(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors - UK) MID-SESSION
Contrary to what the spreadbetters foresaw Footsie was well down at lunch but small caps were rising higher.
Big cap insurers were on the up with RSA Insurance Group PLC (LON:RSA) top dog up 2.88% to 472.30p and Admiral (LON:ADM) was also 2.10% higher.
RSA was boosted by an upgrade from big cap bank Barclays while miners were lagging behind after weak manufacturing data from China.
At the time of writing FTSE100 is down 1.23% or 77 points at 6164 while FTSE AIM100 is up 0.28% to 3401 and the FTSE AIM All share is up 0.12% to 728.580.
A notable riser in London was junior oiler Rose Petroleum PLC (LON:ROSE) which added 12.5% to 0.18p as it told investors it was mulling a move into processing and manufacturing of gypsum on the island of Cuba.
The firm also unveiled an 800000 share placing to fund the due diligence and transactions fees associated with any deal.
The news comes less than a week after Rose effectively put a lid on its activities in Utah pending an upturn in activity in the oil sector.
The biggest London riser was still Avocet Mining PLC (LON:AVM) still basking in the sunshine of very good production from the Inata gold mine in Burkina Faso. Shares rocketed almost 42% to 9.54p.
Also up was Highlands Natural Resources Plc (LON:HNR) up over 23% to 35p each following gains last week. It expects to conduct first commercial tests for its DT Ultravert refracking technology in June and it has raised 519093.
Simigon Ltd (LON:SIM) shares took off rising 22.39% to 20.50p as it inked a five-and-a-half year US$7.9 million deal to deliver its SIMbox training services to an Asian civilian aviation training services provider which it did not name.
On the losing front Indivior PLC (LON:INDV) lost 14.43% to 137.60p as it saw its pre-tax profit fall to $86mln from $102mln in the first quarter.
On Footsie banks and miners made up the big laggards with Anglo American (LON:AAL) down 10% to 687p and commodities giant Glencore (LON:GLEN) losing 6.17% to 152.85p.
Elsewhere Petro Matad Limited (LON:MATD) dropped 14.55% to 5.875p as Shell its partner in the Block IV and V production sharing contracts in west and central Mongolia issued an exit notice.
Elsewhere boiler optimisation specialist Sabien Technology Group Plc (LON:SNT) is confident it can return the firm to profitability in the year to end June 2018 as it reported good progress in its pilot programme. Shares fired up 10% to 5.50p.
OPEN
Small cap traders were cheering a better start to a truncated trading week than bigger cap cousins with Rose Petroleum (LON:ROSE) a notable gainer in early deals.
It put on over 28% to 0.21p as the junior oiler revealed it was mulling a move into processing and manufacturing of gypsum on the island of Cuba.
The firm also unveiled an 800000 share placing to fund the due diligence and transactions fees associated with any deal.
The news comes less than a week after Rose effectively put a lid on its activities in Utah pending an upturn in activity in the oil sector.
The biggest London riser wasAvocet Mining(LON:AVM) still basking in the sunshine of very good production from the Inata gold mine in Burkina Faso.
Also up was Highlands Natural Resources (LON:HNR) up over 35% to 38.5p following gains last week. It expects to conduct first commercial tests for its DT Ultravert refracking technology in June and it has raised 519093.
However resource stocks were not faring so well over on FTSE100 where miners made up three of the top five laggards due to weak data coming out of China.
FTSE100 was down over 41 points to 6200 with shares inHSBC(LON:HSBA) up 2.67% to 646p despite 14% drop in profits revealed in first quarter results. FTSE AIM 100 was up 0.41% at 3405 and the FTSE AIM All-share added 0.36% to 730.360.
Elsewhere boiler optimisation specialistSabien Technology Group Plc(LON:SNT) is confident it can return the firm to profitability in the year to end June 2018 as it reported good progress in its pilot programme. Shares fired up 20% to 6p a pop.
Also higher wasCloudTag Inc(LON:CTAG) which added over 13% to 2.55p as the fitness monitoring group unveiled another premium placing which raised 50000 with a new investor.
It also said it had converted 200000 plus accrued interest totaling 3666 of loan notes from two directors which saw 3.22mln shares issued to chairman Tony Reeves and 9mln shares to director Gerald Bereika to remove debt from the books.
Russian gold minerPetropavlovsk PLC(LON:POG) gained 5.66% to 8.77p as it revealed it had disposed of two non-core assets for a total of US$20 million.
It has inked a deal on the sale of its shares in Ilyinskoye a firm which holds the license for the Visokoe deposit to one of the largest Russian gold miners - Yuzhuralzoloto.
POG will also sell its 49% interest inMining GroupVerkhnetisskaya to an entity associated with Yuzhuralzoloto.
Stadium Group plc(LON:SDM) a leading supplier of wireless solutions power supplies and electronic assemblies has got off to a solid start in 2016 nudging shares up 2.13% to 120p each.
Ahead of the group's annual general meeting (AGM) today the group revealed trading had been in line with management expectations.
Armadale PLC (LON:ACP) lost 4.55% to 2.625p as it said it was to continue exploration at its Mpokoto in the DRC with an auger drilling campaign.
The company is still waiting for Africa Mining Contracting Services group (A-MCS) to complete due diligence before its provides US$20mln of construction finance.
While it waits Armadale wants to boost the life of the proposed development by exploring to the north-west and south-east of the current resource.
The FTSE 100 shot 18 points higher after open but then dropped off immediately 0.3% to 6222p.
Shares inHSBC(LON:HSBA) were up 2.67% to 646p despite 14% drop in profits revealed in first quarter results.
The biggest riser on the blue chip index wasRSA Insurance Group up almost 4% to 475.7p whileAdmiral Group which edged almost 3% higher to 1910 followed in second place.
A 5% dip for Anglo America made it this morning's biggest faller on the FTSE 100 at 724p whileRio Tintowasn't faring much better at 2219p down almost 4%.
Preview at 6.45
Britain's premier blue chip index is poised to open a shade higher after the bank holiday weekend and after an upbeat close on Wall Street and the rest of Europe on Monday.
It comes after HSBC results and also ahead this week is the key US monthly job creation report this Friday.
On Wall Street the Dow closed over 117 higher on Monday while the S&P500 added 16 to 2081 and the Nasdaq gained 42 to 4817.
The German Dax added 84 and the French CAC 40 added 13 points. It came after manufacturing data showed some improvement compared to March.
In Asia shares were mixed with the Japanese Nikkei 225 closed on Tuesday finishing 518 lower on Monday after the Yen surged against the US dollar.
In London FTSE 100 closed on Friday over 80 points lower at 6241 as traders cautiously closed out long positions before the holiday but today spreadbetters at IG Index are calling the blue chip exchange to open around two points higher.
In focus today on markets will undoubtedly be the results from Asia focused heavyweight banking group HSBC (LON:HSBA) which has been involved in cost cutting and which posted numbers for the first quarter which revealed a 14% drop in profits for the three months.
Earlier this year it said it would impose a global freeze on pay and hiring by the end of next year. Business in Asia where it is increasingly more dependent was gaining momentum it added.
On the macro front there is the latest manufacturing PMI data from the UK which is expected to show a small improvement to 51.2 from 51 in March.
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