logo-loader

Market movers: William Hill, GlaxoSmithKline, Next, Rose Petroleum, Alecto Minerals, EMED

Last updated: 04:47 20 Mar 2014 EDT, First published: 05:47 20 Mar 2014 EDT

stormgamingmachine3preview

The FTSE 100 edged lower on Thursday, following a decline in US and Asian markets after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s frank comments about the prospect for an earlier-than-expected interest rate rise.

Yellen suggested that interest rates could rise as early as the second quarter of 2015 and that the US central bank will probably end its massive bond-buying programme this autumn. As anticipated the Fed reduced its bond-buying stimulus by $10bn to $55bn. The UK’s blue chip index was down 0.6%, with bookies continuing to suffer after the UK raised the duty on fixed-odds betting terminals, high-stake gambling machines, with William Hill (LON:WMH) one of the biggest fallers.

GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) fell 2% after the drugs group said an experimental cancer vaccine had failed in a second test. 

While fashion retailer Next (LON:NXT) provided some positives after posting a 12% rise in annual profit.

Among the small cap resource stocks, Rose Petroleum (LON:ROSE) was one of the top gainers on AIM as investors began to absorb the company’s acquisition of a package of US shale acreage. The US$2mln farm-in deal will see Rose build a significant land position in Utah. Its shares jumped 17%.

Alecto Minerals (LON:ALO) surged 12% after it announced the start of a major drilling programme on its Wad Amour copper deposit in Mauritania next month. Layne Drilling has been appointed as the contractor to carry out the 1,500 metre programme, which will start on the Chiron target where surface samples have returned copper grades of up to 5.79%.

EMED Mining (LON:EMED, TSE:EMD) rose about 7% as it appointed two Spanish businessmen to the roles of chief executive and chief operating officer as the exploration company  moves towards the final stages of permitting at its Rio Tinto project near Seville. Isaac Querub, a managing director of Glencore Spain from 1990 to 2003, was named CEO and Alberto Lavandeira, a mining engineer, was appointed COO. 

Iofina (LON:IOF) was up 6.5% as the Iodine extraction specilaist  announced the retirement of chairman Chris Fay and welcomed on board new non-executive director, Dr William Bellamy.

blur Group (LON:BLUR) revealed that its largest s-commerce project so far has kicked off on its globalexchange , lifting its shares. The legal project has a gross revenue value of US$15mln, the rapidly growing crowdsourcing specialist told investors.

Shares in Patagonia Gold (LON:PGD) edged higher as it revealed it had reached nameplate production at its Lomada mine and development of its flagship Cap-Oeste was advancing apace.


Ramp Metals Launches Drilling Program in Pursuit of High-Grade Nickel in...

Ramp Metals CEO Jordan Black joined Steve Darling from Proactive to introduce the company to the public domain and share exciting developments in the mining industry. With a background as a geotechnical engineer and experience in venture capital, including a notable role in taking GoldSpot...

1 hour, 11 minutes ago