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FTSE100 heads lower at lunch as mood turns

Published: 22:21 02 Sep 2014 AEST

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After an early run upwards, FTSE 100 was lower at the midday point, with postal giant Royal Mail (LON:RMG) among the biggest laggards.

It came despite upbeat news that the British construction ramped up a gear unexpectedly last month.

The Markit/CIPS UK construction PMI data rose from to 64 from 62.4 last month after a contraction to 61.5had been expected by analysts.

Also in focus in investor minds is possible economic stimulus measures at the ECB, which was causing the uplift in early deals.

FTSE100 was down over four points at the time of writing, with Royal Mail down 1.7%. Investors were mulling news that the postal group, which floated last year, is going to trial Sunday deliveries in London and the surrounding area this weekend.

The biggest loser was utility giant SSE (LON:SSE), which  has announced the disposal of its gas pipelines business to a new clean energy focused fund in a £52.7mln deal.

On the flip side the biggest gainer was Weir Group, up 2.69%.

It was buoyed after heavyweight broker Credit Suisse upgraded the stock from 'neutral' to 'outperform' and upped the target price.

One of the biggest London risers was Sefton Resources, as it revealed it had made a required debt payment . Shares bounced 37.5% on the day.

Notable risers included Kibo Mining (LON:KIBO), whose shares surged over 10% as the company confirmed its flagship Imweru gold project in Tanzania is suitable for early commercialisation.

A review of the asset has concluded that the exploration work undertaken to date and the resource data gathered from this work demonstrate the potential viability of early gold production from the Imweru project.

In particular, the review demonstrated Imweru holds sufficient JORC (Joint Ore Resource Committee) compliant resources to support production, and there is a high degree of confidence that additional exploration will add to the resource inventory to supplement existing resources and extend the prospective life of the mine.

Shares in potash development firm Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) were wanted after it emerged the company chairman has upped his stake.

Russell Scrimshaw now has an indirect beneficial interest in almost 39.5mln Sirius shares, equivalent to 2.1% of the company, after 2.1mln shares were purchased on his behalf at an average price of 11.75p each.

Savannah Resources (LON:SAV) has unveiled what it described as encouraging results from a re-processed airborne survey of its copper project in Oman. Shares rose 10.65%.

It points to 94 prospective anomalies, including eight “priority-one” targets that have been identified near known volcanic massive sulphide deposits.

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