Gem Diamonds LIMIted sParkled as it said it recovered a high-quality 80 carat diamond at its Letseng mine in Lesotho, Africa.
Shares jumped 6.07% to 89.70p in afternoon trade.
The news of the recovery of the D colour Type II diamond comes after the company last month revealed that it dug up a 114 carat diamond from Letšeng, the highest dollar per carat kimberlite diamond mine in the world.
Amerisur Resources plc (LON:AMER) shares edged up 5.91% to 25.42p as it announced successful drilling results at its Mariposa-1 well in South America.
Analysis of the well showed about 120ft of oil saturated net pay in the Lower Sands Unit 3 of the Une formation after drilling to a depth of 11,556ft.
The operator, ONGC Videsh, is now preparing the well for further tests.
Asian Growth Properties (LON:AGP) tumbled 70.93% to 37.50p after saying plans to sell assets outside of mainland China to its majority shareholder has been approved by shareholders.
The company will sell the entire issued share capital of BSGL to SEA Holdings.
Ithaca Energy plc (LON:IAE) slid 14.34% to 91.44p after Delek Group raised its stake in the company to 94.2% following a tender offer that expired yesterday.
Delek offered C$1.95 per share for the North Sea oil producer. Last month Delek paid US$350mln for 70.23% of Ithaca’s issued and common shares to bring its stake to 76%.
The deal was announced in February and valued Ithaca Energy's equity at US$646mln.
2.15pm.... Purplebricks edges higher on new CFO
Online estate agency Purplebricks (LON:PURP) shares have shot 5.90% higher to 334.67p after announcing James Davies as its new chief financial officer.
Davies, formerly CFO of William Hill Online and divisional CFO at Kingfisher, has replaced Neil Cartwright, who is stepping down at the end of June due to ill health.
Davies started his new role at Purplebricks today.
Chairman, Paul Pindar, said: “On behalf of the board I would like to take this opportunity to express our deep gratitude to Neil and our very best wishes for his full recovery. Neil has been with Purplebricks since the start of 2015 and has played a significant role in its rapid growth and success to date, including steering the Company through its IPO in December 2015 and its recent fund raising for US expansion.”
Purplebricks has been gaining market share as an online services that operates 24/7 and charges no commission for selling properties.
Star fund manager Neil Woodford, which owns a stake in Purplebricks, last month said the company had exceeded expectations and is fast becoming a household name.
Revenue in Purplebricks jumped 159% in the six months to October 2016 after selling £2.6bn worth of properties, making it the third largest operator in the market.
12.42pm...MySquar boosted by Imperium investment
MySquar Ltd (LON:MYSQ) advanced 14.43% to 1.60p after one of the investors in its recent £2mln placing bought another lump of shares.
Imperium Ltd purchased a further 90,000,000 shares, bringing its interest in the Myanmar-focused social media group to 15.7%.
Imperium was an investor in the second tranche of MySQUAR’s recent £2mln funding that replaced a convertible loan with financier Sandabel.
In contrast, shares in Angus Energy Plc (LON:ANGS) dipped 6.90% to 9.31p as it said it has exercised its option to buy a further 10% interest in the Lidsey Oil Field in the UK from Terrain Energy Ltd.
The transaction brings its interest in the field to 60%. “Angus Energy will assume the carry of Terrain's remaining 10% interest of the upcoming Lidsey-X2 horizontal well in addition to providing a one-time, cash payment of £20,000," the group said in a statement.
11.06am... Concha's shares march higher
Shares in Concha PLC (LON:CHA) jumped 24.14% to 0.180p as it said it was reviewing new investment opportunities following the demise of its principle investment, Ve Interactive LIMIted.
Concha paid £4mln for a 0.43% stake in Ve Interactive in March 2016 when it touted the advertising technology company as an “exiting investment opportunity”.
But the same month a year later its value plunged to £300mln from £1.5bn following a £3mln emergency cash injection, led by Scottish billionaire Doug Barrowman’s Aston Ventures.
Last month a creditor applied to the Leeds District Registry of the High Court to seek the placement of Ve into administration. The business and assets of Ve were then sold to Rowchester LIMIted for a £2mln in cash.
