Another possible bidder emerged in the auction for Premier Oil, up 33p to £13.13 on reports that ONGC Mittal Energy may make an offer if it can get clearance from the Indian Government.
ONGC is a joint venture between state-owned Indian exploration group ONGC and Mittal steel. Premier last month admitted that it had received a takeover approach, thought to have come from Dubai Energy, while materials group Reliance Industries is also said to be interested.
Homeserve lost 69p to £17.92 after UBS pulled the shares from its “buy” list ahead of results from the home energency services provider due Monday. The broker said there was not sufficient upside to justify a buy, with the stock fully reflecting the potential of Homeserve’s push into the US.
TV Commerce, which runs a psychic TV channel, slumped 1.88p to 1.62p after warning that increasing interference from the telephone services regulator may force it to delist. Last month, the group was fined £25,000 and given a formal reprimand over one of its daytime shows, which has since been taken off air.
Mattioli Woods, the pensions consultancy, rose 1½p to 200p after Charles Stanley started coverage with “buy” advice and a 235p target price. Surface Transforms was up 3½p to 16p after Kevin Johnson, managing director, revealed that he had bought 22,500 shares at 14½p each.
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Caledon Resources inched up ¼ to 7¾ on word its £26 million fundraising to buy two coal projects had gone well, with books closed early after several major US institutions signed up. Caledon is switching from gold to coal, with a production target of 1.8 million tonnes a year by end of the decade. Renova Energy, an ethanol maker, rose 15p to 230p after reporting that a new production facility was completed on budget.