Australian gold miner Resolute Mining lost around a third of its value yesterday after three employees including its chief executive were detained in Mali.
The company’s London-listed stock plunged 35.7 per cent, or 12.3p, to 22.2p in the biggest one-day sell-off since October 2008 during the depths of the financial crisis.
Boss Terence Holohan and two other executives were in Bamako, the West African nation’s capital, for talks with the local mining and tax authorities when they were ‘unexpectedly detained’ on Friday, Resolute said.
Held: Resolute Mining boss Terence Holohan (pictured) and two other executives were ‘unexpectedly detained’ in Mali’s capital Bamako
Authorities in Mali also arrested four Barrick Gold employees in September – underscoring the growing tensions between the military-led regime and international miners.
Mali is one of Africa’s biggest gold producers and the government is seeking to channel a greater share of revenues to state coffers.
Resolute owns 80 per cent of its gold mine in Syama and the government holds the remaining 20 per cent.
‘Resolute has followed all official processes with respect to its affairs and has provided the authorities with detailed responses to all the claims made,’ a spokesman for the gold miner said.
The FTSE 100 was back on the front foot after four days of losses, rising 0.7 per cent, or 52.8p, to 8125.19 and the FTSE 250 gained 1 per cent, or 205.61 points, to 20723.53.
It was a topsy-turvy session for Burberry. Shares in the luxury fashion brand rose around 5 per cent in early trading on continued speculation that Italian ski jacket maker Moncler is poised to make a bid.
But they closed down 3.3 per cent, or 26.8p, to 778p after Moncler insisted it was not in talks.
European defence stocks rose as pressure mounts on governments to increase military spending following Donald Trump’s victory in the US Presidential election.
In London, Rolls-Royce added 3.4 per cent, or 18.8p, to 572p and BAE Systems rose 1.2 per cent, or 16p, to 1393.5p. SAAB, meanwhile, advanced 3.8 per cent in Stockholm and Leonardo gained 4.3 per cent in Milan.
Shares in chemicals business Croda surged 5.2 per cent, or 189p, to 3793p after it reported a 5 per cent rise in third quarter sales to £407million.
It said it was on course to make profits of between £260million and £280million for the year.
Software provider Kainos soared 6.2 per cent, or 49p, to 844p after it posted an 11pc rise in first-half profits to £34.2million despite a 5 per cent slide in revenue to £183.1million.
Customer review website Trustpilot rose 4.9 per cent, or 12.5p, to 269.5p after analysts at Deutsche Bank started covering the stock with a ‘buy’ rating. Trustpilot shares are up 94 per cent so far this year.
Fuel cell technology developer Ceres Power rose 4.5 per cent, or 7.7p, to 180p after Jefferies analysts raised their rating from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’ and increased the target price on the stock to 265p from 190p.
Oil and gas engineer Wood made more gains after the stock crashed 60 per cent on Thursday when it launched a review into contracts on its books and its accounts.
It gained 16 per cent on Friday and 6.4 per cent yesterday, closing up 3.7p at 61.55p. Analysts at Morgan Stanley cut their target price on the stock to 85p from 185p.
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