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  US housing data hits Wall Street, FTSE 100 falls as banks and insurers slide
Reported by Proactive Investors on Tuesday, 20 October 2009 (on October 20, 2009)
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Overview: the FTSE 100 started well, but later plunged into the red to stay negative for the rest of the day, being dragged down by substantial losses by infrastructure software manufacturer Autonomy Corporation (LSE: AU), which reported record Q3 revenues, but still slid 6%.
Barclays (LSE: BARC) also came under pressure after Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund sold £1.3 billion worth of shares in the banking group, which in turn stoked speculation that Qatar would use the proceeds to launch a bid for supermarket chain Sainsbury’s (LSE: SBRY), which emerged atop the leaderboard with a 5% gain.
Publishing company Pearson also did well, climbing 5% after upping its full year guidance on the back of a strong performance by in its education business. Fellow publisher Reed Elsevier (LSE: REL), hedge fund manager Man Group (LSE: EMG) and broadcaster BSkyB (LSE: BSY) also made it to the leaderboard with gains of about 2%. Heating and plumbing equipment supplier Wolseley (LSE: WOS) and fashion house Burberry (LSE: BRBY) joined Autonomy and Barclays with losses of 2.5%.
Despite the setbacks delivered by Autonomy and Barclays as well as most financials stocks, the UK blue chip index managed to climb back to the opening level, but then slipped, weighed down by an early fall on Wall Street after the Commerce Department reported the steepest decline in applications for building permits in five months. The Dow Jones slid 0.4%, while the Nasdaq composite was down 0.3%.
Commodity focused stocks weren’t much of a factor on Tuesday, showing little movement as oil and metal prices staying at around the same levels throughout the day.
Commodities
December Brent Crude slid down to US$77.12/barrel, while US light, sweet crude for November delivery declined to US$78.53/barrel after testing US$80 earlier.
BP (LSE: BP) moved down 1%, while fellow supermajor Shell (LSE: RDSB) posted marginal losses, as did Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW). Cairn Energy (LSE: CNE) declined 1.7%, but BG Group (LSE: BG) and Petrofac (LSE: PFC) managed to outperform the market, tacking on more than 1%.
Dragon Oil (LSE: DGO) was flat, while Dana Petroleum (LSE: DNX) lost 2%. Heritage Oil (LSE: HOIL) was at the bottom of the pile with a 6% drop a day after saying its merger with Turkish Genel Energi was taking longer than expected.
Atlantic Canada operating oil and gas group Enegi Oil (AIM: ENEG) was among the leading fallers in the sector with a 9% slip. Western Europe operating oil and gas company Northern Petroleum (AIM: NOP) and Ukraine focused gas producer, Regal Petroleum (AIM: RPT) both lost more than 3%.
North Sea explorers Xcite Energy (AIM: XEL) led the sector for the second day in a row, rallying 14%. Iraq and Algeria operating Gulf Keystone Petroleum (AIM: GKP) followed with a 7.8% advance, while Europe focused oil and gas developer Ascent Resources (AIM: AST) tacked on 5%.
Iraq operating Irish oil company Petrel Resources (AIM: PET) and US focused junior Empyrean Energy (AIM: EME) gained 3%.
Mining stocks decline as gold and silver fall
Precious metals followed different trails today.
Gold failed to hold on and slid back to US$1,056/oz, while Silver retreated to US$17.64/oz. Platinum improved to US$1,367/oz to bolster platinum miner Lonmin (LSE: LMI) and specialty chemicals firm Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT), which managed to hold on to marginal gains while all the other major mining stocks declined.
Gold producer Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS) declined marginally, while silver producer Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) lost 1.4%. Yamana Gold (LSE: YAU) was down 2%.
Midcaps also were in decline with gold miner Petropavlovsk (LSE: POG) shedding 1.7% and silver producer Hochschild Mining (LSE: HOC) declining 2.7%. Aquarius Platinum (LSE: AQP) was just below the opening level.
Africa operating gold and platinum miner Goldplat (AIM: GDP) led the juniors with an 8% surge. Africa focused gold miner Pan African Resources (AIM: PAF) rose 4.6%.
Brazil focused gold miner Horizonte Minerals (AIM: HZM) and African focused nickel and gold exploration and development junior Nyota Minerals (ASX&AIM: NYO) went in the opposite direction with a 6.5% decline. Turkey operating exploration company Stratex International (AIM: STI) dropped almost 6%.
Australian gold and copper prospector Solomon Gold (AIM: SOLG) and Turkey and Saudi Arabia operating gold explorer KEFI Minerals (AIM: KEF) lost more than 5%, while Lesotho operating diamond miner Kopane Diamond Developments (AIM: KDD) and Irish gold miner with assets in Iran Persian Gold (AIM: PNG) were down 5%.
