Reabold Resources shares were sharply higher on Wednesday after the oil and gas company announced that all resolutions at today’s Requisitioned General Meeting failed to pass and the current board of directors will remain in their posts.

Today’s result is the second failed attempt by the requisitioning shareholders to take control of Reabold Resources. The votes against the resolutions to appoint new directors were even greater this time round than the last attempt in 2022.

Reabold Resources shares were 16% higher at the time of writing.

Jeremy Edelman, Non-Executive Chairman of Reabold, commented:

“Today’s requisitioned General Meeting result represents the resounding support for the existing Board of Directors by its shareholders. The results represent an even greater margin of votes against the Requisitioning Shareholders’ resolutions than was the case at the last requisitioned general meeting in November 2022. The Requisitioning Shareholders, who own approximately 7.91% of the Company’s currently issued share capital, received average support for the proposed resolutions from shareholders representing approximately a further 5.77% of the Company’s issued share capital. I would like to thank our shareholders for their support of the Board.”

“This process has, once again, been a serious and costly distraction for Reabold, significantly delaying the management team’s ability to execute the Company’s strategy. The Board believes the Company is well positioned with its portfolio of strategic gas assets and strong cash position. The Company’s efforts can now be entirely directed towards unlocking this value for all shareholders.”

Persimmon shares gained on Wednesday after the housebuilder said completions fell by 33% to 9,922 in 2023 but saw sales rates increase at the beginning of 2024.

Persimmon shares were over 4% higher at the time of writing on Wednesday.

The last year was a terrible year for the housebuilder. Profits will be down substantially and dividend payouts were a shadow of the shareholder returns in prior years.

Persimmon’s cash as of 31st December 2023 had more than halved to £420m compared to a year ago.

“Despite the difficult and uncertain trading backdrop, Persimmon’s valuation’s been on the charge in recent months. New home completions came in ahead of group expectations in 2023 but were still down by a third on the previous year. Alongside an increased use of incentives, these lower volumes mean there’s much less cash coming in the door,” said Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“In a bid to keep the cash coffers in reasonable shape, investment in new land has been reigned right back – something we expect to continue in the near term, given the group’s healthy land bank.

“Market forecasts are suggesting a 35% fall in revenue for 2023. Coupled with the effect of lower volumes and build cost inflation remaining more stubborn than the group had anticipated, operating profit margins look set to roughly halve year-on-year to around 14%. While that’s not ideal, it’s a picture that’s largely being repeated across the sector.”

However, today’s share price reaction suggests investors are starting to look to the future and the eventual recovery in the UK property market. Private forward sales rising to £499m is a reason to be optimistic.

Persimmon’s trading update is released amid falling mortgage rates which will buoy housing activity.

The FTSE 100 eased slightly on Tuesday as a strong session in the US failed to inspire a meaningful rally in European shares.

London’s leading index was finely poised for most of the session with weakness in Beazley, RS Group and Intermediate Capital offset by a recovery in commodity stocks.

As the session progressed, early gains turned to losses and the FTSE 100 was trading down 0.15% at 7,683 at the time of writing.

“The FTSE 100 benefitted from a small waft of the feelgood factor emanating from Wall Street in early trade, as investors hopes remain high that inflation will keep heading in the right direction,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“The speculation has fuelled the value of tech stocks once again, with Nvidia given another boost, sending it to an all-time high. Investors cheered as the chip maker revealed new desktop graphics processors, aimed at the video game market, which will be capable of exploiting AI innovations.”

However, the benefits of a stronger session in the US faded through the session as investors looked forward to key inflation for further direction in markets.

“European markets didn’t share the excitement as all of the major indices were either flat or down on Tuesday morning, suggesting investors are in a holding pattern until we get the next round of inflation and jobs figures which provide the all-important clues as to central bank interest rate decisions,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

US inflation data is due to be released on Thursday with economists predicting US core CPI inflation will tick marginally higher year-on-year while CPI is forecast to drop to 0.1% month-on-month.

Should these forecasts be met, it would fuel the view the US economy is heading for a soft landing. This would be supportive of equities.

The first full trading week is set to be a cracker for London’s largest companies as a raft of economic data accompanies a flurry of corporate updates.

Ahead of Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury’s reporting later this week, B&M European Value said group revenue grew 5.0% year-on-year to £1,645m in the key Q3 festive trading period on Tuesday.

