MARKET REPORT: Quindell founder Rob Terry sends shares in Aim-listed tech minnow Imaginatik soaring

Aim-listed tiddler Imaginatik leapt almost 70 per cent after Rob Terry’s investment vehicle confirmed a Daily Mail market report revealing he had begun re-building a stake in the software consulting company.

Quob Park Estate said via the regulatory news service that it now owns 5.36 per cent of Imaginatik.

Terry’s stake-building in Imaginatik is likely to continue although sources said he wasn’t buying shares yesterday.

The controversial businessman and former boss of Quindell is not thought to get on with Imaginatik’s management team.

Terry has been looking at purchasing the whole company although he is unlikely to make an outright bid or reverse takeover for Imaginatik in the near future, according to well-placed sources.

It is believed Terry will continue to pick up Imaginatik stock above 2p a share ahead of a potential transaction later in the year.

The shares leapt 39.1 per cent or 1.1p to 4p. The stock has risen around 120 per cent since the Daily Mail first revealed Terry’s stake-building move earlier this week.

It was a choppy day in the wider market, with the blue-chip index sliding in and out of positive territory in a tight range. Eventually, the FTSE 100 closed down 24.74 points to 6136.89 as European markets drifted lower.

Glencore took the wooden spoon as JP Morgan Cazenove cut its rating on the commodities trader and mining company to ‘neutral’.

Sentiment was also soured by the fact that a three-week coal strike at one of Glencore’s mines in South Africa took a turn for the worse, with workers reported to have torched trucks and offices. The shares dropped 5.7 per cent or 8p to 132p.

Companies trading ex-dividend, such as Lloyds Banking Group, peppered the loserboard. Lloyds lost 4.8 per cent or 3.26p to close at 64.82p.

Education publisher Pearson, which last year sold the Financial Times, traded ex-dividend but investors were also spooked by poor second-quarter figures from US education provider Apollo Group.

Elsewhere, property developer Berkeley Group – which has been heavily ‘shorted’ by hedge funds in the last few months – came under pressure. Berkeley Group shed 5.1 per cent or 170p to 3146p.

On a more positive tack, gold mining companies were in vogue as the price of the precious metal ticked up during the afternoon session.

Randgold Resources topped the leaderboard, climbing 3.2 per cent or 205p to 6575p. Meanwhile, second liner Centamin jumped 9.7 per cent or 8.75 to 99.3p.

The Egyptian gold mining company was helped by results that showed a 15.7 per cent year-on-year rise in production.

J Sainsbury benefited from a double upgrade from Credit Suisse to ‘outperform’ from ‘underperform’.

Scribblers at the Swiss broker argued the supermarket group’s purchase of Home Retail Group would turn out to be a great deal. J Sainsbury ticked up 2.7 per cent or 7.5p to 287.2p.

Vague bid speculation helped water group United Utilities get on the leaderboard. The shares perked up 1.8 per cent or 17p to 946.5p. Severn Trent, another water company, rose in tandem, bubbling up 1.5 per cent or 33p to 2217p.

Among the small caps, whispers of ‘something afoot’ gave fuel cell company ITM Power a little boost. The shares put on 2.3 per cent 0.25p to 11.25p.

However, fund manager Miton plunged 19.4 per cent or 6.75p to 28p. Miton said after the market closed on Wednesday that two of its top fund managers had resigned.

Worldpay was out of favour as dealers got their chance to react to the news – which came after the market closed on Wednesday – that private equity firms Bain Capital and Advent International had sold almost 15 per cent of the payment processing company via a placing.

Shares in Worldpay drifted 2.8 per cent or 8.1p lower to 274.7p after brokers at Barclays, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley said they raised £740million from the sale of 275million Worldpay shares. The US buy-out firms now have a stake of about 28.1 per cent.

Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-3528732/MARKET-REPORT-Quindell-founder-Rob-Terry-sends-shares-Aim-listed-tech-minnow-Imaginatik-soaring.html#ixzz45gA4TQG5
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[“source-Techradar”]