Tullow shares gush 20pc after oil found in Guyana

Despite being wedged between Brazil, suriname and Venezuela on south America’s Atlantic coast, a series of muddy river tributaries mean Guyana is not renowned for its beaches.

But its coastal waters were on investors’ minds in London after a ‘potentially transformational’ oil discovery boosted shares in midcap explorer Tullow Oil and AiMlisted Eco Atlantic.

Guyana has been on big oil companies’ radar for several years now, with exxon Mobil making finds there. And now tullow has said the first well drilled in a block it co- owns with French major total and eco Atlantic found a ‘substantial and high value’ oil deposit. tullow’s shares surged 19.8pc, or 35.4p, to 214.5p on the news, while eco’s shot up 67.7pc, or 46p, to 114p.

As AJ Bell’s investment director Russ Mould pointed out, it could be months or even years before oil production starts at the site, but ‘it is an encouraging start’.

it was a gloomier start to the week for shopping centre owner High Low

Intu Properties. its shares have been rocky since the end of July, when it revealed widening losses, while data last week showed it is increasingly being targeted by short-sellers.

Added to that, an industry survey from the British Retail Consortium and data provider springboard has shown one in ten High street shops is empty.

in the latest sign of turmoil for the bricks-and-mortar retail sector, intu shares tumbled 6.6pc, or 2.44p, to 34.38p. shares in big-six energy supplier

SSE rose 1.4pc, or 15p, to 1109.5p, after it confirmed it is in talks to sell its retail arm to private group Ovo. sse said in May it wanted to sell or float the division by the end

of next year after a plan to merge with rival Npower was scuppered in December.

Sirius Minerals, the firm trying to build a sprawling fertiliser mine under the North York Moors, plunged by 12.3pc, or 1.14p, to 8.12p, after an executive from a rival company talked down its plans to produce 10m tons of polyhalite by 2024.

Clark Bailey, head of mining at private fertiliser firm eurochem, said there was ‘no way’ sirius will be able to get to that stage of development in the next five years.

the comments, published in the times, come after sirius’s share price collapsed last week when it said it had delayed a more-than £ 400m bond offering that is needed to build the mine because it believes markets are too turbulent at the moment. profits at shipping services firm

Clarkson edged up 7pc to £19.2m and revenues climbed 10pc to £168m, despite the industry still facing choppy conditions amid fears of a global economic slowdown and an escalating trade spat between the Us and China. it has kept its full-year guidance, but investors were clearly not convinced that all is ship- shape as shares fell 8.3pc, or 210p, to 2315p.

the chief executive of LCH Group, the clearing arm of the London Stock Exchange Group, sold £1m worth of shares on Friday, a stock market filing showed.

Daniel Maguire flogged 14,706 shares at £68.32 a pop. shares in Lse fell 0.7pc, or 50p, to 6790p.

the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, the two premier indexes on the Lse, were trading lower yesterday.

the Footsie fell by 0.4pc, or 27.13 points, to 7226.72, while the Ftse 250 slid 1pc, or 179.15 points, to 18913.

sir Martin sorrell’s new advertising company S4 Capital has bought an ‘influencer’ marketing company based in Amsterdam for £9.3m. iMA chooses social media users who have big followings to partner with and tailor-make online campaigns for companies such as samsonite and pernod Ricard.

s4 Capital’s stock closed up 1.1pc, or 1.5p, at 144p.