UK stocks were on the rise on early trading as geopolitical concerns eased over the weekend after Ukrainian and Russian officials met in Berlin to discuss a solution to the crisis.
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UK insurer Amlin (AML) reported an 8 per cent decline in first-half pretax profit, as its performance was hit by large catastrophe losses and adverse foreign exchange movements.
KEY STORIES:
Morrisons (MRW) is extending its opening hours for around half of its UK stores in a bid to reverse an ongoing sales decline and resist competition from German discounters Aldi and Lidl, as well as its three 'Big Four' rivals Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda.
Clear Leisure (CLP) has received a formal letter from the government of Regione Piemonte in support of the Mediapolis project. In 2003, Clear Leisure made an application to Regione Piemonte for a building permit on a greenfield site on which it planned to build the Mediapolis theme park.
Aim-traded gold miner Kefi Minerals (KEFI) has announced that an independently verified updated JORC compliant Mineral Resource reported total an indicated and inferred resource of 23.7m tonnes at 2.51 gram/tonnes of gold, rendering 1.9m ounces at its Tulu Kapi project in Ethiopia.
Orosur Mining (OMI) moved back into profit at its 2014 year-end, as lower operating costs offset the impact of a weak gold price. Cash costs fell by over a quarter to $792 per ounce in the year to May as the company opened new higher grade areas at its San Gregorio mine in Uruguay.
Punch Taverns (PUB) is set to formally launch its long-awaited £2.3bn restructuring aimed at securing the future of the 4,000-strong chain. The deal will see current equity holders reduce their stake in the company to 15 per cent after new money is put in by bondholders in a debt-for-equity swap.
Shares in New Zealand-focused Kea Petroleum (KEA) tanked this morning after it announced that the Puka-3 well has been plugged and abandoned after reaching a depth of 2,200m.
Petra Diamonds (PDA) announced that it would mine about 3.2m carats in the financial year ended June 2015, an increase of 3 per cent from the previous year. Petra said that it remains on track to meet its production target of about 5m carats annually by the 2019 financial year.
OTHER COMPANY NEWS:
MediaZest (MDZ) widened its 2014 pre-tax loss to £0.68m, from a loss of £0.55m. Revenues totalled £2.9m, from £1.9m.
IBM has revealed that the agreement to sell its low-end server business for $2.3bn to Chinese computer firm Lenovo Group has passed the US government panel that screens deals with possible national-security implications. IBM said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US has concluded its review of the company's sale of x86-based server business.
Sirius Minerals (SXX) confirmed the signing of another binding take or pay offtake agreement for polyhalite from the York Potash Project. The agreement is with a Central American based fertilizer distributor. The agreement is for the supply of 150,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) in the first year of the agreement, rising on an annual stepped basis to 250,000 tpa in the fifth year of production. All this assunes, of course, that the project eventually secures development approval.
Nationwide Building Society, the UK's biggest customer-owned lender, revealed underlying profits of £263m in the three months to June 30th - up 117 per cent against the same period last year.
Ubisense Group (UBI) said a global agricultural equipment manufacturer has selected the Ubisense Smart Factory System for installation in the one of its Europe based plants.
