Britain's blue chips were off the pace slightly Friday as currency problems in emerging economies continue to dent sentiment.
BT’s (LON:BT.A) news was warmly welcomed as it raised its earnings outlook for the year and shares were up 3.3%.
In the small caps, a notable riser was Wildhorse Energy (LON:WHE), whose shares surged as the company issued a quarterly report.
It revealed it expects Hungarian government approval for its joint venture to restart uranium mining in the short term.
The Mecsek Hills uranium project is one of the largest uranium deposits in Europe and has a total JORC inferred resource of 48.3 million tonnes at 0.072% uranium for 77 million pounds of uranium.
Turning to its underground coal gasification (UCG) project, for which it continues to look for a strategic partner, the firm recently hailed the fact the Hungarian Parliament has given the green light to the modification of the mining law which now includes UCG specific regulations, setting out a legal framework for the development of such projects.
Also strongly on the up was Rose Petroleum (LON:ROSE) on Friday.
It has expanded its exploration footprint, with a new concession in the Weiden Basin in the State of Bavaria, south-east Germany.
Over the course of the initial three year exploration period, Rose will have to carry out a 2D seismic programme, and create a geological model. This will have an estimated cost of €900,000.
This new acreage is now the group’s third oil and gas licence in Germany, following the recent acquisition of the Konstanz and Beiberach licences.
Also creeping higher was coal miner Beacon Hill Resources’ (LON:BHR) after it released a quarterly report.
Its focus this year will be to secure a senior debt facility to progress its wash plant expansion at the Minas Moatize mine, it told investors.
The Mozambique-based miner said completion of the expansion is necessary in the current low coal price environment and will move Minas Moatize into the top rank of mines in terms of efficiency.
Top Level Domain Holdings (LON:TLDH) was also boosted as it bolstered its war chest ahead of a round of auctions for the right to license internet domains.
The company has raised £21mln through a placing of shares at 12p per share, less than a penny discount to the price of the shares on the day before the placing was announced.
Funds will boost the company’s cash pile to more than US$48mln (about £30mln), plus the company also has access to a funding facility of US$15mln (around £9mln) with which to contest private auction rounds of top level domain names – essentially the bit of the internet address that comes after the dot (e.g. .com or .net).
In all, the company will be bidding for 43 contested generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as .app, .cricket and .fashion.
Also today, Oilex (LON:OEX) revealed its focus remains on its preparations for the start of drilling on the Cambay-77H well, which is due in the current quarter.
In the three months, to December 31 2013, Oilex secured a drill rig for the programme and received much of the necessary equipment. It also sold a 15% interest in the project to partner Magna Energy.
The company says the window for drilling Cambay-77H is between February 22 and March 9.
In other news, TEG Group, the AIM-quoted green technology company, said it was optimistic about the year ahead as it confirmed 2013’s performance was in line with previous updates.
The group, which specialises in building and running organic composting and energy plants, said the Dagenham facility is expected to be handed over on time and budget in the current quarter.