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Footsie closes down slightly as US equities fall

Published: 03:00 19 Apr 2013 AEST

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Footsie closed on Thursday slightly down after a choppy trading day and after Wall Street opened down.

Britain's index of leading shares closed 0.54 down, or 0.0086% at 6,243, while the Dow in the US is tradiong down 65 points, or 0.44%.

FTSE 100 had made gains in the morning but then pulled back. Investor sentiment in the USA was knocked by disappointing updates from eBay and UnitedHealth, plus the March reading of the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators, which fell 0.1%.

Pharma giant Glaxo (LON:GSK) was among the biggest gainers on Footsie after traders piled into the stock this morning after Breo Ellipta, its treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, got clearance from the US Food & Drug Administration. It shares ended the day 3.2% to the good.

The biggest loser on the blue chip exchange was miner ENRC, which shed 4.3% to end at 229.8p.

The FT reported yesterday that the Serious Fraud Office has asked the law firm Dechert to provide it with some documents. Dechert was investigating corporate governance issues at ENRC prior to being fired by the Kazakh miner a few weeks ago, the paper reported.

In keepiong with its bigger cousin, FTSE AIM 100 fell today - shedding 14.25 to stand at 3156.35, while FTSE AIM All share dropped 3.44 to 702.03.

Within the minnows, a star performer today was certainly Europa Oil & Gas (LON:EOG), which rose 18.46%, after striking a farm-out deal with Kosmos Energy for its two assets in the South Porcupine basin, off the coast of Ireland.

Kosmos is acquiring an 85% stake in the venture by covering the cost of a 3D seismic programme on each of the two licences, while also paying a proportionate amount of Europa’s back costs.

It is also committing to cover all the costs of two explorations wells, one on each licence, capped at a combined US$200mln.

The Europa announcement was the first of two farm-out deals involving Kosmos. 

Fast growing mobile software specialist Globo (LON:GBO) , whose shares jumped 4.13% today, continues to punch above its weight through partnership agreements, with the latest being a tie-up with tech giant Fujitsu.

Globo will provide its GO!Enterprise product suite to small-to-medium enterprises in the UK and Germany through the Fujitsu Cloud Store.

Elsewhere, Greka Drilling (LON:GDL) has seen its share price go vertical this year and it surged again over 8% today after it successfully completed and handed over the first well in a contract for the China National Petroleum Corporation.

A couple of stocks returned to favour today after a period spent licking wounds.

Investors bought back into Amphion Innovations (LON:AMP) after shares plunged yesterday on news the firm's directors were taking a more cautious approach to valuing the companies in Amphion’s portfolio.

The sell-off began after they said that the relatively dormant new issues market for medical and technology companies recently made it hard to find a benchmark.

As a result of downward adjustments in the carrying value of holdings in several partner companies, the firm said its 2012 loss would be wider than it was in 2011.

That spooked investors yesterday, but those looking for a bargain jumped back in this morning, pushing up the shares by 5.56%.

Silvermere Energy (LON:SLME), meanwhile, closed up 16.67% , having seen its shares virtually halve earlier in the week after it was left in the lurch by an existing shareholder that failed to come up with the readies after subscribing to Silvermere’s January share issue.

Ortac Resources (LON:OTC) rose over 7% as it reported that executive chairman Anthony Balme is now interested in 7.1% of the firm's share capital after a transaction on April 17.

Other notable risers today were Beowulf Mining (LON:BEM), up 7.94%,  ECR Minerals (LON:ECR), up 4.35% and Leni Gas & Oil (LON:LGO), which rose 8.12%.

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