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Midday report: FTSE 100 positive with Reckitt Benckiser in support

Published: 21:01 28 Jul 2014 AEST

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London's top shares were keeping their heads above water with consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser (LON:RB.) lending support.

The group, whose brands include Durex and Cillit Bang, was up 2.17% in early deals, while Footsie was up almost ten to stand at 6,801.

The group revealed it is to hive off its pharmaceuticals division and float it on the London stock exchange.

The Anglo-Dutch company has had the US-based pharmaceuticals arm under review for some time and has plumped for a demerger.

Also making the list of top five risers, was BSkyB (LON:BSY), which rose 2.63% as investors cheered news out Friday - that the media giant would shell out around £5bn to buy 21st Century Fox's 100% stake in Sky Italia and its 57% controlling stake in Sky Deutschland.

Japanese broker Nomura also lifted its rating on satellite broadcaster to 'neutral' from 'reduce' with a target price going to 900p from 870p.

Aberdeen Asset Management (LON:ADN)was the biggest loser - shedding 3.09%.

In the junior market, the vibe was more negative  - with FTSE AIM All-share losing 0.73 to 772.46, while FTSE AIM 100 lost 2.87 to 3326.43.

Among the standout small cap risers was Frontier Mining (LON:FML), which gained over 9% after it received the governmental go-ahead to sell its Naimanjal licence area in Kazakhstan to Union Transnationale Miniere SA (UTM).

Frontier shares shot up in March this year when it first announced plans for the disposal, which  has a cash consideration of US$30 million. And today, they rose 9.38% to stand at 0.875p each.

The finance chief of China-focused software group Geong (LON:GNG) will now devote most of his time to the role  - after resigning from a part time position, the firm said today. Shares rose 4%.

David Tsui has resigned from Youbisheng Green Paper AG, the company said in a brief statement on Monday.

Elsewhere, iron ore focused Strategic Minerals (LON:SML) reported a 44% improvement on domestic magnetite sales in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2013.

The firm has also kick-started the approval process for an exploration programme at its Jotanooka project in Western Australia to assess the near surface potential for a DSO (direct shipping ore) project.

Jotanooka lies 300km from a deep water port that has existing modern rail infrastructure nearby and is neighboured by Sinosteel Midwest Corporation's Koolanooka project, which delivered 4Mt (million tonnes) of direct shipment haematite ore to the Chinese steel markets over a three year mine life before closing in 2013.

SML shares today rose 4.17% to stand at 0.625p.

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