UK stocks bob lower in early trade on Tuesday as business returns to normal after the long weekend, although there is little in the way of news to drive investor appetites. Eurozone inflation data will be a focus, due this morning, with analysts expecting an improvement in May.
The FTSE 100 index nudges 11 points, or about 0.2%, down to 6,258.
On the corporate front, an unsolicited, informal approach pitched at Alliance Trust (ATST) sparks a 3.5% rise in the shares to 526p. The approach comes from fellow FTSE 250 investment trust RIT Capital Partners (RCP), although no firm details have yet been made public.
Property company St Modwen (SMP) fails to advance despite saying that trading for the year had started well as it continues to extract value from assorted opportunities from its land bank. The stock slips 0.9% to 326p.
Among the bigger movers, SacOil (SAC:AIM) jumps 36% to 1.13p after it advises shareholders that its basic EPS for the full year is expected to be about $0.0123 to $0.0205 cents, representing an increase from the losses for the year to 28 February 2015.
PCG Entertainment (PCGE:AIM), crashes 35% to 0.55p as it gets caught up in a dispute over supplier debt relating to a 2015 acquisition of CPDC. 'Whilst no legal action has yet been taken, this dispute could materially affect the company's trading and financial position going forward,' the company admits.
Proton Power Systems (PPS:AIM) rallies 20% to 4.5p after it signs a seven-year significant framework agreement for fuel cell emergency power units with a blue-chip German customer. The total value of the framework agreement is €15 million.
Pnce popular mobile money network Monitise (MONI:AIM) slumps 7% to 2.93p as it calls time on talks over the sale of its content business. The company claims that the units strong performance means it offers better value to shareholders by remaining part of the wider company, even if investors seem to disagree.
Cancer killing proton beam machine-maker Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO:AIM) falls 4.7% to 7.6p on losses increasing 46% to £8.5 million during 2015.
Sir Terry Leahy-chaired discounter B&M European Value Retail (BME) edges 0.8p higher to 305.7p as Credit Suisse upgrades its price target from 350p to 360p. The broker reiterates its 'outperform' rating on the multi-price value retailer, which last week (26 May) reported a near-20% hike in taxable profits to £161.4 million for the year to March and declared a 10p (£100 million) special dividend.