Canada based junior gold developer Rambler Metals and Mining Plc (AIM: RMM) and Philippines focused Metals Exploration (AIM: MML) lost more than 4%.
Commodity asset development company Mercator Gold (AIM: MCR), UK-registered China operating copper and gold miner Central China Goldfields (AIM: GGG) and Tajikistan operating gold miner Kryso Resources (AIM: KYS) shed about 3%.
Base metals
Both Copper and Nickel remained roughly at the same level as in the morning at US$2.91/pound and US$8.59/pound respectively. Zinc climbed above US$0.95/pound.
Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO) and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) were flat. Anglo American (LSE: AAL), BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT) and Kazakhmys (LSE: KAZ) declined marginally, while Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED) and Xstrata (LSE: XTA) lost 1.5%. Eurasian Natural Resources (LSE: ENRC) was at the bottom of the pile with a 2.5% decline.
London's only listed pure iron ore producer and FTSE 250 constituent, Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO) outperformed the market with a 2.2% climb.
South American focused junior miner Herencia Resources (AIM: HER) led the sector with a 14% rally. Botswana operating nickel and copper miner Discovery Metals (AIM: DME) climbed 6%, while uranium and copper explorer Kalahari Minerals (AIM: KAH) added 3.6%.
Tantalum concentrate supplier with assets in Mozambique Noventa (AIM: NVTA) dipped 12%. Tunisia focused metal miner Maghreb Minerals (AIM: MMS) and Russia focused copper and nickel miner Amur Minerals (AIM: AMC) followed, shedding more than 4%.
Zinc mining and recycling specialist ZincOX (AIM: ZOX) was down 3%.
Banks, insurance, private equity
With the exception of Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN), which held on to marginal gains, all major banking stocks followed Barclays and turned negative. HSBC (LSE: HSBA) lost 1.5%, while partly nationalised banks Lloyds (LSE: LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) declined marginally.
Insurers also slipped into the red. Friends Provident (LSE: FP) was at the bottom of the pile with a 2.3% decline. Old Mutual (LSE: OML) dropped 1.7%, while Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) retreated 1.4%. Standard Life (LSE: SL) and Aviva (LSE: AV) lost about 1%.
Prudential (LSE: PRU) and RSA Insurance Group (LSE: RSA) went against the tide with both posting marginal gains.
Private equity group 3i (LSE: III) gained less than 1%.
Large and Mid Cap News
Blackthorn Resources (ASX: BTR) has released an initial mineral resource estimate of 345 tonnes of copper-gold for the Kitumba Anomaly project, located in Zambia. The Sydney-based, Africa-focussed junior and its 40 per cent JV partner BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP, LSE: BLT) are targeting iron oxide copper/gold (IOCG)-style mineralisation at Mumbwa, which takes in three previously identified anomalies – Kitumba, Mutoya and Mushingashi.
Small Cap News
Strategic Natural Resources PLC (AIM: SNRP) said it has been unable to agree terms for Atlantic Coal PLC (AIM: ATC) to proceed with a recommended offer for SNR and accordingly talks between the two companies in relation to an offer have now ended.
IT recruitment group InterQuest (AIM: ITQ) has appointed two executives, who will be in charge of the development of its two newly launched businesses, looking to capitalize on what the company sees as an upturn in the industry.
Middle East, Africa and US operating oil and gas company Sterling Energy (AIM: SEY) has sold its US assets for US$90 million, which will enable the company to repay all of its bank debt and improve its cash balance.
European Nickel PLC (AIM, PLUS: ENK) said it yesterday agreed with Endeavour Financial Corp to extend the US$4 million bridge loan facility announced on July 27 2009 to November 30 2009 whilst it finalises its longer term funding requirements.
Oil and gas engineering services group Plexus Holdings (AIM: POS) said turnover and EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) for what it said was a challenging year increased 14% and 13% respectively as the company benefitted from its strong client base, securing a number of contracts and extensions with energy giants including BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell.
Baobab Resources PLC (AIM: BAO) said Astaire Securities has raised £2.75 million before expenses through a placing of 45,833,334 shares in the group at 6.0 pence each, with the money to be used to fund exploration projects in Mozambique and increase Baobab’s working capital resources.
PureCircle (AIM: PURE) announced that PepsiCo would be expanding its Aquafina Plus Vitamins branded drink into Canada, which contains PureVia, PureCircle's high purity Reb A natural sweetener. Purecircle develops and manufactures natural food ingredients for supply to the global food and beverage industry with a current focus in the production and sale of extracted natural high intensity sweetener.
Red Rock Resources PLC (AIM: RRR) said its 27 percent-held Australia-based associate company Resource Star Ltd (ASX: RSL), focused on uranium exploration in Australia and Malawi, plans to raise up to A$5.6 million and re-list on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Links: Full news story
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