It is hard to keep Metal Tiger plc (LON:MTR) out of the news at the moment; today's update relaties to its Extremadura interests.
That's Extramadure in western Spain, where Metal Tiger has an iron in the fire via its Finnish joint venture partner, Mineral Exploration Network (MEN), in the form of an interest in the Logrosán gold and tungsten venture.
A new gold target area, dubbed 'El Seranillo North', has been delineated, while elsewhere in the region at MEN's wholly-owned Maria project, Metal Tiger is doing due diligence to see whether it wants to buy a stake in the project.
The first batch of assay results from Metal Tiger's drilling are back and have confirmed hard rock gold and mineralisation, prompting Metal Tiger to ask for more time to do a bit more due diligence.
Meanwhile, the Metal Tiger field team that has been toiling away for a year working on these projects have been rewarded with 1.45mln Metal Tiger shares to the value of £77,750.
It is interesting to note that at the start of the year Metal Tiger would have had to issue about 7.5mln shares to pay the team the same amount.
If the tequilas will be slamming in Extremadura tonight the mood is likely to be more sombre at the headquarters of once-trendy video search engine firm blinkx PLC (LON:BLNX), which issued a disappointing trading update.
Having achieved profitability in the fiscal third quarter – the last three months of 2015 – the company fell back into the red in the final quarter, although admittedly this is not usually one of the company's strong quarters.
The loss for the full year is expected to be around $10mln to $11mln, the company reported.
Instem Plc (LON:INS), the provider of information technology solutions to the biotech sector, recently raised expectations regarding its performance in 2015, so there might have been a bit of trepidation as to whether it would come up to snuff when the numbers were finally totted up.
Shareholders need not have worried, as the company reported an adjusted profit before tax of £1.7mln, up from £1.1mln in 2014.
The market had been expecting profit before tax of £1.7mln on revenue of £15.8mln (2014:£13.43mln). Revenue actually came in at £16.3mln.
Recurring revenue was tipped to clock in at £9.6mln or more, up from £9.2mln the year before, and actually made it into double figures at £10,0mln; well, technically that is seven figures, but you get the idea.
The shares rose 4% in the morning trading session.
Computer game services provider Keywords Studios PLC (LON:KWS) was another that had recently lifted earnings guidance, and in its case the response to the figures once they were revealed was a little subdued, but nothing to frighten the horses.
Broker Numis had expected revenue of around €57.8mln and adjusted profit before tax of €7.8mln.
Revenue came in slightly higher at €58mln and adjusted profit before tax likewise at €8mln, so it is hard to pinpoint what might have prompted a halfpenny fall to 218p, but on a day when the market is off 1.4% a 0.2% fall does not seem so bad.