Pharma companies grabbed the spotlight in the small cap space today as Venn Life Sciences (LON:VENN) said it landed a contract worth more than €1mln with a leading French biotech.
The research group will oversee a phase I/II clinical trial recruiting patients with T-cell leukaemia.
Meanwhile, shares in OptiBiotix (LON:OPTI) got off to a strong start in early trade, rising 2% and building on the near 40% increase seen in the last three months.
According to traders, the uplift can in part be attributed to Public Health England’s Obesity Report – which mooted plans for a sugar tax.
Elsewhere, ImmuPharma (LON:IMM) is to bid farewell to non-executive director Ajay Agrawal.
Similarly, Miriam Maes, the chairperson of Sabien Technology (LON:SNT), is to step down from the board at the company’s annual general meeting next month.
Conversely, economist Andrew Vickerman has been appointed as an independent non-executive director of gold miner Petropavlovsk (LON:POG).
Also hiring today was African Potash (LON:AFPO) which added Declan O'Brien, the chief executive of Barak Fund Management as a director.
To the energy sector, where Mart Resources (CVE:MMT) told investors that production from the Umusadege field averaged 20,330 barrels of oil per day in September (based on calendar days). The tally accounting only for ‘production days’ amounted to 20,990.
A total of 609,790 barrels were produced from the field in the month, Mart added.
Last week, Delta Oil Nigeria agreed a C$124.9mln takeover of the company.
Meanwhile, 88 Energy's (LON:88E) busy week continues with the company announcing that drilling started on the Icewine Number 1 exploration well in Alaska yesterday.
Northcote Energy (LON:NCT) is to up its interest in the Shoats Creek field and the Wilcox unit in particular.
Genel Energy (LON:GENL) has received another payment from the Kurdistan Regional Government for oil shipped out of the region.
Independent Resources (LON:IRG) has launched a placing to raise £800,000 to fund its recent joint venture with fellow AIM–lister Nostra Terra (LON:NTOG).
In the tech space, Discussions over a takeover of Irish mobile billings group Zamano (LON:ZMNO) have come to an end.
Globo (LON:GBO) told investors that trading in its shares were suspended to allow the company time to provide a detailed response to a critical report posted online.
It said a report was published last night in the United States by Quintessential Capital Management.
Finally, workforce management specialist ServicePower Technologies (LON:SVR) has joined an Internet of Things (IoT) development platform to build new applications.