 1%.

Supermajors BP (LSE: BP) and Shell (LSE: RDSB) both added more than 1.5%.

Midcaps also stayed on positive territory. Heritage Oil (LSE: HOIL) added 1.6%, while Dana Petroleum (LSE: DNX) and Dragon Oil (LSE: DGO) rose marginally.

Peru, Colombia and Cuba operating oil and gas explorer and producer Gold Oil (LSE: GOO), which announced results from 3D seismic acquisition at the Azar block in Colombia and said it was looking to develop it as quickly as possible, and North Sea explorers Xcite Energy (AIM: XEL) both rallied 17% to lead the juniors. US focused oil and gas junior Caza Oil & Gas (AIM: CAZA) followed with a 10% surge after announcing a hydrocarbon discovery at the Moore Bailout well in New Mexico.

North America focused oil & gas junior Pantheon Resources (AIM: PANR) also did well, tacking on 6%.

Miners rise as gold ans silver recover

Precious metals were on the rise today as gold got back to US$1,090/oz, silver improved to US$17.43/oz and platinum fluctuated around US$1,355/oz.

Most major mining stocks rose. Silver miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) led the pack with a 2.4% gain, while gold miner Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS) and platinum producer Lonmin (LSE: LMI) added less than 1%, as did specialty chemicals firm Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT).

Gold producer Petropavlovsk (LSE: POG) led the sector in the FTSE 250, climbing 2.5%, while silver producer Hochschild Mining (LSE: HOC) rose marginally. Aquarius Platinum (LSE: AQP) went against the tide, declining marginally.

Most small caps turned negative. South American based explorer Mariana Resources (AIM: MARL) was a notable exception with a 12% climb. Uzbekistan focused gold miner Oxus Gold (AIM: OXS) and Australian gold and copper prospector Solomon Gold (AIM: SOLG), which released an operational update today, went in the opposite direction, shedding 8.7% and 6.5% respectively.

Africa focused gold deposit developer Cluff Gold (AIM: CLF) and copper and gold miner EMED Mining (AIM: EMED) both declined 3.5%.

Copper and nickel remain weak, but miners climb

Most base metals focused stocks rose despite a decline in metal prices with copper and nickel sliding to US$2.96/lb and US$8.04/lb respectively. Zinc held steady at US$0.99/lb.

Indian miner Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED), whose H1 profits halved to US$199 million as was revealed today, was at the bottom of the pile with a 1.4% decline, while Eurasian Natural Resources (LSE: ENRC) followed with a marginal loss. Other mining stocks rose.

Anglo American (LSE: AAL) and Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ) were in the lead with gains of 1.3%. Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO) rose 1%, while Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) added less than 1%. Xstrata (LSE: XTA) and BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT) rose marginally.

London's only listed pure iron ore producer and FTSE 250 constituent, Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO) performed well, tacking on 1.3%.

Iron ore focused investor Red Rock Resources (AIM: RRR) led the small caps with a 16% rally. Copper and nickel explorer Regency Mines (AIM: RGM) and Tunisia focused metal miner Maghreb Minerals (AIM: MMS) followed, tacking on 8% and 6% respectively.

Laterite nickel specialist European Nickel (AIM: ENK) and zinc mining and recycling specialist ZincOX (AIM: ZOX) went in the opposite direction with losses of 5.5% and 4.2% respectively.

Banks, insurance, private equity

With the exception of Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN), which gained 1.5%, all major banking stocks were in decline. Barclays (LSE: BARC) and HSBC (LSE: HSBA) posted marginal losses, while bailed out banks Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) lost 3.3% and 2.6% respectively.

Insurers were mixed on Thursday. Car insurer Admiral Group (LSE: ADM) was the leading riser in the sector with a 1% climb, while Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) and Prudential (LSE: PRU) posted small gains.

RSA Insurance Group (LSE: RSA) was flat, while Aviva (LSE: AV) and Standard Life (LSE: SL) posted marginal declines.

Old Mutual (LSE: OML) was at the bottom of the pile with a 2% loss.

Private equity group 3i (LSE: III) added 1.4%.

Small Cap Movers

Other notable movers among the small caps included specialty pharmaceutical company Alliance Pharma (AIM: APH), which rallied 14% after saying 2009 profits could top expectations. Agricultural sector focused investor Agriterra Limited (AIM: AGTA) added 6.4%. Environmental science and technology company Accsys Technologies (AIM: AXS) rose 4.6%.

