The Morning Call - Petra shows diamonds aren't forever as dispute with Tanzanian government rumbles on

Highlights of the Day

Asian Markets

With little North Korea news over the weekend, investors piled into risk assets to start the week; Asia-Pacific equity markets and the U.S. dollar gained.

U.S. Markets

Major U.S. equity indexes posted weekly declines on Friday as Hurricane Irma barreled toward the east coast while interest rates hampered financial stocks.

Today's News

Hurricane Irma is showing signs of weakening and could be downgraded to a tropical storm.. The National Hurricane Centre said the storm “should continue to lose strength and fall below hurricane intensity” during the day, as it continues its path northwards. But forecasters have warned the threat to life still remains, as Florida continues to be battered by 100 mph winds and torrential rain. Powerful storm surges could also cause more devastating flooding across the state. Overnight, Irma was downgraded to a category 2 storm, but continued to wreak havoc along the west coast.

UK members of Parliament have been warned by David Davis that voting against the Brexit repeal bill would amount to backing a “chaotic” exit from the European Union. The Brexit Secretary stressed the British people “did not vote for confusion” in last year’s referendum and Parliament should respect that when it divides on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill for the first time. Labour will vote against the legislation, arguing so-called “Henry VIII” powers in the Bill that would allow ministers to alter laws without full parliamentary scrutiny amount to a “power-grab”. But Davis’s words could weigh heavy on Labour MPs from Leave-backing constituencies, with sources estimating around a dozen could rebel against Jeremy Corbyn’s orders.

China’s consumer price inflation rose more than expected in August and producer prices advanced on higher raw material costs, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed over the weekend. Consumer price inflation accelerated to 1.8% in August from 1.4% in July. This was the fastest since January and exceeded the expected level of 1.6%. Nonetheless, inflation was well below the government’s full year target of around 3%. Food prices fell 0.2%, while non-food prices rose 2.3%. On a monthly basis, consumer prices advanced 0.4%, faster than the 0.1% rise in July. This was the second consecutive increase.

Vodafone’s Germany division is to invest around €2bn of “incremental capital expenditure” by the end of the 2021 calendar year in gigabit ultrafast fibre broadband services, it announced on Monday, which it said are expected to deliver around 13.7 million new gigabit connections to German consumers and enterprises.

Petra Diamonds confirmed that a parcel of diamonds from its Williamson mine in Tanzania has been blocked from export to its marketing office in Antwerp and some of its key personnel from Williamson are currently being questioned by the authorities.

Associated British Foods expects adjusted operating profit to be well ahead of last year. In its third quarter update in July the group reported an improvement in its expectation for the full year underlying operating performance as a result of a stronger profit delivery from Primark. But a pre-close update today said that since then it had experienced an even lower level of markdown which had further improved the full year outlook. It said: “Net interest expense will be at a similar level to last year and, as previously explained, an increase in other financial expense will reflect the impact of last year’s fall in bond yields on our UK defined benefit pension scheme.

AstraZeneca reported recent trial findings for two of its lung cancer drug candidates on Monday, claiming both Imfinzi and Tagrisso had shown positive effects in the PACIFIC and FLAURA trials. Results of the Phase III PACIFIC trial, included at the Presidential Symposium I of the European Society of Medical Oncology 2017 Congress in Madrid, Spain, showed an improvement in progression-free survival of more than 11 months in patients treated with Imfinzi, compared to placebo.

Carillion’s finance director has left the troubled outsourcing company with immediate effect, with three other directors departing at the end of the month. Zafar Khan, group finance director, was promoted from financial controller just over a year ago but he has had his hands full as chief executive Richard Howson resigned this summer as the construction support services company issued a huge profit warning, suspended its dividend and promised to carry out a strategic review as cash flows dwindled due to a dearth of new contracts.

Oil prices edged up after the Saudi oil minister discussed possibly extending a pact to cut global oil supplies beyond March 2018 with his Venezuelan and Kazakh counterparts.

Gold prices fell early after hitting its highest level in over a year in the previous session, with a recovery in the U.S. dollar reining in any upward momentum in the metal.

Companies Reporting this week

Day	Companies
Today:	No major companies reporting
Tomorrow:	InnovaDerma * JD Sports Fashion * Ashtead Group
Wednesday:	Dunelm Group * Galliford Try* Soco International
Thursday:	Morrison Supermarkets * Next * Booker Group
Friday:	J.D. Wetherspoon

Early Market Movements

Market	Index	Change	% Change
UK 100	7,408.1	+30.5	+0.4%
UK 250	19,684.8	+74.4	+0.4%
GER 30	12,385.4	+81.4	+0.7%
FRA 40	5,149.2	+35.8	+0.7%
U.S. 30	21,797.79	+13.01	+0.1%
U.S. 500	2,461.4	-3.7	-0.2%
OIL (BRENT)	54.11	+0.33	+0.6%
GOLD	1,335.76	-10.83	-0.8%

UK Risers & Fallers (8:15am)

Company	Price	Change	% Change
Lancashire Holdings	652	+41	+6.7%
Astrazeneca	4924	+134	+2.8%
British Land	610	+11	+1.8%
Petra Diamonds	73.5	-16.45	-18.3%
Micro Focus	2367	-57	-2.4%
Fresnillo	1584	-37	-2.3%

Latest Broker Views

Company	Broker	Recommendation	Price	Target
Astrazeneca	Jefferies	Hold	4924	4800
Micro Focus	UBS	Neutral	2367	2475
Rolls Royce Group	UBS	Buy	893.75	1000
Wood Group	UBS	Neutral	624.5	665