UK small caps remain higher midday; Sarantel rallies on SkyCaddie orders

UK small caps remain higher midday; Sarantel rallies on SkyCaddie orders

	Published : Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:10 By : Agencies Print this Story

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK smaller companies remained higher at midday, bucking the downward trend in the Footsie, with Sarantel 'A' up on the back of SkyCaddie production orders, rallying after yesterday's drop following a full-year sales warning.

The FTSE Small Cap index was up 1.8 points at 3,654.5 by midday, while the FTSE 100 was 17.4 off at 6,320.5.

Among small-cap gainers, Sarantel 'A' issues, down yesterday on the full-year sales warning, rebounded 1 penny to 6-1/2 pence following news that the company has received production orders for the recently launched SkyCaddie SG5 Pro Golf tracker.

Ascent Resources jumped over 14 pct, or 2-1/2 pence to 20-1/4 after it confirmed this morning that the shareholders of Leni Gas & Oil approved the acquisition of its wholly owned subsidiary Compagnine Petrolifera De Sedano.

News it has found significant nickel intersections at its Lontra project in Brazil gave a boost to Horizonte Minerals, up 1-3/4 at 18-1/2.

The exploration and development company said initial results from the shallow auger drill holes have returned good nickel values throughout the length of the hole and ended in mineralisation.

Elsewhere, Verona Pharma added 0-1/2 to 4-1/2 after the AIM-quoted drug discovery company said it is to expand its drug development portfolio with the launch of another development programme for a drug to deal with coughing.

It recently announced a key advance in studies on its potentially ground-breaking anti-asthma treatment.

Meanwhile, Geong International said this morning it has signed five contracts with Shanghai General Motors, Lenovo Group and Sony China worth a total 1.72 mln usd.

The China-based software company's two contracts with Shanghai General Motors -- for upgrading its call centre with customer relationship management systems and for maintenance support -- are worth 1.19 mln usd.

The shares rose 5-1/2 to 82.

Again on the upside, Media Corporation celebrated the 224,700 stg cash acquisition of Interactive Consulting, with a gain of 1/4 to 4.0.

Interactive trades as Nash Digital and sells internet advertising space in Europe and North America. It made pretax profits of 131,575 stg on revenue of 252,281 stg in the year ended Nov 30, 2006.

Traders showed an appetite for Carluccio's, 4-1/2 higher at 185, following news that Richard Caring has upped his stake in the Italian restaurants group to 10.28 pct -- the first notable increase in his stake since June this year.

Altium Securities, noting the Caring stake increase, told clients to 'buy'. The broker also noted that since October's encouraging pre-close update, the shares have declined by around 10 pct in actual terms. This is despite the update indicating that the results would be marginally above expectations.

Progress was seen in GTL Resources, 3 up at 101-1/2, as the project development company, focused on ethanol production in the US, revealed a swing to pretax profits of 8.5 mln usd from losses of 2.2 mln at the half-way mark.

Better levels were also noted in BowLeven, 3 ahead at 323, amid talk ABN Amro has cranked up its price target on the African oil and gas group to 385 pence from 335 in the wake of yesterday's full-year results.

Acambis attracted support and added 4-3/4 to 122-1/2 as the specialist vaccines manufacturer agreed a collaboration deal worth up to 80 mln usd with Sanofi Pasteur to jointly develop Acambis's ChimeriVax West Nile virus vaccine.

Acambis will receive an upfront payment of 10 mln usd this year, while milestone payments linked to product approval and US sales will push the deal's value up to 80 mln.

In reaction, Landsbanki reiterated its 'buy' stance and said the news was positive, as it did not expect a partnership deal for ChimeriVax-WNV to be announced until the first half of 2008, supporting its stance that Acambis is an innovative and potentially high value vaccines specialist.

On the downside, Newfound retreated 4-1/2 to 16-1/2 after the luxury resorts operator entered into an agreement with directors Jeremy White and John Morgan to subscribe 70 mln shares at 10 pence each to raise 7 mln stg.

The company's directors are also providing it with subordinated and unsecured interim loans of 500,000 stg in total to ensure it has adequate resources to meet its immediate obligations.

Newfound will continue to review other funding options, including debt financing for its ongoing resort development, as well as sales of land to secure appropriate funding for the company in the future.

It is also seeking shareholder approval for issuing up to another 50 mln shares, in addition to the subscription shares to permit further equity fundraising.

Also on the back foot, shares in Red24, which provides security risk management services, dipped 0.10 to 0.54 of a penny as the company disclosed widening pretax losses at the half-way stage.

Sellers were about in Turbo Power Systems, 0.62 off at 7.0 pence, after the company disclosed narrower nine-month pretax losses on higher production and development income. But it warned it expects its fourth-quarter revenue to be slightly lower than the preceding quarter.

It also warned its full-year revenues will be below its forecasts, but still higher than a year ago. It blamed the extended beta programme on its US industrial motor and drive agreement and slightly reduced projected rail revenues.

Finally, AIM-listed ParOS dropped 0.05 of a penny to 0.35, after it said Imperial Innovations Group sold 9 mln shares in the company on Nov 9 and now holds a 7.14 pct stake, or about 33.78 mln shares.

Imperial Innovations is a technology transfer and commercialisation company, and holds shares in three spin-off companies including Paros, Ceres Power and Nanoscience PLC.

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