Large and Mid Cap News

Cable and Wireless plc (LSE: CW.) announced its intention to demerge its Worldwide division into a separate publicly-quoted company. According to Cable and Wireless the decision follows ‘signs of more settled conditions’.

Centrica plc (LSE: CNA) announced it has entered into a further agreement with Drax Group plc (LSE: DRX), to provide Centrica with access to an additional 300 megawatts (MW) of baseload power. The agreement will run for a five year period from October 2010.

Resolution Ltd (LSE: RSL) announced that it has completed its acquisition of Friends Provident Group PLC (LSE: FP.). Resolution will now pay a total of approximately £312 million in cash and issue approximately 1.7bn new Resolution shares to Friends Provident shareholders.

Half year results (period ended 30 September) released from Invensys (LSE: ISYS) disappointed investors this morning, who quickly pushed shares in the engineering and support services group down 6%.

Shares in Unilever (LSE: ULVR) were hit this morning as the consumer goods manufacturer revealed weaker net profits in Q3, which dropped by 35% compared with 2008. Similarly earnings per share for the first nine-months of the year fell by 34%. The groups improving sales performance has been offset by price cuts, increased borrowing costs and substantial costs associated with pension financing.

Small Cap News

Specialty pharmaceutical company Alliance Pharma (AIM: APH) now expects its full year profits to significantly exceed previous expectations as trading continued to be “very strong” with sales in the first three quarters almost doubling compared to 2008.

Direct marketing software developer smartFOCUS (AIM: STF) said today its client, the US’ largest organization for motorists and leisure travelers, the AAA, has implemented its full suite of marketing software to increase cross-sell and up-sell opportunities across its more than 51 million members after the initial deployment of the group’s solutions yielded impressive results.

Shares in Caza Oil & Gas Inc (TSX: CAZ; AIM: CAZA) soared on news of a new hydrocarbon discovery, at the Moore Bailout 11 State #1 horizontal well, in New Mexico’s Lea County, a month after reporting an oil find at  Penny 10 State #1, the first well drilled in  at the Abo/Wolfcamp horizontal oil play there.

KEFI Minerals PLC (AIM:  KEFI) said it has started a drilling programme at the Artvin gold project in northeastern Turkey targeting a very large geophysical gold and base metals anomaly identified on surface.

Peru, Colombia and Cuba operating oil and gas explorer and producer Gold Oil (LSE: GOO) reported on the preliminary results of the 50 sq km (square kilometre) 3D survey acquired on the southern part of the Azar block in Colombia, calling them “excellent” and looking to drill the prospect as quickly as possible.

Mongolia-focused oil explorer Petro Matad Ltd (AIM: MATD) said it was notified on November 4 that its biggest shareholder Petrovis LLC  bought a further 12,750,000 Petro Matad shares through the market, and now has an interest in 57,505,002 shares, or a 45.88 percent stake.

Gas storage company Portland Gas (AIM: PTG) said its Portland Gas Storage has attained the 'under appraisal' status from the European Investment Bank as a project contributing to energy diversification and security at European Union level.

Baltic Oil Terminals (AIM: BTC), which owns and operates oil product terminals in the Russian port of Baltiysk in Kaliningrad, said its recovery from the tough first half was still on track, confirming that the expected throughput of oil products at the terminal did materialise in October, resulting in the highest even monthly volume of product achieved.

Australian gold and copper prospector Solomon Gold (AIM: SOLG) has identified 20 new targets at the Guadalcanal exploration project in the Solomon Islands after completing an airborne Hoist EM Electromagnetic survey flown by Newmont over the entire area of the company’s exploration licenses, while rock saw results at Kolotolaka Legatugatu indicated an exposed copper gold porphyry system.

Hanson Westhouse issued a note on Stratex International PLC (AIM: STI), maintaining its ‘buy’ recommendation, in the wake of the group’s announcement that a scoping study to identify key issues and ensure optimum fast-track development for the Inlice and Altintepe gold projects in Turkey is now complete.

Coin and stamp dealer Noble Investments (UK) PLC (AIM: NBL) reported a rise in pretax profit to £2 million in the full year to end-August 2009 from 1.92 million a year earlier, while revenue rose 20 percent to £12 million, saying collectibles trading continued to be resilient in very difficult economic conditions.

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