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Wall Street stocks on the up on positive sentiment

Last updated: 10:24 25 Mar 2014 EDT, First published: 11:24 25 Mar 2014 EDT

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Wall Street shares were on the up Tuesday as traders were buoyed into buying on better economic data.

The latest housing figures acoss the Pond were in line, while  consumer confidence rose by more than expected.

It went to 82.3 in March from 78.3 in February, it was revealed.

The benchmark Dow added 58 to go to 16,329, while the tech heavy Nasdaq added 12. The S&P 500 clung on to gains and stood up five at 1,862.

Spice giant McCormick was the biggest gainer after its quarterly results pleased the markets, while Carnival slumped when the embattled cruise operator revealed it swung to a loss in its latest quarter.

There was more on the much flagged float tomorrow of King Digital Entertainment, the London firm behind the addictive Candy Crush smartphone game sensation.

It is floating in New York tomorrow and is valued at around a whopping £5bn and the listing is set to earn the trio of bosses behind the craze, mega fortunes.  

Chairman Mel Morris can expect a paper sum of around £530million, while chief exec Riccardo Zacconi is set  to win £452mln. Sebastian Knutsson, the creative director, will amass £256million

Candy Crush was the most popular free app on smartphones and tablets in 2013 and has been downloaded more than 500 million times since it was launched in 2012. The creators say the game is played a billion times a day. Its floatation is sure to be watched eagerly by the global gaming industry and has already set arguments in motion about a new tech bubble in the stock market.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Footsie gained over 64 points, and was standing at 6,584, bolstered by a host of corporate updates, including one from B&Q owner Kingfisher (LON:KGF), which was the biggest gainer.

Kingfisher moved higher as it noted signs of consumer confidence returning in its core markets across Europe, while also promising a £200mln additional payout to shareholders this year.

The company, which also owns Castorama and Brico Depot in France, and Screwfix in the UK, saw profits rise by 10% in the year to end January to £759mln, while underlying profits rose by 4.1% to £744mln.

Getting the silver medal on the podium was budget carrier EasyJet (LON:EZJ), up 2.76%, as it revealed its first-half loss would be smaller than expected thanks to the mild European winter.

But by far the biggest story of the day belonged to new float Royal Mail (LON:RMG), which announced plans to cull around 1,600 jobs to cut costs.

The news prompted warnings of strikes from the Unite trade union, which represents the majority of those staff affected. The latest devleopment also follows a stamp price hike announced last month.

Meanwhile, the junior market was also showing upbeat sentiment - FTSE  AIM All-share gained 2.57 to 848.23, while FTSE AIM 100 added 19.05 to 3794.08.

Turning to the junior space, Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA, CVE:CAZ)  was boosted after it unveiled a 67% increase in annual revenues following the roll-out of new wells in the Bone Springs play, in New Mexico.

Revenues for the 12 months to December 31 totalled US$8.31mln, versus US$4.97mln in the year before. This saw group losses narrow to US$8.5mln in 2013, from US$12.24mln in 2012.

The impact of the new Bone Springs wells was particularly evident in the figures for the fourth quarter, with revenues up 114% in the final three months of the year at US$3.38mln.

Elsewhere, Tungsten Corp (LON:TUNG), an electronic invoice specialist, also got a boost Tuesday as it revealed it expects to receive regulatory approval for a formal change of control of FIBI Bank(UK) by the end of May.

The request, which would conclude the acquisition of FIBI Bank, was submitted yesterday to the UK's Prudential Regulation Authority and the FinancialConduct Authority.

Niche lender S&U (LON:SUS) was also wanted as investors hailed a good set of full year numbers. It prompted broker Canaccord to upgraded its rating on the stock to 'buy' from 'hold'.

The company provides finance to customers through its home credit division - Loansathome4U, and has an established motor finance arm called Advantage, which was responsible for driving the group's profits up for the year by 21%.

Canaccord analyst Robin Savage honed in on the "quality of the earnings", announced today, noting the group's record collections, and profitability, which was driven by growth rather than loan growth.

The firm has £15mln medium-term borrowing facilities for future development, and gearing - the level to which it is funded by lenders as opposed to shareholders - is still at a conservative 47%  level, he highlighted.

The company’s motor finance business saw pre-tax profits rise 42% to £11.5mln in the year ended January, up from £8.1mln the year before, which lifted overall profits to £17.3mln, up from £14.2mln.

Advantage saw revenue growth of 26% driven by record collections, while deal numbers reached a record 8,460 compared to 6,118 in 2013.

Elsewhere, Bushveld Minerals (LON:BMN) eased as it revealed  news of an agreement to acquire the majority of a tin tailings dump that could be the catalyst for early production from its Mokopane project in South Africa.

It made the announcement as it revealed the details of flexible, equity-funded facility that will give it access to up to £2.85mln.

Bushveld will pay £559,470 for 87% of the Zaaiplaats tailings, estimated to contain between 2,600 and 4,500 tonnes of tin.

Bushveld also said it had agreed a funding package with Darwin Strategic, which has subscribed for 50mln shares at 5.7p each.

Darwin will sell the shares when told by Bushveld and buy back tranches of redeemable subscription notes held by the AIM-listed mine developer.

Mojapelo said the notes provide Bushveld “ultimate control and flexibility” of its financial needs.


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