The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers on AIM in London on Tuesday.
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AIM - WINNERS
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Eckoh PLC, up 16% at 37.80 pence, 12-month range 30.00p-46.00p. The secure payment and customer contact products firm expects revenue and adjusted profit in the year ended March 31 to be ‘significantly’ ahead of the previous year. Revenue is seen at £39 million, up from £31.8 million a year prior, while adjusted operating profit is seen at £7.6 million, up from £5.2 million. According to Eckoh, market consensus is for full-year revenue to be £40.3 million and adjusted operating profit to be £7.5 million. Notes ‘excellent’ progress in its ‘key’ North American region, as well as growth in its total contracted business of more than 50% during the financial year. Expects to announce its full-year results on June 14.
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N4 Pharma PLC, up 16% at 2.20 pence, 12-month range 1.50p-3.98p. The specialist pharmaceutical company provides an update on its ongoing in vitro siRNA research work. Completes work on establishing assays to measure how Nuvec loaded with BCL-2 siRNA can silence expression of the BCL-2 protein. Nuvec is N4’s delivery system for cancer treatments and vaccines. BCL-2 is a form of protein that regulates cell death in healthy cells, however, diverging expression can facilitate tumour development and resistance to cancer therapy. Says studies so far have demonstrated that the maximum inhibition of cell growth by SiRNA to either EGFR or BCL-2 loaded on Nuvec was comparable to that produced by two commercially available small molecule drugs, Gefitinib for EGFR and Venetoclax for BCL-2. Further work is planned to assess the minimal loading of siRNA on Nuvec to achieve comparable inhibition to the two commercially available drugs.
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AIM - LOSERS
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FireAngel Safety Technology Group PLC, down 27% at 8.25 pence, 12-month range 7.20p-17.25p. The home safety product developer says that trading in the year-to-date has been in-line with the company’s expectations. Notes two exceptions to this, but says the effect of those exceptions is partly mitigated by lower than expected costs. Notes supply chain issues impacted the company throughout 2022, causing lower production than planned and leading to restricted or intermittent supply to its customers. Consequently, these issues have led to a loss of momentum of the company. Says restoring this momentum may take the rest of 2023 to achieve. Further, notes that only one of two significant contacts expected to contribute to the first quarter of 2023 has been secured to date. This will lead to slightly lower revenues than forecast in 2023, FireAngel says. Company also expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for 2023 to be ‘materially below market expectations’.
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Strategic Minerals PLC, down 24% at 0.19 pence, 12-month range 0.13p-0.45p. The producer and explorer posts revenue of $415,000 in the first quarter of 2023, down from $663,000 the previous year. Says this reflects the anticipated reduced demand from some customer amid a dip in economic activity in the US. Explains that increased mining costs and negative market sentiment has impacted proposed debt-based funding for the restart of production at the Leigh Creek copper mine. Strategic Minerals says: ‘Slower US economic growth continues to impact demand for the magnetite product provided at Cobre in New Mexico, US. While sales to the company’s ’fertilizer‘ customers appear somewhat unaffected, sales to ’cement‘ customers have been notably impacted with the company’s largest client continuing to suspend purchases whilst it runs down its existing stockpile. The reduction in demand has been partially offset by the 20% price increase in July 2022.’
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