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Market movers: Bovis Homes, Kea Petroleum, Orosur, Rio Tinto, red24, Richland, Sirius Minerals

Published: 17:26 18 Aug 2014 AEST

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Footsie has surged back above the 6,700 mark, shaking off the doubts that saw Friday morning's solid gains evaporate in the afternoon session.

Geopolitical concerns eased over the weekend as the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers met to discuss a potential ceasefire in their dispute.

The reshaping of the mining sector continues with Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) saying that, in light of recent developments in Papua New Guinea, such as the new mining legislation passed this month, it has decided to review all options for its 53.83% stake in Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL).

For some time, BCL has been involved in discussions with the Government of Papua New Guinea, the autonomous Bougainville government and landowners about whether it would participate in a future potential return to mining at Panguna, the company revealed.

Rio's shares are up 0.9%, slightly ahead of the benchmark index's gain; the FTSE 100 is up 40 (0.6%) at 6,729.

In the mid-cap space Bovis Homes (LON:BVS) has pleased with its update. The shares are up 3% after the company completed construction on a record number of houses in the first half of 2014, leading to a 150% increase in operating profit.

The interim dividend has been tripled to 12p.

Among the small caps, potash firm Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) is setting the pace, up 7%, after unveiling a five year agreement on sales with a large Central American fertiliser distributor.

Corporate travel safety specialist Red24 (LON:REDT) warned that changes to its product by one of its main customers will hit profits by £250,000 this year.

Interim revenues will be line the previous year after the benefit of a major staff repatriation programme from Africa to Asia for one customer, but the full year will be affected by the loss of up to approximately £500,000 of revenue.

Red24 is taking steps to replace this revenue and lower expenses to offset this  Other areas of the business continue to trade in line with expectations.

Shares fell 15% to 13.25p.

Richland Resources (LON:RLD), up 3.6%, is wanted after it revealed it is eyeing first production at its sapphire mine in Queensland by early 2015.

Results statements from small miners don't often lead to a rise in the share price, but Orosur Mining (LON:OMI) has managed the trick today, with the shares up 2.4% after it moved into the black.

It notched up a profit before tax of US$3.66mln in the year to May 31, versus a loss of US$15.64mln the year before.

The binary nature of oil exploration has been amply demonstrated by Kea Petroleum (LON:KEA) after the company said the Puka-3 will is being plugged and abandoned, as the sands were predominantly "water wet".

The company lost two thirds of its market value, but chairman Ian Gowrie-Smith was remaining upbeat: ""We are disappointed with the result of the Puka-3 well; however, the data we have recovered will be used to plan development of the Puka field and allow us to devise a suitable programme moving forward."

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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