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FTSE 100 suffers another reverse

Last updated: 03:31 04 Dec 2013 AEDT, First published: 04:31 04 Dec 2013 AEDT

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Footsie finished barely a point above its low point for the day as investors fretted about the release tomorrow of the so-called Beige Book, the Fed’s temperature test of the US economy.

The Beige Book may presage the start of an easing off of the central bank’s asset purchase programme.

The FTSE 100 finished down 63 points or 1% at 6,532, with only a dozen of the top-share index’s constituents ending the day in the black.

Among those defying the trend were clothing retailer Next (LON:NXT), up 2.1% on an upgrade to ‘buy’ from Oriel, bookie William Hill (LON:WMH), up 1.6%, after it was deemed worth a punt by UBS, and medical device maker Smith & Nephew (LON:SN.), which got upgraded to an “overweight” rating by Morgan Stanley.

At the wrong end of the Footsie leader board were miners Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) and Randgold Resources (LON:RRS), both down 3.4%. Fears of the Fed tapering its stimulus programme weighed on the miners, while UBS slashing its price forecast for gold and silver did not help sentiment.

Joining the miners in the dog-house was insurer Old Mutual (LON:OML), down 3.6% after being downgraded by Cazenove.

On the small-cap market, Albemarle & Bond (LON:ABM) slumped 24% to 14.5p as the pawnbroker put up the ‘for sale’ sign, following a string of profit warnings and funding issues, culminating in the departure of five directors on Monday.

DiamondCorp (LON:DCP) saw some profit taking after its recent strong run, even though it has started to get some cash from its tailing operations as it continues its advance towards full underground production at the Lace diamond mine in Lesotho.

It made US$278,574 from 6,442 carats for US$43 a carat as it sold its first stones to Tiffany & Co subsidiary Laurelton Diamonds as part of an off-take agreement.

Mobile marketing and payments specialist Proxama (LON:PROX) suffered the usual fate of companies that issue shares at a severe discount to the prevailing market price. The company raised £8.6mln by placing shares at 2.5p compared with Monday’s closing price of 4p,

Shares were down 34% to 2.8p.

There was no sugar-coating the market reaction to interim results from The Real Good Food Company (LON:RGD). The company’s shares were down 14% at 59.12p after the company said its Napier Brown business faces a “significant challenge” from the dramatic drop in EU sugar market prices.

The group’s figures showed that the group posted a more than £7mln decline in first half revenues to £130.1mln. This reflected lower sugar volumes over the selling season ended in September.

The company said branding and sales initiatives at Renshaw and R&W Scott, the bakery ingredients businesses, and Haydens, which produces patisseries and desserts, are “delivering in line with expectations” and executive chairman Pieter Totté said the company is well-placed to benefit from the traditional Christmas boost in demand for its products.

Mariana Resources (LON:MARL) finished the third hole of its drill programme at the Condor de Oro copper, gold mine in Chile but the news was overshadowed by the rush to sell gold shares, and Mariana fell 4.9% to 4.89p.

Smelter operator Goldplat (LON:GDP) has been certified as a producer of Responsible Gold in South Africa along with its strategic partner Rand Refinery. The news sent the shares 4.44% higher.

Medgenics' (LON:MEDG) was wanted after its chairman bought his second sizeable chunk of shares in the drug delivery innovator in little over two weeks.

Dr Sol Barer bought 20,000 shares at US$6.589 at a total cost of around US$132,000. In November, Barer bought US$170,000 worth of stock in the Israeli group and with this latest purchase he now owns 92,000 shares or 0.5% directly. Adding in his options potentially increases his holding to 7.6%.

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