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LONDON (Alliance News) - Petra Diamonds leads the FTSE 250 Tuesday after the company said it has recovered an "exceptional" 232.08 carat white diamond at its Cullinan mine in South Africa, the third exceptional find at the mine this year.

The Jersey-headquartered diamond mining group said the latest big stone it has found is a D colour Type II diamond of "exceptional size and clarity." It expects to sell the stone in the second quarter of its financial year, which began July 1.

Type II diamonds have no measurable nitrogen impurities, meaning they are often of top quality in terms of colour and clarity.

Cullinan, which Petra bought in 2008, frequently yields diamonds larger than 10 carats and has also produced just under 800 stones weighing more than 100 carats, over 130 stones weighing more than 200 carats, and around a quarter of all diamonds weighing more than 400 carats.

The Cullinan Heritage rough stone was recovered by Petra in 2009 and sold in February 2010 for USD35.3 million, the highest price on record for a rough diamond.

Shares in Petra Diamonds were Tuesday trading up 6.2% at 187.70 pence per share, the biggest rise on the FTSE 250.

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Markets: Major UK stock indices are fluctuating between gains and losses Tuesday, as investors chew over the implications of a second poll that suggest Scottish voters may vote for a split from the rest of the UK in the September 18 independence referendum.

Futures markets currently indicate that a slightly softer open can be expected on Wall Street, with the DJIA and S&P 500 both pointing 0.1% lower.

FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,828.72
FTSE 250: flat at 15,770.52
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 776.83
GBP-USD: up at 1.6121
EUR-USD: down at 1.2891
GOLD: flat at USD1,256.45 an ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD99.94 a barrel
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Other Top UK Corporate News
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Whitbread said its sales were up in both the 11 weeks and 24 weeks to August 14, with its Premier Inn hotel chain continuing to win market share and its Costa Coffee business increasing sales across the board. Total sales in the 11 weeks to August 14 were up 13%, pushed higher by a 15% rise for the Premier Inn business and a 18% increase for Costa. Like-for-like sales at Premier Inn in the same period were up 9.2%, while Costa like-for-like sales rose 7.3%.
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Investec said it has sold specialist UK mortgage business Kensington Group, along with other of mortgage assets, to funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Advisors LLC and TPG Special Situations Partners, in a restructuring deal that builds the specialist bank and asset manager's capital and leverage position. In a statement, Investec said it sold the assets for GBP180.0 million in cash, based on a tangible net asset value of GBP165.0 million. The deal does not include Investec's Irish mortgage entities, assets or operations. Investec said the proceeds will be deployed in its UK specialist banking operations. The deal is part of Investec's strategy of simplifying and reshaping its specialist banking business.
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Oxford Instruments said it expects a "more pronounced" second half weighting than usual, as good order intake in its first half underpins its revenue projections for the rest of the year. In a statement ahead of its annual general meeting, the technology tools and systems company said orders in the year to date continue to be ahead of the previous year at both actual and constant currencies.
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Recently merged Dixons Carphone said like-for-like sales were up across the Dixons Retail business in the fiscal first quarter, but were down 6% in the Carphone Warehouse business due to difficult market conditions in Spain and a particularly strong performance across the business a year earlier. In a short trading update, the company said like-for-like sales at the Dixons Retail business were up 4% in the UK and Ireland in the three months to August 2, up 1% in the Nordic region, and up 6% in Greece, which the company called encouraging.
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AIM MOVERS
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Amur Minerals Corp trades higher after the base metals explorer moved another step closer to converting 36 square kilometres of of its 950 square kilometre exploration licence at Kun-Manie to a production licence, getting the necessary updated approval it needed from Russia's Federal Security Service as part of a multi-step approval process. Shares in African Potash are amongst the gainers after the company said it has intersected potash mineralisation at its Lac Dinga potash project in the Republic of Congo, with drilling at a second hole within the project area already underway. STM Group is up after the group said its first-half pretax profit almost doubled, as it reaped the benefits of honing in on the international independent financial adviser market. Blur Group is another gainer after it reiterated its focus on reaching profitability, despite posting a wider pretax loss for the half year to the end of June. Abcam is up after the company posted a rise in pretax profit for the year to end-June and said it has promoted Alan Hirzel to the position of chief executive officer, succeeding Jonathan Milner who will take up the role of deputy chairman. 7Digital Group shares are trading higher after the digital music and radio services company said the German commercial radio industry will adopt the Radioplayer platform for web and mobile access for all commercial stations in the country. JQW is higher after signalling its confidence by proposing a special dividend, as it saw profit rise in the half year to end-June. At the other end of the market, Corac Group is down despite reporting improved revenue across all three of its divisions and reduced losses as it moves its focus to developing its profit margins.
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Top Economics And General
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The UK's visible trade gap widened unexpectedly in July to the highest monthly shortfall since April 2012 as imports rose to a 9-month high. The visible trade deficit increased to GBP 10.2 billion from GBP 9.4 billion in June, the Office for National Statistics showed Tuesday. This was the widest monthly deficit since April 2012. The deficit was forecast to narrow to GBP 9.1 billion.
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UK industrial production growth accelerated in July, data from the Office for National Statistics showed. Industrial production expanded 0.5% from June, when it was up by revised 0.3%. This was the fastest growth since last February. Production was forecast to rise 0.2%. At the same time, manufacturing output maintained 0.3% monthly growth in July and matched economists' expectations.
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Like-for-like retail sales in the UK were up 1.3% on year in August, the British Retail Consortium said. That topped forecasts for an increase of 0.3% following the 0.3% contraction in July. Total sales climbed an annual 2.7%, slowing from 3.6% a year earlier.
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Britain's main political parties on Tuesday backed a plan to give new powers to Scotland should it reject independence in next week's referendum, as a fresh poll showed the pro-union campaign losing ground. The statement by the leaders of the Scottish Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat parties came after former British prime minister Gordon Brown set out a timetable for the devolution of further powers to Edinburgh on Monday. A poll of 990 people by TNS published Tuesday showed the two opposing campaigns tied with 41% among those who were certain to vote. Support for independence was up by 3 percentage points from 38% last month, while support for the union was down from 46%.
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The EU delayed Monday a new set of sanctions against Russia, saying that the reprieve would be used to assess the tenuous ceasefire reached in Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists. The West has accused Moscow of fuelling the conflict in eastern Ukraine by sending heavy weapons, fighters and troops into the neighbouring country. The new measures planned by the bloc would further limit Moscow's access to European financial markets and exports, according to diplomats.
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Iraq's parliament Monday approved a national unity government under Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to face the threat of the Islamic State extremist group. Of the parliament's 328 deputies, 177 voted in favour of the government programme proposed by al-Abadi, a member of the Shiite Islamist Daawa party. Kurdish lawmakers only joined the session after al-Abadi had already started speaking and said they were giving him three months to resolve outstanding issues.
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Members of the Bank of Japan's monetary policy board said that the country's economy is likely to continue its moderate recovery, minutes from the bank's August 7-8 meeting revealed on Tuesday.
The members added that inflation expectations appear to be rising as the country continues to battle the deflationary pressures that have plagued it for the last 15 years. That's largely because of the consumption tax hike in April, although the higher tax also caused a sharp decline in demand.
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Consumer confidence in Japan decreased unexpectedly in August, data from the Cabinet Office showed. The consumer confidence index fell to 41.2 in August from 41.5 in July. Economists had expected the index to rise to 42.3.
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Stand-in striker Danny Welbeck scored both goals as England beat Switzerland 2-0 in Basel on Monday to make a convincing start to their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign. The recently-signed Arsenal striker finished off a fine break involving captain Wayne Rooney and Raheem Sterling on 58 minutes and sealed the win in injury time with a well-taken second.
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Afternoon Watchlist (all times British Summer Time)

12:30 US NFIB Business Optimism Index
13:55 US Redbook index
15:00 US Fed's Tarullo speech
15:00 UK NIESR GDP Estimate
16:30 US 4-Week Bill Auction
18:00 US 3-Year Note Auction
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Wednesday's Key UK Corporate Events

Accesso Technology Group Half Year Results
Alliance Pharma Half Year Results
Restore Half Year Results
Barratt Developments Full Year Results
Advanced Medical Solutions Group Half Year Results
Electrical Geodesics Half Year Results
Mcbride Full Year Results
Kingfisher Group Half Year Results
Sports Direct International Interim Management Statement
Thorntons Full Year Results
Optimal Payments Half Year Results
London Stock Exchange Group Trading Statement
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Wednesday's Key Economic Events (all times British Summer Time)

n/a China New Loans
00:50 Japan Domestic Corporate Goods Price Index
00:50 Japan Machinery Orders
07:45 France Industrial Output
07:45 France Nonfarm Payrolls
10:00 UK Inflation Report Hearings
12:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications
15:00 US Wholesale Inventories
15:30 US EIA Crude Oil Stocks change

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