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FTSE 100 fails to make the most of US jobs boost

Published: 03:09 03 May 2014 AEST

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Despite boosts from better than expected US jobs figures and surprisingly good results from RBS, Footsie barely progressed today.

The FTSE 100 finished up 14 (0.2%) at 6,822, fading in the final hour despite news this afternoon that US non-farm payrolls rose by 288,000 in April, well ahead of the 220,000 rise expected by analysts.

Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) enjoyed a rare sojourn at the top of the greasy pole for most of the day before being displaced at the death by InterContinental Hotels.

Shares in RBS surged 8% to 332p as a turnaround at troubled Ulster Bank helped it register only its sixth quarterly profit since being rescued by the taxpayer.

Underlying profit in the three months to March came in well ahead of market forecasts at £1.64bn compared to £826mln this time a year ago.

Revenues fell 2% to £5.1bn as the cutbacks at the group’s investment bank took their toll, while statutory profits were £1.29bn with a significant fall in bad debts.

InterContinental Hotels Group (LON:IHG), up around 8% to an all-time high of 2,190p, put in its strongest performance in seven quarters, as well as the sale of two hotels in New York and San Francisco, prompted a US$750mln special dividend from the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza owner.

AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) rejected an increased offer from Pfizer of £50 a share and dipped to £48.08, down 7p on the day.

On the mid-cap index, TalkTalk (LON:TALK) rose 2.2% after a bullish note from German boutique bank Berenberg, which upgraded the shares to ‘hold’, having long urged investors to sell the internet and TV specialist.

On AIM, Falcon Oil & Gas (LON:FOG) flew 23% higher to 10.625p after it unveiled a farm-out deal for its Beetaloo shale licences in Australia’s Northern Territory.

Chief executive Philip O’Quigley has brought on board local operator Origin, valued at US$16bn, and South African gas-to-liquids specialist Sasol to help unlock the huge potential of the licences estimated to contain 162 trillion cubic feet of gas and 21bn barrels of oil.

With a headline value of A$200mln, including an upfront A$20mln cash payment, the pair are planning a nine-well programme over five years.

This compares with a previous five-well deal with Hess on less favourable terms.

Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) jumped another 16% to 1.1p after negotiating an interest-free US$2.5mln bridge loan from Circum Minerals to be used to exercise its right over the Danakil potash project.

Northcote Energy (LON:NCT) advanced 7% to 0.65p after it revealed it has now finished four well recompletions as part of this year's work programme in Osage County, Oklahoma.

Rose Petroleum (LON:ROSE) bloomed, after plans for newly acquired acreage in Utah's Paradox basin were boosted by a positive update from the operator of a neighbouring project. The shares rose 7% to 0.78p.

SolGold (LON:SOLG) went the other way, shedding 11% despite claiming the Cascabel copper, gold project in Ecuador has the potential to be a deposit running to ‘billions of tonnes’.

Boss Alan Martin’s comments accompanied a progress report in which the group revealed it has carried out a second round of magnetic modelling and has chosen the location for its seventh exploration hole. It represents a “significant step forward” to its understanding of Cascabel, Martin told investors.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

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