Miners slip after Anglo alert on Chilean copper
ANGLO American gave a warning that its copper production would fall by 20,000 tonnes to between 570,000 and 600,000 tonnes after a severe winter at its Los Bronces mine in Chile.
Platinum production increased 1pc to 585,700 ounces in the second quarter while diamond production dropped 19pc to 6.4m carats. Shares fell as much as 10pc during trading, but finished 4.8pc, or 39.2p lower at 774.5p. It is worth remembering though that Anglo shares are up 159.6pc year to date.
Fresnillo was also in the red despite reporting that silver production was on track. Gold production fell 5.3pc in the first quarter of the year but the miner has raised its production forecast for the yellow metal to between 850 and 870 kilo- ounces. Shares slumped 3.1pc, or 58p to 1818p.
BHP Billiton had another bad day, this time as Deutsche Bank shaved 10p off of its target price for the stock to 1240p. The miner slipped 2.3pc, or 22.1p to 926.4p.
Optimism from strong employment data pushed the FTSE 100 up 0.47pc, or 31.62 points to 6728.99.
Financial firms were the main beneficiaries. St James’s Place advanced 4.5pc, or 39p to 898p, while Legal & General climbed 3.1pc, or 5.9p to 197.3p.
It appears as though a number of British businesses have been waiting for the EU referendum uncertainty to blow over before announcing acquisitions. ARM Holdings is the most high-profile but many more are happening further down the market cap spectrum.
Office services provider Restore announced a conditional agreement to acquire PHS Data Solutions for £83.1m. PHS is the second- largest UK document shredding firm and made a pre-tax profit of £8.4m in the year to March 31 and revenues of £46.8m.
The purchase will be part-funded
by a £35.2m share placing to certain institutional investors.
Yesterday the firm also confirmed that trading for the first half of the year was in line with expectations. Incidentally, a Harrow Green van, one of the removal businesses owned by the group, was spotted on Downing Street the day the Camerons moved out. Restore shares rose 11.8pc, or 34p to 322p.
Eckoh, which provides secure payment and customer contact services, announced the acquisition of Klick2Contact EU for £2.35m. The business specialises in ‘omni- channel customer engagement’, which means providing customer services through live web chats or video calls.
Its clients include Next, BMW and Topshop. K2C recorded revenues of £881,000 in 2015, and earnings before tax of £219,000.
A deferred payment of up to £5.7m over the next two years depending on earnings targets could mean a total acquisition cost of £8m. Shares were flat at 52p. Revolution Bars Group, which runs 62 bars across the UK, reported that sales for the year to June 30 were up 6.9pc on last year at £119.5m.
The firm, which runs Revolution and Revolución de Cuba bars, said the opening of several new sites had contributed to the increase. Numis gives the stock a ‘buy’ rating. The broker said it was a solid trading update from the group.
According to the latest Peach tracker report, pubs and bars benefited from the Euro football tournament, with sales in pubs outside London up 3.8pc from last June. But it didn’t convince investors. Shares were off 1.1pc, or 1.8p at 159.3p.
Pub group JD Wetherspoon, meanwhile, rose 3pc, or 23.5p to 801.5p in the day.
De La Rue, the firm that prints bank notes for the Bank of England, was up despite news its largest investor had sold 255,776 shares in the business.
Brandes Investment Partners, a firm with £20.2bn of assets under management, shaved its holding in the business to take its total stake just below the 10pc mark. De La Rue climbed 4pc, or 24.5p to 641.5p.