The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) is barely moving today, up just 2 points to 6,733 by early afternoon on thin trading, with miners suffering further falls following on from last week’s disappointing Chinese factory figures.
If we want to see much in the way of price rises today, we need to look outside of London’s main index — here are three that are managing to pick up a few pennies:
Balfour Beatty
Balfour Beatty (LSE: BBY) shares gained a modest 2.8p (1%) in early trading, to 292.9p — not a huge amount, but probably enough to beat a sluggish FTSE today.
The construction firm announced a new contact, worth £154m, to “carry out the full transformation works to the London 2012 Olympic Stadium“. The site will be redeveloped into a multi-use sporting venue and will host some of the 2015 Rugby World Cup before becoming home to West Ham United.
Balfour Beatty shares had a rough time in the first half of 2013, dropping close to 30% at one point. But they’ve recovered since, to a 12-month break-even price today.
Centamin
A fourth-quarter production report gave Centamin (LSE: CEY) a 1.9p (4.1%) boost to 47p this morning, after the Egypt-based gold miner told us that output from its Sukari mine was up 7% on the same quarter a year previously and 8% higher than in Q3 2013. Overall, full-year production beat expectations and amounted to a 36% rise to 356,943 ounces.
The Centamin share price has been pretty volatile, as the firm has faced legal and political difficulties in Egypt over the year — but it’s now up around 15% over 12 months, with the shares on a P/E of only 4.5.
Circle Oil
Circle Oil (LSE: COP) has been doing well of late, and its shares picked up 1.25p (6.2%) to 21.4p this morning to take them up close to 35% over the past 12 months.
Through December the oil and gas explorer has announced the acquisition of a permit in Tunisia and has given us upbeat operational updates for Egypt, and forecasts are looking good. With a 40% rise in EPS expected for the year to December 2013, Circle Oil shares are on a P/E of a mere 5.2, dropping to under 5 on 2014 forecasts.