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FTSE creeps back towards record levels

Published: 21:43 10 Apr 2015 AEST

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The FTSE 100 also shot up today, more than 25 points, on its way back up towards record heights.

The index stood at 7,040, not far from the record 7,065 hit last month.

The big mover was drug producer Shire (LON:SHP) after its drug Lifitegrast was given a fast-tracked target time to market by the FDA. Shares jumped a whopping 280p or 5% to 5,700p.

Homebuilders were also up after broker Jefferies upgraded its stance on the UK residential sector.

Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV), 2.7% higher to 556, Taylor wimpey (LON:TW), up nearly 2.5% to 165p and FTSE 250 company Bellway, rising 2.7% to 2,069, all benefitted from upgrades by the broker.

Elsewhere there was a fall back to earth for some of the companies involved in the Horse Hill Development near Gatwick.

Yesterday’s announcement of more than 100 billion barrels of oil underground sent shares rocketing.

Profit taking coupled with a realisation that there is a long way to go before oil is extracted from the area saw some shares drop.

Alba Minerals (LON:ALBA) slipped back almost 25% to 0.6p while UK Oil & Gas (LON:UKOG) eased 16% to 2.5p and Doriemus shed 13% to 0.11p.

Away from Horse Hill, oil and gas minnow Tethys Petroleum also fell as the deadline for the sale of half of its assets in Kazakhstan fast approaches. The deal was agreed 13 months ago but there has been a hold up with the Kazakhstan Ministry of Energy. Shares dropped almost 20% to 4.8p.

E-commerce marketplace blur Group (LON:BLUR) was the biggest faller of the day. It announced some slow moving projects were to be scrapped. Shares plummeted 30% to 56p.

Majestic Wines (LON:MJW) announced it has bought online wine distributor Naked Wines for up £70mln. Shares eased 3% to 308p.

Image software specialist OMG (LON:OMG) was in demand as investors were told a special dividend is heading their way after aeroplane giant Boeing snapped up its  2d3 division.

Shares in the Aim-listed company rose 12% to 46p on the news. 

Boeing arm Insitu will pay £16.8mln for the business, which is a provider of image recognition software to the defence market.

Net cash proceeds for OMG are expected to be £11.3mln with 45% of this to be paid as a special dividend in May. 

That would be £5mln or about a tenth of OMG’s current market value.

N+1 singer said: “The disposal improves the group profile for an excellent price, reducing both risk and volatility in our earnings forecasts whilst at the same time allowing stronger focus on the exciting trends emerging within Yotta.”

Yotta is one of the remaining sections left in OMG after the sale which is responsible for the management of infrastructure assets.


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