On a very quiet day for corporate news and as traders begin to sign off for the Christmas break, the FTSE 100 nudges 8.22 points higher to 7,052.18.
Cruise operator Carnival (CCL) is the top faller on the FTSE 100 as investors bank some profit after yesterday’s rally on strong trading.
Aerospace and defence peers Meggitt (MGGT) and QinetiQ (QQ.) are up 0.3% to 473.4p and 5.6% to 262.6p respectively. The pair confirm that QinetiQ has agreed to buy Meggitt Defence Systems and Meggitt Holdings Canada for £57.5m on a cash-free, debt-free basis.
Leather goods business Pittards (PTD:AIM) warns on profits, blaming the impact of social unrest on its tannery in Ethiopia and depressed demand for leather. The shares fall 17.6% to 72.5p.
Micro cap CloudBuy (CBUY:AIM), a provider of cloud-based ecommerce solutions, gains 14.8% to 3.88p as it says operating losses will be slightly lower than market expectations thanks to cost cutting measures.
Miner Beowulf Mining (BEM:AIM) falls 11.6% to 4.75p as investors react to the dilution implied by a £1m fundraise in Sweden and the UK. The cash will be put towards progressing the company’s assets in Finland and Sweden.
Russian base metals play Amur Minerals (AMC:AIM) gains 13.4% to 10.72p as a new report on its MKF deposit located at its Kun-Manie nickel-copper sulphide project reveals a larger amount of recoverable copper and nickel than previously estimated.
