Natural resource companies advance on LSE

Natural resource companies were advancing on the London Stock Exchange Wednesday, pushing stocks higher in the afternoon.

Solo Oil was in the spotlight as it rocketed 13.73% to 0.58p following news that its planned farm out of the Ruvuma RSA had attracted interest of multi-nationals and national oil companies. The company said in a statement that the interest in the farm-out process has been significant, but it still expects the call for bids to come in February.

Leyshon Resources jumped 1.90% to 13.38p on the announcement that its wholly-owned subsidiary Pacific Asia Petroleum had completed drilling and wire line logging on the second well on its Zijinshan gas project on the eastern fringe of the Ordos Gas Basin in Central China.

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Mining company Xstrata climbed 2.43% to 1,158.50p after the Bank of America Merrill Lynch anticipated the merged Glencore-Xstrata would produce net earnings of more than $7bn per year by 2014, buoyed by coal and copper.

Mediterranean Oil & Gas gained 2.47% to 10.38p. That followed by news Chief Executive William Higgs and Chairman Keith Henry purchased 200,000 and 250,000 ordinary shares respectively.

In an unrelated sector, though no less significant, ZincOx Resources was making waves with the announcement that production was steadily increasing at its wholly-owned Korean Recycling Plant in South Korea. Shares rose 2.36% to 38.00p.

RD