London shares are firmly lower out of the blocks on Friday as falls among airlines, financials and house builders outpaced muted gains by big-ticket miners. Crude hit 2016 peaks as traders embraced a soft US dollar over concerns about the continuing glut.
The FTSE 100 index slumps 46 points, or about 0.7%, to 6,277.
Part-nationalised lender Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) falls 2.1% to 239.5p after pre-tax losses in the three months to 31 March more than doubled to £968 million. This was higher than expected and the bank would have made a profit if it had not paid a £1.2 billion dividend to the government.
Frankie & Benny's-owner Restaurant Group (RTN) plummets 22.3% to 291p after issuing its second profit warning of the year on the back of a further deterioration in trading conditions, with like-for-like sales down 2.7% in the 17 weeks to 24 April. Full year pre-tax profit is expected to be between £74 million and £80 million compared with previous expectations of around £89 million. The group's chief financial officer has left and a review of the operating strategy has begun.
E&P Ophir Energy (OPHR) crashes 17.7% to 75.6p as it ends talks with Schlumberger over the US oil services giant's participation in the Fortuna floating liquefied natural gas project offshore Equatorial Guinea. The news raising concerns about the future progress of this prospective development.
AIM-quoted North Africa focused hydrocarbons play Circle Oil (COP:AIM) falls 10% to 2.25p as it announces substantial reserve downgrades. In Egypt proved and probable (2P) reserves are cut from 12.5 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) to just 6.7 mmboe and in Egypt the 2P number falls from 3.74 mmboe to 0.98 mmboe.
Cancer diagnostic and drug developer ValiRx (VAL:AIM) climbs 7.7% to 10.5p after securing a patent in the US for its VAL401 treatment.
Plans to buy £42.7 million worth of shares from investors sends decontamination and infection control specialist Bioquell (BQE) 7% higher to 176.5p. At £2.00 a share the deal for 50% of the stock in issue is a 21.2% premium to Tuesday’s 165p closing price.
Hotel group Peel Hotels (PHO:AIM) adds 1% to 99.5p on a 24% rise in pre-tax profit to £993,607 for the year to 31 January 2016. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) is up 5.6% and net debt has been cut by £752,888 to £10.1 million.
