The Market Close - Acacia Mining’s major shareholder Barrick Gold proposes unorthodox settlement with Tanzanian Government - Collins Sarri Statham Investments

Today's Closing Update

U.S. shares fell sharply, pulling back from record highs, amid a broad decline that was led by technology stocks and disappointing quarterly reports from major companies.

European stocks fell due to an escalation of political tensions in Spain, a clutch of disappointing corporate updates and concerns about growth in China.

Acacia Mining parent Barrick Gold has agreed for the Tanzanian government to take a 16% stake in the London-listed company’s three mines in the country and to share revenues, which looks like resolving a months-long dispute. Barrick, which owns 63.9% of Acacia, has agreed for the company to pay Tanzania a one-off $300m as a show of good faith.

BP said that Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg has announced plans to retire, and it has begun a process to find his successor. Svanberg will remain in his position until a successor is found, and will chair its next annual general meeting in May 2018. The process to identify and appoint its next chair will be led by Ian Davis, BP’s senior independent director. Svanberg has been chairman since January 2010.

Retail sales suffered an unexpectedly sharp fall of 0.8% in September, reversing a jump in August, according to the Office for National Statistics. It meant that third-quarter retail growth slowed to a year-on-year rate of 1.5%, its lowest since the second quarter of 2013. The figures come at the Bank of England contemplates its first interest rate rise in a decade. Sterling fell as traders bet the data made imminent rate rise less likely.

UK financial regulators and the Serious Fraud Office are to review if banks HSBC and Standard Chartered are linked to a South Africa corruption scandal. It comes after Lord Peter Hain said the banks may “inadvertently have been conduits” for laundered money. The Labour peer told the House of Lords that up to £400m of illicit funds may have been moved by the banks. His concerns relate to links between South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma and a wealthy business family, the Guptas.

IWG updated the market on its current trading, reporting that the previously-anticipated sales improvement in the third quarter from the increase experienced in sales activity was weaker than expected, which resulted in a pause in the recovery of its mature business. The firm said that as a result, the year-to-date reduction in mature revenues to 30 September remained similar to that of the first half, with a decline of 1.9% at constant currency.

Interserve issued a second profit warning in as many months, as well as confirming it could breach banking covenants and had made further provisions for its exit from Energy from Waste contracts. Interserve said there was a “realistic prospect” that it could breach banking covenants and, as well as confirming “constructive and ongoing discussions” with its lenders, directors are now looking at “options to maximise the short and medium term cash generation from the business”.

Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy is expected to press ahead with Article 155 to suspend autonomy for Catalonia after regional president Carles Puigdemont refused to revoke his suspended declaration of independence. The Madrid government had set a deadline of 10:00 local time on Thursday for a response from the head of the Generalitat, who provided a last-minute letter addressed to Rajoy.

Oil Prices slipped, but held on to most recent gains, supported by OPEC-led supply cuts, tension in the Middle East and lower U.S. production.

Gold recovered from the more-than-one-week low it had reached overnight as a rally in both the dollar and equities ran out of steam.

Market Close

Market	Index	Change	% Change
UK 100	7,523.0	-19.8	-0.3%
UK 250	20,131.5	-128.3	-0.6%
GER 30	12,983.2	-59.9	-0.5%
FRA 40	5,364.4	-19.4	-0.4%
U.S. 30	23,109.23	-48.37	-0.2%
U.S. 500	2,555.4	-5.9	-0.2%
OIL (BRENT)	57.48	-0.67	-1.2%
GOLD	1,289.39	+8.31	+0.7%

UK Risers & Fallers

Company	Price	Change	% Change
Acacia Mining	211.65	+29.5	+16.2%
Smurfit Kappa	2240	+78	+3.6%
Randgold Resources	7490	+130	+1.8%
IWG	216.35	-102.8	-32.2%
Unilever	4299	-249.5	-5.5%
Intu Properties	221.9	-12.6	-5.4%

Reported Economic Data

Time/Date	Previous	Forecast	Outcome
9:30am: U.K. Retail Sales m/m	1.0%	-0.1%	-0.8%
Tentative: U.K. 10-y Bond Auction	1.16\|2.2	–	–
1:30pm: U.S. Unemployment Claims	243k	240k	222k