The FTSE 100 kicks off the new trading week with a smile, up 0.2% to 6,970, supported by gains in oil, gas and mining stocks. The large cap corporate reporting calendar starts to get very quiet from now on in December, but takeover activity is likely to remain the hot theme given many deals over the past month including Sky (SKY) last Friday.

Today’s bid action is concentrated at the lower end of the market cap spectrum. E2V Technologies (E2V) jumps 48% after receiving a 275p per share takeover offer from Teledyne. It looks like an opportunistic bid given that E2V shares had been weak since issuing a full year profit warning in early November.

Glencore (GLEN) has agreed the terms for a new 50:50 partnership with Qatar Investment Authority whereby they will buy 19.5% of Russian resources giant Rosneft for €10.2bn. Glencore will commit €300m and QIA will commit $2.5bn in equity; the remaining money will come from bank financing.

A profit warning sends engineer Molins (MLIN:AIM) down 11.6% to 47.3p. It says trading in the last three months of the year has been materially lower than expected. However, it insists that the order book is very healthy. Broker Panmure Gordon cuts its 2016 pre-tax profit forecast in half to £0.7m.

Hydrodec (HYR:AIM) says it has enjoyed record sales of re-refined oil and daily output levels in October, triggering an 8.8% rise in its share price to 2.18p. Canaccord Genuity is bullish on the stock, saying the outlook is good. It has a 7p price target, implying 221% upside from the current price.

Cohort (CHRT) has reported an 11% rise in first half adjusted operating profit to £3.9m and there is no change to its outlook for the full year. ‘Renewed investor optimism for defence stocks is justified, in our view, but additional budgetary monies are unlikely to flow materially in the short term, especially in the group’s core UK market,’ says Investec analyst Chris Dyett.

Payment technology group Earthport (EPO:AIM) has secured a significant expansion to its partnership with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Analysts at N+1 Singer reckon the client will be cautious with the speed at which it ramps up volumes through Earthport’s platforms. ‘As such we do not expect to make any changes to our volume assumptions at this stage, but see significant potential for upside in the medium term,’ says the broker.

Critical asset maintenance services group Marlowe (MRL:AIM) rises 6.7% to 309p after reporting £0.6m operating profit for the six months to 30 September. It has also raised £10m to accelerate growth.

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Issue Date: 12 Dec 2016