The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers among London Main Market small-caps on Thursday.
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SMALL-CAP - WINNERS
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Aptitude Software Group PLC, up 2.7% at 289.50 pence, 12-month range 224.50p-398.00p. The subscription management and finance digitalisation company announces a recent contract win for its finance platform Fynapse with an unnamed ‘leading US-based interactive entertainment provider’. The deal will run for five years, beginning in March, with a total software contract value of £1.3 million. Chief Executive Officer Alex Curran says: ‘We continue to see growing momentum for Fynapse across both new business opportunities and existing clients, including encouraging engagement from our partners. It is exciting to see the implementation of the new strategy working and we remain confident in Fynapse’s ability to be an accelerator of the group’s future growth.’
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SMALL-CAP - LOSERS
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Topps Tiles PLC, down 6.5% at 46.45p, 12-month range 42.37p-57.80p. The retailer says sales in the 13 weeks ended December 30 were down 4.0% from a year earlier, with like-for-like sales down 7.1%. It says trading in the first quarter reflected the ongoing challenges to discretionary consumer spending, particularly those impacting on businesses serving the repair, maintenance and improvement sector. Topps Tiles’ cost base remains ‘well controlled’, despite ongoing inflationary pressures, and that cash flow remains ‘strong’. Topps Tiles expects its full-year profit to be weighted towards the second half, based on a number of factors including the timing of the holiday pay accrual, higher energy usage in the first half and general trading in the first half. The company says: ‘The group remains well-positioned to respond to market conditions and we expect to have gained further market share in the first quarter, driven by our world-class customer service, market-leading brands and specialist expertise, and supported by our strong balance sheet. We remain excited about the opportunities for Topps Tiles over the medium term.’
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EnQuest PLC, down 3.3% at 14.885p, 12-month range 11.87p-24.05p. The oil and gas producer falls after Jefferies cuts its stock rating to ’hold’ from ’buy’, reducing its price target to 14p from 20p. Over the last month, shares are up 17%, but down 27% over the last 12 months. Just before Christmas, shares rose after it agreed to sell a 15% working interest in its Bressay field and floating production, storage and offloading vessel in the North Sea. The deal was with RockRose UKCS 10 a subsidiary of Viaro Energy, who will pay £46.0 million for interest in both assets, with an initial payment of £34.78 million, which will be used for general capital purposes. EnQuest said the remaining £11.3 million will be paid from future cash flows from the Bressay field.
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