B&M shares were 0.6% higher at the time of writing.

Premier African Minerals shares revisited 52-week closing lows on Tuesday after the group issued an update on its Zulu lithium operations in Zimbabwe.

The company released assay data from trench and drill hole surveys which revealed the presence of potentially economically viable mineralisations, but nothing that alters the current investment case materially.

Premier African Minerals shares were trading down 8.5% to 0.215p at the time of writing.

Although Premier released a raft of assay data, investors will be more concerned about the progress of existing mining operations at Zulu and the progress of installing a new mill.

The company is subject to production targets and penalties should these targets not be met. The first of these targets has been missed and meeting future targets is reliant on the successful installation of a new mill, and the production of lithium at the required 6% grade.

Premier has recently said the mine can produce lithium at the required grade, but substantial uncertainties remain around when the plant will be up and running to process ore.

Today’s announcement did little to address these concerns and the drop in the share price can be attributed to uncertainty around mining facilities and how much more Premier African Minerals shareholders will be diluted by funding rounds before production ramps up.

The Premier African Minerals CEO, George Roach, provided a longer than usual comment on the current state of affairs at the Zulu project and when the company expects the mine to start generating revenues:

“Those surface trench and drill hole results originating from the Southeast pegmatite, represent very good potential for this pegmatite that is adjacent but discrete from the main mining and pit developments underway at present. More important is that geological logging indicates that the lithium mineralisation in this pegmatite is almost exclusively spodumene. For reference purposes, a grade of 1% Li2O when the mineralisation is all spodumene, is the equivalent of 12.5% of the ore body being made up of the mineral spodumene. Test work in our laboratory at Zulu has consistently confirmed that Zulu is able to produce SC6 at acceptable grades from a contained spodumene content in the ore body as low as 4%, representing a potential economic cut-off grade as low as 0.37% Li2O when the contained mineral is spodumene.

By way of general update, civils associated with the thickener and new mill installation are substantially complete and first materials are now at site with further loads on route. The new mill is expected to be the last component to be positioned at Zulu late in January 2024 with anticipated restart of operations as early in February as possible and the Board believes as previously reported that the Company is still on track to target revenue generating production by late-February 2024.

“Mining operations are now well developed, and we anticipate no issues associated with ore delivery to Run of Mine pad in future. Whilst mining operations are a major cash cost at present, the future benefit when operations are underway at much reduced stripping ratios will more than offset this cost in the future.

“Preliminary indications from the Company’s internal budget (which has not been independently verified) at this time model an average mine gate cost of the order of $800 per ton for SC6 for the first 12 months, and which discounts any technical grade spodumene produced and sold and any sale of any lepidolite and other mica-rich concentrates or future tantalum production.”

If these costs are achieved, the mine will operate profitably. However, the question is whether these cost forecasts will be met and how much more cash Premier needs to get there.

One may argue Games Workshop’s lofty valuation has been justified by the news of the British miniature wargames manufacturer’s record profit and dividend in the last six months.

The manufacturer announced raising the dividend to 120 pence per share, bringing the total dividends declared in 2023–24 to £3.15 per share. Comparatively, in 2022–23, it was £2.95 per share.

Furthermore, the company’s pre-tax profits soared to £95.2 million in the last six months.

Earnings per share (EPS) have also seen an uptick, rising from 202.4p to 216.9p. In a show of confidence, the dividend has been raised to 195p from the previous 165p for this period.

The Games Workshop’s shares were down 1% at the time of writing on Tuesday, but have been recovering all morning. The company’s shares are 205% higher over the past five years.

“2023 could mark another significant turning point for Games Workshop,” said Mark Crouch, analyst at eToro, “as the fantasy miniatures maker has finalised an agreement with Amazon granting exclusive rights to films and television series set within the Warhammer 40,000 universe.”

“And while there are some further details to be agreed upon, this could be the key to unlocking yet more growth in a company whose share price has risen twentyfold in the last seven years but has recently been unable to breach the highs of late 2022,” he added.

“The company does have an above-average PE, but many will argue that IPs like this really have no bounds, and for now at least North America, Europe, and the UK make up the majority of the company’s stores and coverage, so Games Workshop will now aim to expand to the rest of the world, which is, as the company themselves put it, “green field territory”,” further said Crouch.