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Prospex Oil and Gas boosted by new discovery, Petro Matad pinched by US$16mln placing

Last updated: 01:00 20 Jan 2018 AEDT, First published: 21:15 19 Jan 2018 AEDT

oil and gas operations

2:00pm: Prospex Oil and Gas boosted by new discovery, Petro Matad pinched by US$16mln placing

Prospex Oil and Gas Plc (LON:PXOG) shares advanced on Friday after it reported what was described as a “significant commercial gas discovery” at the Podere Maiar project onshore Italy.

The well was drilled in fourth quarter, and “strong flow rates” have been reported.

Elsewhere, Mongolia focussed explorer Petro Matad Plc (LON:MATD) dropped 15%, to 7.76p, after announcing a new US$16mln equity funding which sees share being sold to institutional investors priced at 6.5p.

Junior miner Weatherly International plc (LON:WTI) gained 12%, to 1.66p, following a positive update on copper production operations for the quarter.

Clear Leisure PLC (LON:CLP) shares were up 8%, changing hands at 0.81p, after it updated on its new Bitcoin mining operation, where it has now completed the acquisition of the first batch of computers. It expects the first batch will be online in the second half of February.

10:30am: High street stocks hit by disappointing December retail sales stats

Disappointing, worse-than-expected retail sector sales statistics have lumped pressure on B&Q owner Kingfisher Plc (LON:KGF) and consumer electronics seller Dixons Carphone Plc (LON:DC), with the shares down 3.4% and 2.5% respectively to 333p and 189.4p.

Primark owner Associated British Foods plc (LON:ABF), meanwhile, followed Thursday’s disappointing trading to lose a further 5p or 0.18% to change hands at 2,750p

Clothes and homeware retailer Next Plc (LON:NXT) shed 53p or 1.1% to trade at 4,925, while Debenhams Plc (LON:DEB) was 0.33% lower at 30p and Marks & Spencer Plc (LON:MKS) shares gave away 0.23% to 305.5p.

Branded apparel sellers JD Sports Plc (LON:JD. and Sports Direct International Plc (LON:SPD) lost 1.25% and 0.6%, trading at 372.3p and 372.75p respectively.

J Sainsbury plc (LON:SRBY), which owns Argos as well as its supermarket business, was down 0.19% to 257.2p.

Tesco Plc (LON:TSCO) dipped 0.67%, whereas WM Morrison Supermarkets Plc  (LON:MRW) was down slightly at 228.7p.

10:00am: More than sector bashing Carpetright and Bonmarche issue profit warnings

There’s not really a good time to give a profit warning, and investors are no doubt picking up a theme in Friday’s market movers.

More direct than a simple sector bashing, Carpetright Plc (LON:CPR) shares slumped, losing 43%, after it rolled out yet another profit warning.

Carpetright revealed that  trading over Christmas turned out significantly worse than expected. It said UK sales especially were weak in the eleven weeks to 11 January, which will reduce profits this year to between £2-6mln. In December, the retail chain had forecast a profit of between £13.8mln to £16.7mln.

Sofa seller DFS Furniture Plc (LON:DFS) also saw weakness in its share price, down 3.79%, trading at 198.2p.

Bonmarche Holdings PLC (LON:BON), meanwhile, saw its shares drop almost 25%, as the women’s clothing chain picked a bad day to announce a sharp fall in third-quarter same-store sales over the Christmas period.

In a trading update for the 13 weeks ended December 30, the FTSE small cap firm said its total sales  fell by 5.5% year-on-year, with store like-for-like sales falling by 9.7% but online sales increasing by 29%.

9:45am: Dignity halves in value after funeral group issued profit warning

UK funeral services firm Dignity Plc (LON:DTY) saw its value halve in Friday’s early deals after it issued a profit warning.

Dignity told investors that results for 2017 will be in line with expectations, but, at the same time it cautioned over its 2018 performance.

Specifically, in a bid to preserve market share, the company is dropping the price of ‘simple’ funerals and freezing the cost of most ‘traditional’ funerals.

As a result funerals firm is now expecting results for the 2018 financial year, to December 28, will be “substantially below the market's current expectations.”

Proactive news headlines:

AFC Energy plc (LON:AFC) told investors that the quarter ended December 31 was important as the company “achieved very significant improvements” for its fuel cell system. The company said it now believes the system has demonstrated a platform for future commercial deployment, with the projected performance ahead of objectives set in 2017. Indeed, it added that successful results from early operations, through December and January, continue to validate this expectation.

An esports franchise backed by several football superstars has become the latest addition to the line-up for the third season of Gfinity Plc’s (LON:GFIN) Elite Series gaming tournament. Paris-based ARES – which is supported by Bayern Munich’s James Rodriguez and Yannick Carrasco of Atletico Madrid among others – has acquired its place on the roster for the event which is due to kick off in March.

Emerging markets fund APQ Global Limited (LON:APQ) saw the value of its portfolio rise over the past year. The fund has an objective to pay a fully covered dividend yielding 6% while also ensuring the book value grows by between 5%-10% annually. At the end of December, unaudited book value was 128.11c (94.67p) up from 127.3c in November and 122.52c at the start of the year.

Motif Bio Plc (LON:MFTB) (NASDAQ:MTFB), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specialising in developing novel antibiotics, said it has filed a "universal" shelf registration statement on Form F-3 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The group said filing is a common practice by NASDAQ-listed companies, and is intended to provide the company with more timely and efficient access to US capital markets.

Rose Petroleum PLC (LON:ROSE) has said its wholly owned US subsidiary will be exhibiting at the 2018 NAPE Oil and Gas Business Conference being held in Houston from 6-9 February, 2018. The AIM quoted natural resources business also said it will be updating the market shortly with the results from the interpretation of data from the recent 3D seismic shoot over its acreage in the Paradox Basin.

Base Resources Limited (LON:BSE) has successfully closed the retail component of the 1 for 3 accelerated renounceable pro rata entitlement offer, announced on Tuesday, 19 December 2017. It said eligible retail shareholders subscribed for approximately 30.2mln new Base Resources ordinary shares at A$0.255 per share, raising gross proceeds of approximately A$7.7mln.

Range Resources Limited (LON:RRL) has published its ongoing investor Q&A addressing questions from shareholders, which can be accessed at: https://www.rangeresources.co.uk/uploads/media/investor_qa_180118.pdf

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