ON MONDAY, the FTSE 100 was gaining and outperforming European indices with greater exposure to the Turkish economy.

“A weekend of sunshine appears to have put investors in a better mood, with the main UK market indices doing their best to start the new week on the front foot,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

The good start for UK stocks was an outlier compared to European stocks showing signs of stress due to Turkey’s elections.

A run-off in Turkish elections posed a fresh geopolitical risk to European equities and mainland European stocks suffered early Monday. There is little direct exposure to Turkey among London’s leading indices, and the FTSE 100 rose 0.2%, performing materially better than European indices.

The Turkish Lira sunk on the prospect Erdogan would be re-elected.

“The scattergun of political uncertainty is keeping the Turkish lira on a volatile path, as the country heads for a run-off in the Presidential race,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Erdogan has led highly controversial monetary policies aimed at increasing exports, rather than tackling painful inflation, and the prospect of Turkey’s ‘strongman’ winning another term has weakened the currency further. There are expectations of a rollercoaster ride in the days ahead, as sentiment waxes and wanes about the prospects for the opposition coalition, which has pledged to pull more conventional levers to restore financial stability.”

FTSE 100 movers

HSBC was among the FTSE 100’s top riser after delivering an upbeat assessment of their Asian business.

“All parts of HSBC Asia are now motoring. In mainland China, we are ideally positioned to facilitate business with the rest of the world; in South and Southeast Asia, we have invested heavily in Singapore, and we have significantly bolstered our growing business in India,” said HSBC Group Chief Executive Noel Quinn.

HSBC shares were 1.6% higher at the time of writing.

British American Tobacco shares were taking the surprise departure of their CEO in their stride with a 0.7% gain.

“It’s never a good look when a company says its chief executive is leaving with immediate effect, and after only four years in the job. This suggests something is not right in the business,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“The fact British American Tobacco has promoted its finance director to the CEO role provides some comfort that the new leader already knows the business inside out. However, it raises a lot of questions as to why the change has happened.

“Unlike many companies in this situation, we haven’t had any major clues for problems behind closed doors for British American Tobacco. There have been no profit warnings or activist investors calling for change. The only high-profile calls from shareholders have been a request by GQG Partners to move its stock listing from London to the US in the hope of getting a higher valuation.”

John Wood Group shares plummeted on Monday after US private equity group Apollo said they were halting their pursual of the London-listed energy consulting, engineering, and solutions company.

John Wood Group shares were down over 34% at the time of writing.

Apollo had made a revised 240p cash offer for Wood Group in April – an increase on a prior 230p offer. In February, Wood Group announced they had received three unsolicited bids from Apollo. Wood Group said the initial offers “significantly undervalued the repositioned Group’s prospects.”

Wood Group shares are now lower than their first response to takeover speculation in February.

FTSE 250 constituent Wood Group issued a response to Apollo’s withdrawal and attempted to shift attention to progress in the business:

“The Board remains confident in Wood’s strategic direction and long-term prospects and believes that, following a transformative year in 2022, including new executive leadership and a new strategy, Wood is well placed to deliver substantial value for shareholders.

“Our medium-term targets set out in November 2022 are to deliver adjusted EBITDA growth at mid to high single digit CAGR, with momentum building over time, and to return to positive free cash flow in 2024.

“Furthermore, as set out in the Q1 trading update on 11 May 2023, there is good momentum across all business units which has continued since the end of Q1, with expectations for the full year unchanged.”

Marula Mining and Atlantic Lithium are the final two of five of the best FTSE AIM lithium plays ready to rocket higher on near-term catalysts.

I have covered the following five companies in great detail over the years, and all five are ready for that next catalyst to send the share price to new heights. The first three of the five lithium shares were published last week.

Having enjoyed great success on AQUIS, Marula Mining is seeking to diversify its investor base with an AIM listing.

4. Marula Mining (AQSE: MARU)

Marula is a small-cap mining exploration company focused on battery metals and green-critical commodities in Africa. The company’s diversified portfolio includes four critical minerals in three different countries with strong histories of Chinese investment.

These assets include the Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine in South Africa, the Nkombwa Hill Niobium, Tantalum, Rare Earths, and Phosphate Project in Zambia, and the highly promising Kinusi Copper Project and Bagamoyo Graphite Project in Tanzania.

