London’s FTSE 100 gave up 26.8 points to trade at 7,304.5 early on Tuesday, dragged lower by supermajor BP (BP.), ongoing domestic election uncertainties as well as a further slowdown in house price growth which weighed on large cap builders Berkeley (BKG), Barratt Developments (BDEV) and Taylor Wimpey (TW.).
Oil major BP softened 3.9p to 508.1p after reporting a sharp drop in third quarter ‘underlying replacement cost profit’ amid weaker oil and gas prices and lower production caused by ‘significant hurricane impacts’. Although this result was better than the market feared, a $2.6bn disposal-related charge pushed BP to its first quarterly net loss since the second quarter of 2016.
Energy services play Hunting (HTG) cheapened 3.6% to 405p on a full year profit warning blamed on a slowdown in the US onshore shale market.
Online contracts for difference (CFD) and cryptocurrency trading platform Plus500 (PLUS) rallied 6.3% to 838.2p after posting 10% revenue growth for the third quarter thanks to a jump in customer numbers. Plus500 also unveiled ‘a strong increase’ in earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) and assured it is on track to meet full year expectations.
Harry Potter books publisher Bloomsbury (BMY) shed 10p to trade at 250p as first half results revealed a drop in pre-tax profits and the company cautioned sales are expected to be ‘even more second-half weighted than in previous years’, coded language that softens investors up for earnings disappointment going forwards.
Asthma drug company Vectura (VEC) advanced 0.5p to 83.7p on the appointment of Will Downie as its new chief executive officer (CEO). Downie joins Vectura from Catalent, where he apparently forged an ‘outstanding track record’ in helping to drive growth and positioning Catalent as one of the pharmaceutical services industry’s leading brands.
India-focused fashion website Koovs (KOOV:AIM) climbed 7.5% to 3.25p on an encouraging second quarter update showing a continuation of strong growth in orders and website traffic.
Oil and gas minnow I3 Energy (I3E:AIM) rocketed 54% higher to 43p after striking oil at its 100%-owned Serenity prospect, which is ‘a potentially very large oil resource’ and represents ‘a transformational event’ for I3 Energy.
Rainbow Rare Earths (RBW), the miner focused on the Gakara Project in Burundi, bounced up 12% to 2.8p on a well-received operational update and a show of faith from chief executive George Bennett and chairman Adonis Pouroulis, who have snapped up shares at 3p-a-pop.
