LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK smaller companies stayed higher at midday,
continuing to reflect the mood of the wider market, with Physiomics gaining
further on stakebuilding news.
At 11.45 am, the FTSE Small Cap index was 18.80 points ahead at 3,932.40,
while the FTSE 100 index was up 41.70 to 6,350.50.
Leading the risers was healthcare group Physiomics, up 40 pct or 0.07 to
0.245 pence, following news late yesterday that Billam AG has snapped up 3.25
mln shares in the group at 0.22 pence each, taking its stake in the UK firm to
3.0 pct.
Fellow healthcare company ValiRx, which specialises in cancer therapeutics,
also gained ground, up 2-1/2 to 18-1/2, after announcing earlier today its
proprietary gene-silencing technology, GeneICE, has received patent approval by
the European Patent Office covering 23 European states. It follows the granting
of a US patent in April 2007.
Brambles, the world's largest pallet pooling business, also stayed up,
rising by 53-1/2 to 533, after it too was supported by stakebuilding.
It announced that Australian infrastructure group Asciano has acquired a 1.2
pct stake in the company, but did not disclose financial details.
Positive news brought cheer for three mining companies, with a
better-than-expected gas find seeing Island Oil and Gas climb 4-1/4 to 44-1/4.
Earlier today, the company said the 57/2-3 gas appraisal well on the Schull
field in the Celtic sea, offshore Ireland, encountered gross gas column of 292
feet, significantly greater than expected.
Island said it is now commissioning a commercial and engineering study to
determine the optimum development scenario for the Schull, Old Head and West
Seven Heads gas fields.
Elsewhere, Eurasia Mining gained 0.375 to 4-1/2 as drilling results
confirmed a platinum group metals discovery on the company's Kola Peninsula
joint venture with Anglo Platinum in Russia.
EnCore Oil stayed up 1 to 17-1/2 following news the company has successfully
tested the dry gas flow on the Schull well in the Celtic sea, offshore Ireland.
Air Partner stayed high, up 35 to 1,222-1/2, after it said it expects a 50
pct rise in pretax profits.
Also on the upside was on-course betting company Neville Porter, which said
its gross win at the Galway summer horseracing festival in Ireland was 112,279
eur, representing a gross margin of 20.4 pct.
The company gained 0.125 to 2-1/4 on the back of the news and said it will
attend the autumn festival races at Galway and Leopardstown in early September,
besides races at York, Newcastle and Haydock amongst others.
Leading the fallers with a slide of 1 to 2-1/2 was Avanti Screenmedia Group,
still on the back foot after this its announcement that it is urgently seeking
additional funding, as it is currently reliant on its overdraft facility, due to
lower-than-expected sales in the period to June 30.
Also down was IT outsourcing company Netstore, sliding back 5-1/2 to 28-1/2,
as it said it expects its full-year results to be below current market
expectations as trading was more challenging towards the end of the period, but
was upbeat for the short to medium term.
Chairman Paul Barry-Walsh said: "Although this shortfall is disappointing,
the existing and new management team have reviewed the whole business and have
concluded that Netstore's business is robust and poised to grow in the short to
medium term."
Business class and long haul airline Silverjet slipped slightly further
back, down 24 to 86-1/2, following news it does not intend to secure further
aircraft when the leases on the two Boeing 757 aircraft operated by its wholly
owned subsidiary, Flyjet, expire in October.
Meanwhile, profit-takers moved in on Interactive World, which fell 7 to 76,
as it said it has agreed to acquire UK-based national tabloid newspaper company
Sport Newspapers Ltd by way of a reverse takeover for about 50 mln stg in cash
and loan notes.
Shares in Domino's Pizza fell further, down 10 to 248, after its chairman
reduced his stake in the company to 11.07 pct.
Finally, Metal-Tech slipped further back, down 6 to 98-1/2, after an update
on the Uzbekistan Joint Venture, despite saying it is confident of meeting its
full-year revenue target.
tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com
hmb/am
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