Lamprell, Edenville Energy and Petra Diamonds

“Financial stocks dragged the FTSE100 lower with Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds among the biggest fallers,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Engineering services group Lamprell was one of the FTSE250’s biggest fallers following a cautious note in its pre-close trading update. The group has cut its administrative staff by a further 20% since May, including some redundancies at the senior management level and it will be keeping a tight control over expenditure and expenses. Lamprell’s shares were down by over 9.6%.

“Edenville Energy’s shares soared after it agreed a strategic partnership for its Rukwa coal to power project in Tanzania with China’s Sinohydro Corporation. The Chinese giant, which currently has 486 projects under construction in more than 72 countries with a total contract value of nearly $43bn, will complete a bankable feasibility study for the proposed power plant. Sinohydro has broad experience in Africa and a presence in Tanzania for over a decade which gives Edenville confidence that the construction process can be achieved efficiently and cost effectively. Edenville’s shares were up by more than 49% in lunchtime trading.

“Petra Diamonds is on course to hit its full-year production targets after first half output rose by 24% to more than 2 million carats while sales increased by 47% to 1.9 million carats. Second half sales are set to be even stronger due to the timing of tenders being weighted towards the latter half of Petra's financial year. Petra continues to advance its expansion programmes and will see a meaningful reduction in capital expenditure as projects which were first set out in 2009 now come to fruition.”

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