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Market movers: Johnson Matthey, Babcock, Centrica, RBS, Tangiers Petroleum, Stellar Resources, Amur

Last updated: 19:58 20 Nov 2014 AEDT, First published: 20:58 20 Nov 2014 AEDT

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Shares in Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT) topped Footsie’s risers early on.

The specialty chemicals maker reported higher pre-tax profits of £208mln and was more upbeat for the year ahead, lifting shares 126p to 3,278p.

Investors didn’t seem to mind that it lost a large chunk of commission from Anglo American Platinum, which meant overall revenues declined. 

Half-year results from engineering outsourcing business Babcock International (LON:BAB) boosted its shares by 41p to 1,149p. 

Pre-tax profits rose 32%, revenue climbed 24% and the firm’s order book increased to £18.5bn, up from £12bn last year. 

In March the company bought Avincis, one of the world's largest providers of helicopters for search and rescue missions, from private equity groups Investindustrial and KKR for £920mln.

Overall, though, FTSE 100 was down 23 points to 6,673, a drop of 0.35%. 

Energy stocks were on the slide as warmer weather in the UK scorched British Gas owner Centrica (LON:CAN). 

Shares in the firm dropped 2p to 295p after it cut its full year earnings forecast and said it expects UK customer gas consumption to be 21% lower this year. 

National Grid (NG.) was the heaviest of the fallers, down 22p to 938p. 

Miners were trading lower again with Fresnillo (LON:FRES) down 10p to 721p and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) dipping 48p to 2894.

Financials were also trading on the downside. 

RBS (LON:RBS) dipped 2p to 381p after it was handed a £56mln fine by UK regulators over IT failures in 2012.

Standard Chartered (LON:STAN)was 10p lower at 912p and HSBC (LON:HSBA) was down 4p to 630p. 

In the junior space, Tangiers Petroleum (LON:TPET) soared 57% to 0.8p after it won a bid for an Alaskan oil and gas venture known as known as Project Icewine.

Stellar Resources (LON:STG) jumped again, up 52% to 0.8p. Yesterday, it told investors it expects to release gold assay results from the Clogau St David's gold mine in Wales by the end of the week.

Sunrise Resources (LON:SRES) climbed 13% to 0.45p after it found high grade incidences of silver from very early stage work at its Bay State project in Nevada.

Amur Minerals Corporation (LON:AMC) shot up 22% to 6.5p following news of  more progress with its mining licence application for its Kun-Manie project.

Elsewhere, Churchill Mining (LON:CHL) shares dipped 7% after it said its arbitration case against the Indonesian government would continue.

PeerTV (LON:PTV) fell 35% to 0.41p. The firm said on Wednesday it plans to reorganise its share capital due to concerns that its shares are too close to the nominal value, meaning it will struggle to raise new funds by issuing any more equity.

Herencia's (LON:HER) shares fell 5% despite saying geophysical results have identified new targets at its Picachos copper project in Chile.


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