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Friday's most followed including Gulf Keystone, Genel Energy, Afren, TUI Travel

Published: 19:54 08 Aug 2014 AEST

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Despite recent official figures showing six million UK inhabitants never go online, plenty were doing so on Friday to catch up on latest financial news.

Uk shares were taking a right knocking at the end of the week as geopolitical fears weighed on sentiment - notably moves from Russia imposing a food import ban from US and Europe. Footsie dropped 40% in early deals.

In focus is also Iraq, Ukraine/Russia and the developing Ebola crisis in Africa.

In company news, AIM quoted oil firm Gulf Keystone (LON:GKP) shares dropped as the situation in Iraq worsens, losing another 10% on the open.

This is from the group that no so long ago was worth around £3bn – now its market cap is threatening to fall below £500mln.

The cause of the heavy decline seen over the past few days is the unrest in Iraq as Islamic militants advance on northern Iraqi towns and cities.  Barack Obama has authorised air strikes on Islamic State (IS) fighters to prevent the slaughter of minorities.

Another big story of the day is that Afren (LON:AFR) shares slumped with the news that it has withdrawn staff from an oil field in Kurdistan due to the heightened security crises in northern Iraq.

Operations at the Barda Rash field have been suspended, the company revealed.

“Investors in Afren are paying the price for geopolitical instability in Iraq,” said Michael van Dulken, analyst at Accendo Markets.

Investors in Afren are paying the price for geopolitical instability in Iraq,” said Michael van Dulken, analyst at Accendo Markets.

“While billed as only temporary, precautionary and likely not having a significant impact on group cash-flow, there is no way of knowing how long the shut-down might last or if Afren’s other operations in the area (Ain Sifni) might suffer the same fate.”

Genel (LON:GENL) shares are also down today.

TUI travel (TT.) shares declined despite seeing  a 21% rise in profit in the third quarter. It is currently in talks with its 55% owner TUI AG regarding a merger.

Peter Long, chief executive, said he was pleased with the strong performance. "Demand for our unique holidays, which now account for over 70% of summer sales, has continued to grow, as have bookings made online."

From travel to home, and house builder Bellway (LON:BWY) reported record revenue from housing in the year to end July-  the figure came in at £1.46bn compared with last year's £1.09bn.

The firm said market conditions have been strong with a 21.2% rise in the number of houses completed by the group bringing the total to 6,851, up from 2013's 5,652 homes in the period.

Solo Oil (LON:SOLO) shares were douing well today days after the imminently scheduled drill programme at the Horse Hill project in Surrey was granted final environmental approvals.

Also, edging higher was Latin-America focused power provider Rame Energy (LON:RAME), which has been further boosted by a windfarm contract from mining giant Barrick Gold.

The firm's engineering services subsidiary was awarded a purchase order from Compania Barrick Chile Generación Limitada for the immediate installation of new wind monitoring equipment for Barrick's operations at the 20 MW Punta Colorada wind farm in Chile.  

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