Mother and baby retailer Mothercare (MTC), which recently rocked the market with a profit warning, moves 5.5% higher to 286.9p on a report in The Sunday Times that Tesco (TSCO) is weighing up a takeover bid.
Emerging markets investment trust specialist City of London Investment Group (CLIG) rises 5.6% to 248p on the back of and relief that the dividend has been maintained despite a difficult trading period, as we discuss here.
Caribbean oil explorer Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC:AIM) drops 9.3% to 3.9p as Norwegian oil major Statoil (STL:OL) abandonsplans to jointly develop licences off the coast of the Bahamas. We look at the news in more detail here.
British Sky Broadcasting (BSY) slips 0.6% to 840p despite weekend press speculation of a collaboration with Vodafone (VOD), 1.2% higher to 240p, to challenge BT’s (BT.A) dominance in the broadband arena. This is the latest volley in war between BSkyB and BT, down 0.4% to 381.7p, after the latter has challenged the pay-TV giant’s dominance in live Premiership games. More details on all issues are likely to follow at next Thursday’s interims (30 Jan).
Aluminium can maker Rexam (REX) gains 2% to 515.5p on weekend reports of a £500 million deal with Montagu Private Equity to offload its non-core healthcare arm. The company is expected to return some of this cash to shareholders.
Bargain Booze owner Conviviality Retail (CVR:AIM) cheapens 6.5p to 187.5p, despite delivering a robust Christmas trading update. Franchisee like-for-like sales rose 2.8% in the two weeks to 5 January, while the recently acquired (30 Aug) Wine Rack chain delivered 21.8% same-store sales growth. A running Shares Play of the Week, Conviviality also reports 13.6% growth in profits to £2.2 million for the half to 27 October and a first interim dividend of 2p.
High-quality homewares maker Portmeirion (PMP:AIM) powers up 20p to 730p on its trading update. Having enjoyed strong trading in the fourth quarter of 2013, the Stoke-on-Trent-based company expects to report record annual sales in excess of £58 million, up around 5% year-on-year.
A rare UK mining story, aspiring tungsten producer Wolf Minerals (WLFE:AIM) dips 1.1% to 21.75p after updatinginvestors on its financial requirements for building and running the Hemerdon mine near Plymouth. Capital expenditure has gone up from £104 million to £123 million. It needs to fund £29 million relating to various items including certain bonds and product shortfall guarantees. Expecting operating costs have gone up 4% to $109 million per metric tonne unit of tungsten. The mine is scheduled to begin production in the second half of 2015.
Sable Mining (SBLM:AIM), one of Shares' top picks in the iron ore industry and a running Play of the Week, rises 4.9% to 10.75p after appointinga new chairman. Phil Edmonds steps down to let former Eurasian Natural Resources director Jim Cochrane take the chair.
Heart-monitoring specialist LiDCO (LID:AIM) rises 3% to 17p as its multi-monitoring model wins the supportof an industry body. The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland has recommended its LiDCOrapid v2 monitor following an observational study of high-risk surgery for the elderly.
EKF Diagnostics (EKF) jumps 10.9% to 39.3p on the successof its PointMan technology in detecting cancer. Early results of a trial with Swansea University detected gene mutations in blood, where DNA sequencing had failed.
Irish oil explorer Providence Resources (PVR:AIM) falls 8.1% to 254.9p despite announcingit will progress to an exploration licence on its Drombeg prospect and commence a 3D seismic survey over the asset. The market looks impatient for news on a farm-out of its Barryroe discovery.
Chad oil producer Caracal Energy (CRCL) advances 4.6% to 460p as it announcesoutput could reach up to 45,000 barrels of oil (bopd) per day by the end of this year. Investors are prepared to look past the group's failure to hit its 14,000 bopd exit target for 2013.
Music services sit at the heart of rampant emerging market demand for InternetQ's (INTQ:AIM) Akazoo media platform. But solid €12 million operating cashflow is also welcomed by investors given the rarity of cash stories in the mobile space, driving the shares 11% higher to 372p.
Automated calls response platform developer Eckoh (ECK:AIM) jumps more than 7% to 33.5p after unveilingfurther new business wins and contract renewals. The shares doubled in 2013 from 14.25p.
Cloud calls platform microcap Coms (COMS:AIM) continues to win more investment fans after announcingnew business worth in excess of £1 million. This is on top of nearly £2 million worth of new contractsfor the year ahead unveiled at the start of January. The shares rise 3% today to 5.12p for a 55% hike inside three months.
