(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors - UK) 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 was Avocet 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 in HSBC (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 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 20% to 6p a pop.
Also higher was CloudTag 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 miner Petropavlovsk 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 in Mining Group Verkhnetisskaya 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.
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The FTSE 100 shot 18 points higher after open but then dropped off immediately 0.3% to 6222p.
Shares in HSBC (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 was RSA Insurance Group up almost 4% to 475.7p while Admiral 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 while Rio Tinto wasn'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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