Market Report: APR Energy is losing power

APR Energy is losing power. The temporary power provider collapsed 57.5p to 342.5p yesterday after warning that full-year results are set to be “significantly” below expectations due to problems in Libya.

A big contract there fell through last year and APR has been trying to remove itself ever since. That is proving more difficult than it sounds and JP Morgan Cazenove estimates that APR may have to take a writedown of as much as $60m (£39m) on its assets stuck in Libya. The slump came just a day after it hit a four-month high on news of a new contract in Argentina.

The Footsie ended the week on the back foot, down 49.34 points at 6,911.8. Tony Cross, market analyst at Trustnet, said: “The US non-farm payrolls showed us that almost 300,000 jobs had been created across the Atlantic, and this is being taken as a signal that the [Federal Reserve] can’t wait too long before hiking rates.” Higher interest rates could mean less money in equities.

Hopes of a rate hike pushed the dollar higher, which had a knock-on affect for silver and gold miners. Randgold Resources fell 255p to 4,581p and Fresnillo dropped 38p to 698.5p.

Weir Group topped the blue-chip index, propelled 74p to 1,813p on continued rumours of bid interest in the engineer. ITV wasn’t far behind, up 5.5p at 246.5p, as Berenberg and Liberum both upped their target prices. Liberum’s Ian Whittaker said the broadcaster looks “an increasingly attractive cash return vehicle” after it hiked its dividend earlier in the week. ITV is at a 15-year high, having risen 10 per cent since its results on Tuesday.

Just Retirement has been trading close to one-year highs since its results last week, and its private equity backer has taken the opportunity to cash out. Deutsche Bank and Nomura raised £81m for Permira, placing 50 million Just Retirement shares overnight at 162p each. That was a 7 per cent discount to Thursday’s closing price and news of the sale sent Just Retirement falling 14.6p to 160.2p. Permira, which floated Just Retirement at 225p a share in 2013, still owns 52 per cent of the company.