After a solid opening, small cap shares succumbed to the malaise affecting their bigger brethren.
The FTSE AIM 100 finished 0.2% lower at 3,357 and the FTSE AIM All share eased 0.2% to 712.
Kimberley Enterprises NV (LON:KBE) defied the trend – and then some – rising 133% to 0.7p, after hitting 1.09p at one stage.
The Eastern Europe-focused residential property developer said yesterday it would borrow €2.2mln on a short-term basis from Real Property Investment to repay debt owed by subsidiary Eurobul Ltd to Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd.
Trinity Exploration & Production PLC (LON:TRIN) was wanted for the second day in a row, rising 41% to 3.18p today.
The Trinidad & Tobago producer said yesterday it has sharply reduced costs and with more to come, is targeting operating break-even across all fields, even if oil prices fall to $30/bbl by the end of 2016. All of which should make the company's assets attractive to an acquirer or potential partner.
Among the losers was West Africa-focused Stellar Diamonds PLC (LON:STEL), which fell 21% to 9.9p after it said it had raised £600,000 before expenses through a share issue, with the shares issued at 10p a pop.
It has also realised about US$300,000 through a sale of diamonds from its Baoulé project in Guinea and reported the resignation of two directors in line with the company's strategy to reduce corporate costs.
Conversely, mining group Tri-star Resources PLC (LON:TSTR) was up 26.7% as it said chief executive Guy Eastaugh acquired over 27 million shares at 0.09p a throw.
Also on the gaining front, Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX), the potash mine developer, which advanced 11.6% to 19.81p as it said it would be releasing results of the definitive feasibility study on the York project this Thursday.
On the main market, the FTSE 100 closed at 6,140, down 35 points, weighed down by resource stocks.