Marula’s flagship asset remains the 100% owned Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine in South Africa, and the company has spent $1.7 million on increasing its stake from 5% last year. The company also recently announced that it has identified further high-grade lithium deposits at the Blesberg project, with feasibility study work to establish a long-term, hard rock conventional open-pit lithium mining operation to be underway shortly.

In January 2023, Marula announced that the first 1,000 tonnes of lithium ore would be delivered after processing operations began in late November 2022. The company has also entered into a strategic investment and co-development partnership with Q Global Commodities Group, one of South Africa’s leading commodity, logistics, and investment funds, who has subscribed for up to £3.75 million through the issue of up to 100,000,000 new ordinary shares.

Moreover, Marula announced it had entered into a binding heads of agreement with Tanzanian mining company, Takela Mining Tanzania Limited, to secure a 75% interest in ten granted graphite licenses that make up the Nyorinyori Graphite Project for a total consideration of up to £400,000 through staged equity payments. The licenses extend over a combined area of circa 86 hectares and are valid through February 2030.

The company’s CEO, Jason Brewer, is an experienced and hands-on CEO who has been instrumental in the progress made by Marula. The company is scheduled to list on the FTSE AIM in 2023, which should act as a catalyst for further interest and liquidity in the stock.

5. Atlantic Lithium (LON: ALL)

The prized possession of Atlantic Lithium is the Ewoyaa Project located in Ghana, which is a vast mine of lithium pegmatite that is likely to be the first lithium-producing mine in West Africa. Piedmont, a strategic investor and a major player in the lithium industry, has provided full funding of $102 million for the project’s production.

The Mineral Resource Estimate for Ewoyaa currently stands at 35.3 million tonnes with 1.25% Li2O. Atlantic Lithium anticipates generating revenue exceeding $4.84 billion throughout the mine’s lifespan, with a post-tax NPV of $1.33 billion.

Atlantic Lithium plans to construct a 2Mtpa DMS plant with the capability to produce 255,000tpa of lithium spodumene concentrate. The company expects to release its definitive feasibility study during the current quarter.

The only downside is the impact of Blue Orca’s short attack in early March. Despite refuted allegations, it continues to have a dampening effect on the company’s stock — but this is a company backed by a billion-dollar titan of the industry.

This article has been prepared for information purposes only by Charles Archer. It does not constitute advice, and no party accepts any liability for either accuracy or for investing decisions made using the information provided.

Further, it is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person in any country or jurisdiction where such distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation.

The FTSE 100 made modest gains on Friday as investors continued to digest the implications of yesterday’s Bank of England assessment of the UK economy.

The FTSE 100 was 0.2% higher at the time of writing, while the more Uk-centric FTSE 250 slipped 0.3%.

Markets were also assessing fractional UK growth in the first quarter and the potential impact on consumers and company earnings in the coming months. UK GDP unexpectedly contracted 0.3% in March.

“Let’s be clear, whilst the Bank of England may believe the UK economy will now avoid the predicted recession entirely, the country is not in good health,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.

“Rising prices, rising interest rates and strike action have created a cocktail that’s pretty unpalatable.

“Sluggish is the term that’s been used to describe the 0.1% growth the economy managed to eke out over the first three months of year, but for businesses and the cash strapped consumer such listless forward momentum will probably feel a lot like no momentum at all.”

Despite slow growth and ongoing economic worries, the Bank of England looks set to hike rates again before considering a pause.

Beazley

Beazley was a standout performer on Friday after reporting a 12% increase in gross premiums in the first quarter. Net premiums rose 24% to $1,069m.

“At a time of sticky inflation, investors will always be on the look-out for companies that have the sort of pricing power that helps them to defend, or even boost, profits, and non-life insurer Beazley’s first-quarter update unveils an average increase in premium rates on renewals of some 10%,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

Beazley shares were 3% higher at the time of writing.

Housebuilder upgrades

Housebuilders enjoyed price target upgrades from analysts at Berenberg on Friday. Taylor Wimpey’s target was increased to 122p from 111p, Berkeley Group’s increased to 5,100p from 4,500p and Barratt Developments 552p from 440p.

The three housebuilders were up between 0.8%-1.3% at the time of writing.

Airtel Africa was the FTSE 100 top riser, gaining 3.3%, bouncing after a pummeling yesterday.

Ocado shares were 2.4% weaker on Friday as the premium retailer again suffered due to disappointing UK data. Ocado has suffered during the cost-of-living crisis as shoppers tighten their belts.