The FTSE 100 Index hit a six-month high during the course of this week – perhaps surprisingly given that the news was dominated by gloomy discussion of plans for quantitative easing, and the austerity measures faced by Britain. One way to understand better the underlying pulse of the market is by looking at the stocks and sectors making new 12 month highs or lows.
This week, there were 75 new highs this week, compared with 34 new lows. Commodities were the principal watchword, with resources companies dominating the new highs list, while the Comprehensive Spending Review led to some big winners and losers.
Oil
Amongst the explorers, the excitement has been around North Sea explorer, Xcite Energy (LON:XEL) which is drilling to prove the commerciality of its Bentley field, and Kazakhstan-focused E&P company, Max Petroleum (LON:MXP) which announced a success in drilling its Uytas prospect and Petroneft Resources (LON:PTR), the Russia-focused oil and gas explorer which raised £27m last week to finance the development of two of its Russian fields. The astonishing ascendancy this week though has been at oil and gas-focused investor and adviser, Parkmead Group, up 90% on the news that Tom Cross was to become executive chairman, with investors wondering whether this could become “son of Dana”. Tom is the founder and outgoing chief executive of Dana Petroleum Plc (LON:DNX), which succumbed recently to a £1.87bn takeover by Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC).
Gold
Although gold has corrected sharply this week, it’s still close to its recent highs. A couple of companies reaping the rewards of gold strength this week were African explorer, Central African Gold (LON:CAN) which soared after reporting positive reserves updates from its Zimbabwean gold mining properties, European Goldfields (LON:EGU), which mines zinc, lead and gold in Greece and Kefi Minerals Plc (LON:KEFI) , the Turkey and Saudi Arabia operating gold and copper explorer. Linked to the fortunes of gold, this week saw a new high from
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