London shares ease off all-time highs in early trade on Thursday as investors take time out reassess investment prospects for the year ahead. The UK blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed at a record 7,106.08 on Wednesday, beating the previous 7,103.98 best set on 27 April 2015, aided by recovering strength in the mining sector, in particular.
The FTSE 100 is currently trading about 4 points lower at 7,102.
Miners are again a firm feature among rallying blue-chips on Thursday with both Randgold Resources (RRS) and Fresnillo (FRES) advancing as gold prices push higher.
Big corporates including telco BT (BT.A), credit agency Experian (EXPN) and electronics retailer Dixons Carphone (DC.) all go ex-dividend on Thursday, explaining their relative share price weakness.
Away from company news, investors have also the latest figures from mortgage lender Nationwide to mull over. The latest statistics show that UK house prices increased by more than expected in December with annual house price growth up 4.5%. This is versus a 4.4% monthly rise ion November and beating expectations of 3.8% growth.
This news underscores the shock profit warning from house builder Bovis (BVS) on Wednesday when the company stated that it built and sold fewer houses in December than forecast.
Virtual reality gigs tiddler EVR Holdings (EVRH:AIM) continues is strong run in the wake of pre-Christmas news of a tie-up with Warner Music and that it is beta testing its soon-to-launch app. The stock is up another 31% on Thursday at 6.92p, valuing the business at a little more than £65m. That's roughly double the size of the business just a week ago, the stock having jumped from a 3.382p close on 21 December.
Shares in mining microcap Bellzone Mining (BZM:AIM) slump 22% to 0.3p as it strikes a new funding deal but on terms that do not appear terribly attractive. An extra $4m has been made available for drawdown by major shareholder Hudson Global on interest chargeable at Libor plus 5%.
Cacao plantations operator in Peru United Cacao (CHOC:AIM) is handed investor support, the stock jumping 25% to 45p. This comes only after the stock more than halved after the company said it was seriously mulling a 7% funding agreement to secure its immediate future. The warning that any financial deal will be at a discount to the then 114p per share levels has clearly struck investor confidence hard.
