Market Round Up: Ophir carries on up as shares offer proves the pick of the week

It’s been quite a week for Ophir Energy. After shooting up on Monday in the wake of a huge gas discovery in Tanzania, the explorer was on the rise again today as punters welcomed news of a placing.

With the Africa-focused group issuing up to 30.5 million shares to help fund an expansion of its drilling plans, it jumped 23.4p to 511.75p.

The move means that the stock has risen more than a quarter in only three sessions and has more than doubled since it floated last July at 250p a pop. Traders said that the reaction to the placing would not have been nearly so positive before the announcement on Monday of Ophir’s biggest gas find.

The firm — backed by steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal — has also been helped by hopes that it could at some point find itself the subject of a takeover attempt.

Brokerage Fox Davies today did nothing to play down this theory, claiming that “a follow-up discovery would high-grade the portfolio and attract the interest of acquisitive eyes”.

Ophir’s popularity came in stark contrast to Centamin, which was on its knees at the bottom of the mid-tier index. The gold digger was knocked back to its lowest since 2009 after admitting that Egypt’s financial issues meant it was currently only receiving an industry subsidy on half of its fuel. Although it said it was negotiating with the Government on the issue, investors were not impressed and pushed it down 4.8p, or 6.13%, to 73.4p.

The miner is in the midst of a turbulent ride in which the stock had shed a quarter in less than two months.

Guardian Stockbrokers’ Atif Latif claimed that “investors remain nervous on the political situation in their domestic market”, and one dealer warned that the announcement was “just more negative news that people are eager to jump on the back of”.

With latest figures showing GDP over the fourth-quarter fell more than expected, the FTSE 100 slid back 15.75 points to 5853.80.

The insurers were among the main losers after insurance market Lloyd’s of London said it had suffered its second-largest ever loss during 2011, with RSA and Prudential — both of whom were also trading ex-dividend — falling 6.9p to 108.9p and 25p to 772.8p respectively.

Down on the small-cap index, JKX Oil & Gas retreated 11.8p to 172p after the energy producer announced it would not be paying a full-year dividend because of what it called “a period of very intensive capital investment”.

Mulberry was very much in fashion. The luxury-handbag maker ticked up 130p to 2030p on AIM after catching the eye of Goldman Sachs’ analysts who decided to start coverage with a “buy” rating, claiming it could more than treble in size by 2016.