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Tuesday's most followed: Chariot Oil & Gas, Xcite Energy, TT electronics, Bglobal, Spirax-Sarco, Drax Group

Published: 08:46 15 May 2012 EDT

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Yesterday’s heaviest faller in the oil and gas sector Chariot Oil & Gas (LON:CHAR) again found itself at the centre of attention today, emerging among the most searched for companies on Google Finance along with Xcite Energy (LON:XEL).

Chariot saw its share price rally in morning trade after receiving a vote of confidence from its non-executive chairman Adonis Pouroulis, while interest in Xcite was sparked by speculation that the company could soon release an update from its drilling campaign in the North Sea.

The stock surged 10.5 percent to 83 pence by noon after Pouroulis bought shares in the company at the current market price, giving him a 0.05 percent stake in the company.

Poroulis has purchased 100,000 shares at a price of 74.95 pence per share worth nearly £75,000 compared with Monday’s closing price of 75 pence.

The purchase came after the stock lost nearly half of its value on Monday on a disappointing update from Namibia.

The group revealed yesterday that the Tapir South offshore exploration well had failed to find commercial hydrocarbons and would be plugged and abandoned.

Chariot noted that Tapir South is the first well of its longer term drilling campaign and only the second well to have been drilled in the Namibe basin.

“Our understanding of this basin is rapidly improving and we expect this well to provide more information on the character and maturity of the potential source rocks when we carry out detailed analyses on the recovered samples,” said chief executive of Chariot Paul Welch.

“These analyses will provide invaluable information for improving the assessment of source risk on other prospects in close proximity whilst also furthering our knowledge of the region.”

The company also said it remains on track to spud the Kabeljou well in Southern Block 2714A on the Nimrod prospect in the third quarter of this year. This will be the second well of the four to five programme.

Sector peer Xcite told investors a week ago that the 9/3b-7 well on its Bentley heavy oil field had reached a depth of 6,684 feet and that drilling to the reservoir zone would soon follow – after a liner has been set, cemented and pressure tested.

It has signed a time charter contract with Teekay Navion Offshore for the ‘Scott Spirit’ shuttle tanker, which will be used as the in-field storage and offtake facility during Phase 1A of the Bentley field development.

Other talked about companies included TT electronics (LON:TTG), which updated investors on its trading this morning.

The electronics group said sales in the four months to April were in line with the prior year, which was a good performance given the sharp increase in orders following the earthquake in Japan in March last year.

The closure of the Components USA facility in North Carolina with a transfer of production to Mexicali, Mexico is on track to be completed during the last quarter of the year.

At the group’s facility in Romania, production is expected to kick off in June.

Meanwhile, TT said the development of its sensors business, including a new facility in Mexico and expansion in China, remains on track to deliver benefits from 2013 onwards.

The group added that order receipts have been good during the period, giving it good visibility for the second half of the year.

Despite reaffirming its 2012 guidance, TT saw its shares slump 2.5 percent to 162 pence this morning, while smart metering specialist Bglobal (LON:BGBL) rallied 3.5 percent to 10.5 pence on an upbeat trading statement.

In an update ahead of its full year results, the group said it remained profitable and cash generative at the operational level during the “transformational” year to mid-March.

The number of meter installations in the industrial and commercial sector fell due to the uncertainty around the mass rollout of smart metering in the UK.

However, Bglobal saw strong interest in its data services and in the last quarter of the year signed a three year deal with Npower to provide data collection and data aggregation services.

The Utiligroup business also did well, posting full year profits, and the Utilisoft division in Australia expects to further grow its customer base after building up a significant revenue stream.

“This last financial year has been a transitional period for the Group in which we have positioned ourselves so as to benefit from the opportunities that result from the evolution in our target markets,” Bglobal said in the statement.

The update from Bglobal made the list of the most read stock exchange announcements, as did interim management statements from midcaps Spirax-Sarco (LON:SPX) and Drax Group (LON:DRX).

Spirax-Sarco shed more than six percent this morning to become the heaviest faller in the FTSE 250 after its interim management statement revealed that unfavourable foreign exchange movements have had an adverse impact on its revenues.

The pump group said organic growth in the four month period to April reached six percent, however, the impact of changes in currency rates has reduced its sales growth to three percent.

At constant currency, operating profit was modestly ahead of the comparable period in 2011, reflecting the increase in sales.

Spirax also told investors that its financial performance has been impacted by higher material costs., whose effect is expected to decline in the second half of the year.

The Asian markets continue to broadly show good strength and North America is benefiting from increased project activity, the group added. Meanwhile, economic conditions in Europe are expected to remain sluggish and the environment in Latin America reflects the slower economic growth in the region and a drop in industrial production in Brazil.

The update from Drax was more positive with saying conditions in the commodity markets have shown improvement this year except for domestic coal, where some of its suppliers are “facing difficult challenges”. Overall, Drax expects to meet its 2012 guidance.

In the year to May 8, the group’s sales for 2012 reached 25.3 terawatts (TWh) and 14 TWh and 3.7 TWh for 2013 and 2014 respectively. Since February, when the company reported its preliminary results, Drax has sold 3.3 TWh for 2012 and 4.9 TWh for the next year.

The report from Drax also noted that as part of its review of renewable support in 2011, the government proposed increase support for electricity fuelled by sustainable biomass in existing coal-fired power stations.

“As previously described, Drax is ready to transform itself into a predominantly biomass fuelled generator, but to do so we need an appropriate level of regulatory support, and to that end we look forward to the timely conclusion of the Government's current review,” Drax told investors.

Pub operator Enterprise Inns (LON:ETI) did not see much improvement in trading conditions, reporting a decline in its interim profit before tax and exceptional items.

In the the six months to end March, profits dropped to £64 million from £74 million a year earlier as like for like net income in total estate fell 1.6 percent.

Earnings per share decreased to 9.6 pence from 10.8 pence.

On a positive side, the group managed to reduce its debt to £2.9 billion from £3.1 billion a year ago in part thanks to disposals for a total £89 million.

“We have been subjected to extremely challenging conditions during the past four years, with cost pressures, consumer weakness, political interference, pressure on asset valuations and the volatility of capital markets combining to make life difficult for ETI and its publicans,” said chief executive of ETI Ted Tuppen.

“As we continue to move the business back into growth, we remain confident that, in the medium term, we will be in a good position to deliver positive returns to shareholders.”

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