STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-Aquarius Platinum falls after results

Shares in Aquarius Platinum (AQP.L) fall 2.7 percent after the platinum producer posts first-quarter results which Panmure Gordon describes as slightly disappointing, with the broker lowering its full-year 2010 production forecast.

Panmure says in a note that Aquarius Platinum produced 96,500 ounces of attributable platinum group metals in Q1 2010, having lost approximately 16,000 ounces to the strike at Kroondal and Marikana.

"After stripping out the effect of the strike, today's results from Aquarius Platinum were below our forecast on production with costs above our expectations," the broker says.

It moves its full-year 2010 production forecast down by 3 percent to 463,000 ounces, with its cash cost forecast increasing by 2 percent in rand terms both in 2010 and beyond.

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