The ongoing court battle over Centamin's (CEY) licence to mine gold in Egypt has taken a new turn. After countless delays to its appeal hearing, the miner is due in the Supreme court on 19 June. Yet the shares tanked, falling 14.5% to 39p, on news that the State Commissioner's Office has prepared a report for the Supreme court which is apparently not in Centamin's favour.
The prospect of free-to-view Premier League football has got City number-crunchers buzzing over BT (BT.A). The telco giant hopes to leverage its BT Sports package to hike its broadband subscriber numbers, but longer-term, this looks like a strong monitising content opportunity too. The emergence of this new potential growth stream comes as a relief after years of static top line and cost cutting, although fourth-quarter results were better than hoped-for. The market likes what it reads, the shares surging nearly 10% higher to 302.7p. We'll have more on this story on the Shares website later.
Online grocer Ocado (OCDO) surged 22% higher to 231p after Goldman Sachs slapped a 'buy' rating on the stock and investors responded to the bullish tone of its annual meeting statement. The £1.2 billion cap said any potential distribution and operational tie-up Bradford-based grocer Morrisons (MRW) would complement and not damage its partnership with John Lewis-owned Waitrose.
TUI Travel (TT.) rose 2.4% to 348.6p after saying its strong winter season had offset first-half losses while continued strong sales momentum in the summer programme in the UK and Nordic markets was expected to deliver full-year underlying operating profit growth of at least 10%. The Crawley-based £3.8 billion cap said operating losses had been reduced by £43 million to £274 million and revealed a 10% rise in the interim dividend. Click here for our recent Plays of the Week article on the tour operator.
A major profit warning caused touch-screen technology specialist Zytronic (ZYT:AIM) to fall 31.4% to 201.5p. It said that year-to-date profitability had more than halved, blaming a slow conversion rate of prospects to contracts.
British Airways-owner International Consolidated Airlines (IAG) fell 3.1% to 271.8p after first-quarter results revealed losses of ?278 million. In its trading outlook, IAG said that excluding fuelling, it expected to reduce group capacity by 1.8%, keeping non-fuel unit cost flat versus the previous year.
Iron ore producer Ferrexpo (FXPO) advanced 1.6% to 199.3p after reporting a robust first-quarter update. Although some money relating to VAT refunds has been received, it still has $309 million outstanding. Selling prices have risen 19% on its previous quarter and analysts forecast that costs should come down later in the year.
The resurgence of Devon's mining industry looks rosy after Wolf Minerals (WLFE:AIM) finalised A$192 million debt facilities to build its Hemerdon tungsten mine. The shares nudged up 2.5% to 20.5p, helped by additional news that Wolf has secured offtake agreements whereby it will sell tungsten to companies in Austria and the US.
BBA Aviation (BBA) shares added 3.8% to 270.8p after the group's trading update revealed a 3% increase in revenues for the four months to April. A 2% rise in flight support revenues is understood to have offset weak performance in business and general aviation in North America and Europe.
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) saw its shares jump 5.1% to 285.7p after saying that trading was in line with expectations. The group also reiterated its February announcement that the final dividend from 2012 would be brought forward to be paid on 31 May rather than early July as in previous years.
Building services specialist T Clarke (CTO) leaped 9% to 56p after revealing a near-10% increase in its order book. The London-based £21.3 million cap also reported that over 80% of its targeted revenues for 2013 had already been secured.
Compliance software supplier Ideagen (IDEA:AIM) is in the wars after the US government axed its Prism contract with the Veterans Association (VA), sending the shares down 9.4% to 20.38p. FinnCap analyst Andrew Darley points out that Ideagen is still working with around 40 VA hospitals, in one way or another. The news is a blow, nonetheless, coming so soon after its upbeat year-end trading update.
Serial disappointer Ceramic Fuel Cells (CFU:AIM) crashed 23% to 2.88p as its shares came out of suspension and the market finally got its chance to respond to the fuel cells technology developer's latest deeply-discounted fundraising. The £5 million placing was pitched at a 43% discount to the previous close of 3.75p.
Property play Development Securities (DSC) jumped 7.4% to 163p after securing planning permission to build a hotel and fast food restaurant in North Devon. A 70-bed hotel, which has been pre-sold to Premier Inn, and a pre-sold McDonalds? restaurant will now be built on a 1.5 acre site in the county.
High street banking group Lloyds (LLOY) has continued to dispose of its non-core assets to strengthen its balance sheet by selling a commercial real estate portfolio. The bank improved 0.6% to 58.4p after selling the portfolio of assets worth £527 million to Promontoria Thames for £325 million cash.
Non-life insurer and reinsurer Catlin (CGL) fell 0.7% to 532.5p despite reporting a good start to the year. Its gross written premiums increased 12% in the first quarter, while its average weighted premium rates increased 3%. It also had 2% more cash than it did during the same period of 2012 at US$8.5 billion.
