logo-loader

Small caps rise during week as FTSE AIM All-Share index adds 0.5%

Published: 10:41 31 Jul 2010 EDT

no_picture_pai

Small caps outperformed the majors this week with FTSE AIM 100 index posting a small loss, while the FTSE AIM All-Share index added 0.5%.

ECO Animal Health Group (LON:EAH) told investors that its Chinese manufacturing facility has been approved by the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA), following a successful Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspection.

Plant Health Care (LON:PHC) has signed a non-exclusive agreement with Syngenta’s (NYSE:SYT, ZUR:SYNN) Crop Protection subsidiary to develop and market Plant Health Care's Harpin protein as a foliar spray in combination with Syngenta's herbicide products - containing glyphosate.

Provider of software and software-led services for the filmed entertainment market, ZOO Digital Group (LON:ZOO) has launched an automated style-guide production system for home entertainment products and has secured Warner Home Video International as its first customer.

Viridas (LON:VIR) is set to supply an unnamed UK energy generator with 240,000tpa (tonnes per annum) of sustainable biomass for electricity generation. The company said that it now has potential revenues worth up to US$1bn over a ten year period.

Renewable Energy

Holdings’ (LON:REH) 30%-owned associate Carnegie Wave Energy (ASX:CWE) is preparing to launch a new project to evaluate the integration of proven ‘off-the shelf’ desalination technology with its proprietary CETO wave power technology, to produce emission-free desalinated freshwater.

Sweeteners producer PureCircle (LON:PURE) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with British Sugar Group to set up 50/50 joint venture Natural Sweetness Company, which will develop and market a range of products for the food and beverage industries.

Machine-2-Machine (M2M) telecoms specialist Telit Communications (LON:TCM) has agreed a commercial partnership with France Telecom's Orange Business Services unit, under which Telit will distribute Orange's complete range of M2M solutions on the French market, by adding them to its own modules.

Essex-based building contractor, Mountfield Group (LON:MOGP) has been selected as a preferred building contractor for a number of construction contracts in connection with the 'SnOasis' indoor winter sports resort, which is being built near Ipswich in Suffolk. The £300m project will incorporate facilities for 14 winter sports disciplines, along with 400 residential units, 350 chalets, a hotel and conference facilities.

Broker finnCap issued a positive note on ZOO Digital (LON:ZOO) after the company launched its automated style-guide production system for home entertainment products and announced Warner Home Video as its first customer, saying the new product would help it achieve the goal of diversifying revenues.

A strong performance in Asia

and Europe offset a lacklustre showing in Nigeria, according to PZ Cussons (LON:PZC), the maker of Imperial Leather soap.

Cove Energy (LON:COV) has concluded a conditional farm-in agreement with a DEPCO subsidiary to acquire a 15% participating interest in five contiguous deepwater  blocks offshore Kenya for US$15.5 million.

Cleantech materials discovery company Ilika (LON:IKA) said a £153,000 UK government grant has been awarded to the development programme of a treatment for full thickness skin wounds led by its subsidiary Altrika Ltd.

Metminco (ASX:MNC, LON:MNC) has completed the acquisition of 5,376,562 fully paid ordinary shares in Hampton Mining Limited, increasing its interest in Hampton from 69.4% to 71.9%.

Mobile email

and data synchronization group Synchronica PLC (LON:SYNC) has announced that Argentine carrier Telecom Personal has launched its mass-market mobile email and synchronization service based on Synchronica’s flagship push email product Mobile Gateway.

Developer of advanced vision based industrial systems Seeing Machines (LON:SEE) has won a contract to install the DSS driver monitoring equipment in the haul truck fleet at an open-pit mine in Peru, marking its first success in South America.

FinnCap has issued a note on SmartFOCUS (LON:STF), calling the group  a “profitable and cash generative software vendor with over 60 percent recurring revenues operating within the high-growth Multichannel marketing sector.”

Africa focused investment group Lonrho (LON:LONR) achieved a year-on-year turnover increase of 45% in Q3 as all businesses expanded with divisional revenues increases ranging between 20% and 118%, and it now expecting to duplicate this success in the remainder of 2010 and in 2011.

Netplay TV PLC (LON:NPT) said an amended format and schedule for its Challenge Jackpot and Bingo Stars shows broadcast on ITV's (LON:ITV) teleshopping window is being introduced tonight which the group believes will improve performance.

Stem-cell biotechnology company Epistem Holdings PLC (LON:EHP) said trading over the year to end-June 2010 was in line with market forecasts and the it expects to report a growth in after tax profit from a year earlier.

Former cement operator Prosperity Mineral Holdings (LON:PMHL) has made another step in transforming itself into a Chinese real estate focused company in line with the change in strategy announced in February, announcing the details of the purchase of the Guangzhou properties flagged in June, including that it will pay £70.1 million for assets valued at £177 million.

Cinpart PLC (LON:CINP) said all resolutions put to today’s AGM were passed, including the proposed name change to Active Energy Group PLC, and it expects trading under the new name and the new code AEG to begin on August 2 2010.

Alliance Pharma’s (LON:APH) second largest shareholder, Nigel Wray, has further increased his stake in the company by buying 3.15 million shares in the group yesterday, taking his holding to 31,119,995 shares, equivalent to 13.38 percent of the capital.

Training software group SimiGon (LON:SIM) announced that chief financial officer Haim Yatim, will be leaving the company by the end of October to pursue other interests and has resigned from the board with immediate effect.

United Business Media Ltd (LON:UBM) said it has acquired the Shanghai International Children-Baby-Maternity Products Expo (CBME) and related businesses on behalf of its UBM Asia division for up to US$16.1 million.

BenevolentAI advances novel ulcerative colitis treatment through Phase 1a trial

BenevolentAI (OTC:BAIVF) chief scientific officer Dr Anne Phelan joins Proactive's Stephen Gunnion with positive safety data from the Phase 1a, first-in-human, clinical study of BEN-8744 in healthy volunteers. Phelan explained that BEN-8744 is a potent, selective PD10 inhibitor, uniquely...

25 minutes ago