Panther Metals shares fell on Friday despite announcing the completion of the disposal of their Big Bear project through the IPO of Fulcrum Metals.

Panther Metals shares were trading at 4.25p at the time of writing, down 1%.

Under the terms of the deal, Panther Metals will retain a 2% smelter royalty for the Big Bear project and will receive £200,000 in cash from Fulcrum. 

“Over the past three years since we listed, over a challenging market and over a period of global turmoil, Panther Metals have accomplished much in the relatively short space of time. We have built-up and divested assets in Canada and Australia to allow us to create value and broaden our reach whilst not destroying our capital structure,” said Darren Hazelwood, Chief Executive Officer at Panther Metals.

Panther Metals will have a 20% interest in Fulcrum Metals, worth £1.745m at the placing price.

Fulcrum Metals will begin trading on London’s AIM next week with the admission price set at 17.5p.

It has been confirmed the UK is not in a recession. UK growth was completely flat in Q4 2022 after contracting in 0.2% in Q3. The flat growth rate means the UK has avoided a technical recession of two quarters of contracting GDP.

There was initial mild strength in the pound on the news and the inverse relationship with the FTSE 100 kicked in, sending the FTSE 100 back beneath 7,900. As the session progressed, the pound weakened against the dollar, but didn’t provide any reprieve for stocks.

“News that the UK has managed to avoid being in a technical recession gave a small lift to the pound, putting it briefly at $1.2130, but still some way off the $1.2434 level seen in January. Zero GDP growth is hardly a reason to celebrate, and markets are certainly not jumping for joy,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“The FTSE 100 slipped back 0.3% as a stronger pound is bad for the large number of companies which earn in US dollars but whose share prices are sterling-denominated. Miners certainly fall under this category and the broader basic material sector was down in the dumps on Friday.”

The FTSE 100 shied away from 8,000 and was trading down by 0.6% to 7,860 shortly after lunch on Friday. The FTSE 100 is up 5.5% so far in 2023 while the mid cap FTSE 250 is up 6%. London’s AIM has gained 5% in 2023.

Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered was one of the casualties on Friday after the First Abu Dhabi Bank ruled out a takeover of the emerging markets focused institution.

“First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC notes the recent press speculation in relation to Standard Chartered and re-iterates that it is not evaluating a possible offer for Standard Chartered,” First Abu Dhabi Bank said in a statement.

BP & Shell

On a day 90% of the FTSE 100 constituents were trading in the red, BP and Shell provided some support for the index as oil prices rose.

BP and Shell have both reported bumper profits in recent weeks with high levels of cash generation. Investors are clearly positioning for increased distribution of this cash in the future.

Morgan Stanley cut Shell to underweight with a 2,625p price target on Friday.

BP shares were the FTSE 100’s top gainer at the time of writing on Friday as the oil major continued to enjoy the impact of a bumper 1,000p price target and higher oil prices.

The BP share price had gained an additional 4% to 569p on Friday morning and was trading at the highest level since 2019.

BP’s strength builds on gains earlier in the week following the confirmation of bumper 2022 earnings and increased distributions to shareholders.

The oil major hiked their dividend to 6.6 cent for the last quarter and announced a $275bn share buyback programme.

“With so much cash being generated, BP has followed Shell in hiking its dividend, with the final payment for Q4 rising by another 10% to leave it 21% above the equivalent payment last year. If that sounds like a big jump, remember that the company slashed its payout back in the pandemic and the new level is still 40% below where it stood in Q4 2019,”said  Steve Clayton, Fund Manager at HL Select.

BP Clean Energy

However, as the oil company announced record earnings, they also said their commitment to clean technology and lower emissions would not be as rigourous as previously expected. BP said they now plan to cut emissions by 20-30% by the end of this decade, instead of 35%-45%.

This will be a concern for environmentalists and anger some politicians who feel BP should be investing their profits into low carbon solutions.

Though it appears the short term focus on hydrocarbons, and provision of immediate shareholder returns, is pleasing investors and has earned BP shares a 1,000p price target from Barclays analysts.

Standard Chartered shares were weaker on Friday after First Abu Dhabi Bank squashed the prospect of a takeover.

A statement released by First Abu Dhabi Bank read: “First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC notes the recent press speculation in relation to Standard Chartered and re-iterates that it is not evaluating a possible offer for Standard Chartered.”

Standard Chartered shares were down by 4.5% to 732p at the time of writing.

“Given that Standard Chartered has such a large footprint in emerging markets with its operations in 59 countries, and is highly active across the Middle East, it’s clear why speculation about a First Abu Dhabi Bank takeover reached fever pitch given the opportunities presented,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown.

Streeter continued to explain the issues with Standard Chartered – and why First Abu Dhabi Bank may be holding off.

