Thomas Cook (TCG) warns of a slow start to its winter booking, triggering a 7% drop in its share price to 144.7p. In contrast, TUI Travel (TT.) advances 2% to 363.4p after increasing full-year underlying operating profit growth guidance. The group is now confident of achieving at least 11% growth on a constant currency basis.
Bookmaker Ladbrokes (LAD) falls 9.5% to 170.2p after flagging up further weakness in its digital arm. We look at the situation in more detail here.
Oil play Faroe Petroleum (FPM:AIM) is down 5.7% to 125p as it disappoints with production numbers as we discuss here.
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) slips 0.3% to £15.64 on a trading update, giving up some of the last three months? gains during which the counter has surged 20%. The update confirms strong trading with the average daily value of UK equities traded up 5% in the five months to 31 August.
Iron ore producer African Minerals (AMI:AIM) rises 37.5% to 215.5p after attracting its second strategic investor. Chinese import/export group Tewoo has proposed to pay $990 million for a 16.5% stake in the miner's Tonkolili project in Sierra Leone. It will buy 10 million tonnes of iron ore from the mine for 20 years and set up a joint venture to look at selling products to China.
Technology services minnow Altitude (ALT:AIM) slumps 23.3% to 14.38p on a profit warning. It says full-year results will miss forecasts due to slower-than-expected recurring revenue generation.
FTSE 100 oil explorer Tullow Oil (TLW) ticks up 1% to £10.64 on news of an oil find in Kenya. Initial results from the Ekales-1 wildcat well in Block 13T Northern Kenya indicate net oil pay of between 60 and 100 metres.
Property services group Countrywide (CWD) slips 0.8% to 553.5p on a deal to boost its commercial property business. The company is set to buy commercial property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton for £34.1 million cash.
Life insurer Hansard Global (HSD) rises 1.3% to 119.6p as new business premiums reached a £156.2 million record, compared to £124.4 million in 2012. Net cash flow for the year to July hit £43 million from £38 million a year earlier. However, pre-tax profit fell slightly to £10.7 million from £11.1 million. Full-year dividend was flat at 11p a share.
Interdealer broker ICAP (IAP) slips 3.9% to 373p as the market continues to absorb the impact of yesterday?s profit warning and news that it had paid £14 million to the Financial Conduct Authority and $65 million to the US Commodities Future Trading Commission relating to the authorities? investigations into fixing of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).
Connectivity star WANdisco (WAND:AIM) sees half-year bookings nearly double to £6.1 million while it makes a real scoop by partnering with Hadoop giant Hortonworks. Cash is burning fast though, sparking a £19 million placing to fund its application lifecycle and big data ambitions. Pitched at 950p, that's a near 8% discount to yesterday's £10.30 close, explaining today's 3.6% decline to 992.5p, but still 450% up on its 180p IPO in June 2012. Shares looked at WANdisco in last week's issue.
US and Europe revenues are under the cosh for mobile content supplier Zamano (ZMNO:AIM), slashing the shares by 17% to 11p. The half-year figures illustrate the competitive nature of the mobile content space.
Microfiltration specialist Porvair (PRV) makes an interesting step into the lifesciences and laboratories space, and investors like what they read, bidding the stock 4% higher to 255p. The acquisition of Thomas Cain and licensing deal with Thermo Fisher Scientific look like opening doors to new market opportunities.
Construction small cap Pochins (PCH) slids 3.4% to 28.5p as it reports a loss after tax of £7.1 million. The directors do not recommend the payment of a final dividend.
Logistics specialist China Chaintek (CTEK) rises 1.1% to 230p as it posts a 9% rise in pre-tax profit to RMB132.8 million. Chaintek attributes the rise in profit and revenue to progress in diversifying the group's customer base into new sectors, such as food and building materials.
Heart monitor maker LiDCO (LID: AIM) improves 1.7% to 14.8p as the touch screen graphic display of its LiDCOrapidv2 monitor secures a US patent. This is the world?s largest market for hemodynamic and anaesthesia surgical monitoring and patents for the combined multi-parameter display are pending in Japan and the EU. This follows what looks like a good year for the London company.
