Against a backdrop of political turmoil in Europe, it is perhaps surprising to see the FTSE 100 only fall 0.4% to 6,706 as UK stock markets open for a new week.
Financial stocks are the biggest losers with minor share price declines across the board in the quoted banking sector.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has resigned after his referendum defeat, news which triggers a 1% decline in the euro against the US dollar.
In Asia Pacific, China’s SSE Composite index fell 1.2% and Australia’s ASX index was down 0.8%.
Early morning FTSE 350 winners include natural resources stocks including a 4% rise in Cairn Energy (CNE) and a 1.5% advance in Antofagasta (ANTO).
Cheaper air fares have helped to fill seats on Ryanair (RYA) planes, news of which triggers a 1% increase in its share price. The airline says its load factor increased to 95% to November which is the amount of ticket sales as a percentage of available seats on all flights that month. Wizz Air (WIZZ) also saw an improvement in its load factor, rising 3.2 percentage points to 87% in the same month.
Gold miner Petropavlovsk (POG) may have to pay less to buy a Russian gold business after the vendors indicated they would take fewer shares as payment. That’s a result of Petropavlovsk refinancing its large debt and restarting a project that will eventually enable processing of complicated ore that’s omnipresent across Russia. Petropavlovsk’s share price rises 3.3% to 7.18p.
Online hybrid estate agent Purplebricks (PURP:AIM) has beaten forecasts with half year results. Revenue and profit are both better than expected, although it looks like costs will rise as it will more aggressively target market share growth. Its shares jump 7.7% to 113.38p.
Behavioural health service provider Cambian (CMBN) is to sell its adult business for £377m to an American operator. The proceeds will repay its current debt in full and leave £40m to fund a special dividend for shareholders.
RhythmOne (RTHM:AIM) is buying Canadian-listed mobile specialist Perk for $42.5m. Broker N+1 Singer says the deal warrants substantial upgrades to its earnings forecasts. Its earnings per share estimates for the 2018 financial year moves from 0.6c to 2.3c; and 2019 from 2.5c to 4.3c. The deal sends shares in RhythmOne up 6.4% to 39.88p.
Audio-visual content group Mirada (MIRA:AIM) falls 36.4% to 2.62p after issuing a profit warning. It blames delays to a contract roll-out with major customer Televisa.
