URU Metals shares tanked on Friday after the group raised £300,000 through a heavily discounted placing at 3p per share.

The discount represents an eye-watering 65% discount to yesterday’s closing price of 8.5p and is one of the largest discounts a company has had to offer shares to secure funds this year.

The placing was conducted by Axis Capital Markets Limited, which has also been appointed as the company’s joint broker with immediate effect.

The company said funds will accelerate development at URU’s Zebediela project. However, it’s difficult to see how far £300,000 will go before the company will require further funds.

“As things begin to pick up at the Zebediela project we are pleased to announce a partnership with Axis as these funds are pivotal in accelerating our ongoing work program. We look forward to updating the market on several fronts in the near term,” said CEO John Zorbas.

According to Uru, they will focus on geophysical interpretation to target higher-grade areas of the Zebediela project and they plan to reinterpret historic drilling results to establish groundwork for a maiden NI43-101 compliant resource. Achieving a maiden resource will require far more than £300,000.

The company has issued convertible loan notes and has recently extended the maturity date. Uru produced zero revenue in the most recent half-year period.

Donald Trump strikes again. This time, with the announcement of fresh 25% tariffs on all automobiles and parts entering the United States. The news wasn’t taken well by markets, and European equities started the session in the red after a poor session for US stocks overnight. 

London’s leading index was down 0.6% at the time of writing, in line with poor performance across Europe.

Anything related to vehicle manufacturing was hit. FTSE 100 Melrose was down 2%, while German-listed BMW and Mercedes-Benz fell around 3%. US autos were also weaker, with Trump’s buddy Elon Musk’s Tesla falling 5% overnight, although it was higher in the pre-market.

Tesla shares are now down by around a third since Trump took office. 

“The automotive industry has struck Donald Trump off their Christmas card list after he imposed 25% tariffs on cars and car parts coming into the US from April,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“It has caused shares in auto companies to go into reverse and weighed on financial markets, with Wall Street firmly in the red last night and Europe following suit on Thursday. 

“Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Germany are the biggest suppliers of auto-related products to the US and stand to lose out if Trump doesn’t back down. It’s another blow to relations between the US and the rest of the world, and a further reason for investors to be gloomy.”

S&P 500 futures continued their decline during the European session.

A number of FTSE 100 stocks trading ex-dividend also weighed on the index. M&G shares fell 6% after the stock lost the rights to a monster 13.5p dividend. Taylor Wimpey, Schroders and Segro, among others, also traded ex-dividend

Next was the standout performer on Thursday after the retailer announced record profit before tax that surpassed £1bn for the first time in 2024.

The company outlined plans to return a substantial proportion of profits to shareholders through ordinary dividends and share buybacks, which resulted in Next shares jumping over 7%. 

Marks & Spencer shares rose in sympathy with Next’s results in the hope that strong sales at Next would have some read across for M&S.

Next shares jumped on Thursday after the retailer announced another year of strong financial performance and operational progress.

We’re running out of superlatives for Next. The British retailer’s profits and sales are growing at a pace as the group improves its brand management, infrastructure and underlying efficiency.

Next’s profit before tax rose 10.1% to £1,011m, surpassing the £1bn mark for the first time.

The retailer has successfully navigated the destruction of the UK high street and the cost-of-living crisis to become a lean, cash-generating fashion retailer with a deep online presence.

Next full price sales rose 5.8% while group sales, including its subsidiaries, jumped 8.2%.

“Next is the envy of the retail sector,” said AJ Bell’s Russ Mould.

“Once again it has upgraded sales and profit guidance, leaving its rivals in the dust. Next is typically a cautious outfit, preferring to under-promise and over-deliver, which makes its latest optimism a surprise given the fragile market backdrop.

“A strategic shift that broadens choice for shoppers is paying off. Next sells its own products directly and through third parties, thereby widening the reach for its goods. Next also sells third party products through its website to boost the chances of site visitors finding something they want and not opening a new tab and looking elsewhere.”

Indeed, Next itself highlighted that it now operates two distinct businesses, its Next brand and associated outlets and platforms, and an aggregation platform that sells external brands.

Its operational success is translating into strong cash generation, which Next intends to return to shareholders in the form of dividends and buy backs.

Next said it plans to return £286m to shareholders in the form of dividends and £316m in buy backs.

Investors loved the news are Next shares were 7% higher at the time of writing.

EDF has selected ITM Power for the plant integration engineering for Phase 1 of the Tees Green Hydrogen project.

The project, located in North East England, is being developed by EDF Renewables UK and Hynamics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EDF Group.

The engineering package will involve integrating four NEPTUNE II units, ITM Power’s hydrogen fully autonomous electrolyser system.

This announcement follows ITM’s July 2024 statement regarding a capacity reservation for four such units with an unnamed large utility company, which has now been revealed to be Hynamics.

Tees Green Hydrogen is part of the UK government’s Hydrogen Allocation Round 1 (HAR1) and has previously received funding from the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund (NZHF). Hydrogen Allocation Round 1 will support 11 renewable hydrogen projects with total capacity of 125 MW – the Tees Green project is one of them.

ITM said in a statement that the project aims to support local industry and transport decarbonisation efforts by supplying green hydrogen.

“It is a privilege to have been selected by EDF Renewables UK and Hynamics, and we look forward to collaborating with them,” said Dennis Schulz.

Savannah Resources has announced promising assay results from the Barroso Lithium Project, Europe’s largest hard rock lithium deposit.

The initial assay results from Phase 2 of Savannah Resources’ Definitive Feasibility Study drilling programme at the Barroso Lithium Project have confirmed a zone of higher-grade mineralisation at the Pinheiro deposit.

Savannah Resources shares were trading marginally higher at the time of writing.

Works are ongoing. Six drill rigs are currently active across the Pinheiro, Reservatório and Grandão deposits, with 48 holes completed to date, totalling approximately 4,817 metres of the planned 13,000-metre programme.

Lithium assays have been received from 20 holes.

At Pinheiro, recent drilling has revealed pegmatite widths that are thicker and contain higher lithium grades than initially modelled. Notable intersections include 26 metres at 1.40% Li₂O from 70 metres depth and 29 metres at 1.33% Li₂O from 47 metres depth.

These results confirm that mineralisation continues along strike to the north and south in both the Western and Eastern pegmatites.

Activity at the Reservatório deposit has revealed reasonable lithium grades, with significant intersections including 23.1 metres at 1.28% Li₂O from 99 metres depth and 20 metres at 1.06% Li₂O from 127 metres depth. The company said that their findings reinforce confidence in the existing geological model and current JORC-compliant Resource estimate of 4.2 million tonnes at 0.94% Li₂O.

Initial results from Grandão have confirmed shallow mineralisation extensions, with one hole returning 9 metres at 1.38% Li₂O from just 2 metres depth.

“These initial results help to reiterate our confidence in the grades and tonnages of the existing JORC Resource estimates for these orebodies,” said Savannah’s Technical Director, Dale Ferguson.

“Through this drilling, which will significantly increase the database we have, we expect to be able to upgrade much of the existing Inferred Resources into the higher Indicated and Measured categories. This in turn will allow us to capture as much of the resource into the Project’s maiden JORC Reserve statement as possible as part of the DFS study.”

Activity at the project will continue, and Savannah will release further updates in due course.

“The team and I look forward to reporting further results over the coming months as we move towards the production of new JORC Resource estimates for these orebodies as part of Project’s DFS. Busy and exciting times lie ahead for Savannah,” Ferguson said.