“However, there are still risks ahead, given that the group has large exposure to commercial real estate debt in China, with related impairment charges chipping away at profit’s full potential. Although this may be part of the reason why FAD is for now steering clear, it’s also likely to be down to takeover rules. After FAB first announced in January it was stepping away from any offer, a six-month cooling off period kicked in, which means it is not meant to do any more deal work”

London markets are now on FTSE 100 8,000 watch after 2022 results from FTSE 100 stalwarts British American Tobacco, Unilever and AstraZeneca helped propel the index to fresh all-time highs and towards the 8,000 milestone.

The FTSE 100 was trading at 7,941 at the time of writing having hit 7,947 earlier in the session – a new all-time intraday high.

In reality, it was AstraZeneca driving most of the gains on Thursday with the pharma giant gaining 4.2% to 11,220p. AstraZeneca is the second largest company listed on London’s markets with a market cap of £166bn.

Unilever shares were largely flat while British American Tobacco shares slipped 4.6%.

Unilever’s revenue grew 9% in 2022 as the consumer group hiked prices to fight off price inflation. A worrying outlook for British American Tobacco’s core markets hit investor sentiment.

Gains in HSBC and Shell helped lift the FTSE 100 as both companies rose around 1%-1.5%.

Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered was the FTSE 100’s top gainer on reports of interest in the bank from First Abu Dhabi Bank.

“Reports suggest First Abu Dhabi Bank is still interested in buying Standard Chartered, despite guidance to the contrary last month,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“If successful, it would represent yet another UK stock acquired by a foreign player. It would also play to the theory that industry players are more likely to buy UK-listed companies than private equity in the current environment.”

Standard Chartered was 9% higher at the time of writing.

Entain

It was potential M&A activity also driving Entain shares on Thursday. But in the case of gaming company Entain, it was a move to the downside as chances of a takeover were dashed in an analyst call.

“Entain has fallen sharply after rumours about a possible takeover were quashed. Speculation that MGM might be ready to make a move were shut down by the company during an analyst call,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“BetMGM, Entain’s joint venture with US-based MGM, has been a shining light for the group that’s expected to start turning a profit over the second half of 2023 and that’s partly why the rumour mills have been whirring.”

It is difficult to find a better representation of the pressures on global consumers than the 2022 results from consumables behemoth Unilever.

Input cost inflation saw Unilever’s operating margins decline 230bps, but by passing on some of the higher prices to customers, the group carved out 9% sales growth and a 0.5% increase in operating profit to €9.7bn.

However, for a company that operates in a sector that is considered to have a low price elasticity of demand, it was evident higher prices have drove some customers elsewhere with underlying volumes falling 2.1%.

“Has Unilever put its prices up too much? That’s the question after it once again reported a rise in revenues and a decline in sales volumes,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“While consumers have got used to everything costing a bit more in the shops, there is still a point where certain items become unaffordable, or where the price-point for a cheaper alternative is too good to ignore.”

“Even though Unilever boasts some of the world’s most-loved brands, sometimes consumers have no other choice but to plump for generic versions due to their financial circumstances. And if you listen to what supermarkets have been saying recently, own-label products are flying off the shelves.”

Underlying volumes in their Home Care and Personal Care divisions were hit the hardest, falling 3.5% and 3.7% respectively.

The Home Care division’s revenue rose the most of all, gaining 11.8%, as Unilever hiked prices by 15% to stave off surging input costs for products such as floor cleaner.

The company said they expected cost inflation to persist in 2023 and cautioned investors to expect only a modest increase in margins in the year ahead.

Unilever shares were broadly flat in Thursday, up just 0.4% at the time of writing.

AstraZeneca shares were 4.5% higher on Thursday after the pharma giant released a very respectable set of results for 2022. Revenue increased by 25% on a constant current basis and core EPS rose 33%.

The surge in revenue was a result of improved performance across all major therapy areas, and the inclusion of new drugs such as Alexion.

Although the entirety of 2022 saw robust sales growth, there was weakness in the fourth quarter due to declines in their COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria. Group fourth quarter revenue was up just 1% on a constant currency basis, however, when Vaxzevria is stripped out of the numbers, revenue from Astra’s remaining products rose 17%.

“A big drop in COVID vaccine sales is part of the larger COVID cliff that is may impact the industry in the short term,” said Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Growth was also boosted by the acquisition of rare disease specialist Alexion. Perhaps it’s no surprise that 2023 guidance is for a more muted year with total revenue guidance in the low to mid-single digit range. Excluding COVID medicines this creeps into double digits.”

In addition, AstraZeneca were confident in the quality of their pipeline which rounded off a generally robust release from the £166bn FTSE 100 stalwart.

AstraZeneca shares were 4.5% higher at the time of writing on Thursday.

“2022 was a year of continued strong company performance and execution of our long-term growth strategy,” said Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca.

“We made excellent pipeline progress with a record 34 approvals in major markets and we are initiating new late-stage trials for high potential medicines such as camizestrant, datopotamab deruxtecan and volrustomig.”