Concha said in a statement today: “We together with other former shareholders in Ve, which in combination have advanced more than £50mln in equity funding since the company began trading in 2009, will continue to investigate the actions of those responsible for its demise and indeed any opportunity to participate in the assets and business of Ve going forward, however at this time there can be no guarantees of any such involvement.”
“The impact of these recent events has elIMInated any residual carrying value in Concha's former investment in Ve. In the event that this situation changes and Concha is either able to secure a participation in the new business going forward or recover value from its former investment it will communicate details at the appropriate time. In the meantime, your board will continue to review new investment opportunities in order to restore value for its shareholder base.”
09.22am.... Sunrise Resources shines on encouraging concept study
Sunrise Resources Plc (LON:SRES) shares rose 2.61% to 0.118p as it said it would throw its full weight behind its CS Pozzolan project in Nevada after a concept study confirmed its potential.
“It is recommended that the company proceed to engage with market participants, carry out drilling on the deposit and start critical path baseline permitting studies as soon as possible,” concluded the study.
Interest in pozzolan is growing as a natural and greener alternative to Portland cement and especially in the US where traditionally manufacturers have used fly ash from coal fired power stations as a key ingredient.
Georgian Mining Corporation (LSE:GEO) gained 5.19% to 17.75p as it said results of drilling at its Kvemo Bolnisi East project in Georgia has confirmed that three targeted zones are part of a large epithermal copper and gold unit.
The drill programme has discovered an extension of the copper and gold sulphide mineralisation, initially found to the south of Gold Zone 2, with significant copper intercepts starting from the base of the gold oxide zone.
Engineering company TP Group edged up 4.81% to 7.07p after saying it received the first call-off from the Ministry of Defence under a framework contract for combined oxygen generating systems (COGS), worth £9.7mln.
The contract has a potential value of up to £22.5mln and is for the provision of up to eight COGS systems and additional ancillary items to upgrade in-service Royal Navy submarines, to be called off at the MoD's discretion over the next five to eight years.
Torotrak plc (LON:TRK) was on the back foot, with shares down 24.39% to 0.775p, after the engineer said it was closing its Leyland site and making all the staff at redundant.
The group also said it expects net assets will fall below half of the value of the called-up share capital following an audit of its results for the year to 31 March 2017. The board will hold a general meeting in May to address the situation.
Photonstar LED Group dropped 19.79% to 2.43p after saying it has raised £465,000 through a placing of 37.2mln shares at 1.25p a throw.
The net proceeds of the placing will be used to fund the proposed roll out of the halcyonPRO2 and its halcyon CloudBMS platform as per the announcement of 28 April 2017. Shares in the company had surged for a consecutive three days following Friday’s announcement.
Proactive news headlines...
Winston North has jumped ship from IMI PLC (LON:IMI) to become group finance director and company secretary at Stadium Group plc (LON:SDM).
Deltex Medical Group plc (LON:DEMG) has launched a non-invasive High Definition Impedance Cardiography (HD-ICG) module in the UK to augment its CardioQ-ODM+ monitoring platform.
Sound Energy PLC (LON:SOU) is entering the final decisive stages of work on a potentially significant gas well in Italy. It has reached the fourth casing point at Badile, near Milan, at 3,379 metres in the Eocene Scaglia formation.
PowerHouse Energy Group Plc (LON:PHE) said it has shifted its waste-to-power unit to a new location at the Thornton Science Park, operated by the University of Chester. It follows the successful first-phase of re-commissioning G3-UHt system, which recently delivered the production of synthesis gas.
High-flying Photonstar LED Group PLC (LON:PSL) has raised £465,000 through a placing of 37.2mln shares at 1.25p a throw.
Aggregated Micro Power Holdings plc (LON:AMPH) hit its £15mln revenue target in year to March. Shares rose 5% to 85p.
ID checking software specialist ClearStar (LON:CLST) is to supply its platform to MultiLatin, a background screening company that operates in thirty Latin American and Caribbean countries. ClearStar’s platform is configurable for all major languages and will enable MutliLatin to add seamless language translation and access to global records to its service.
Copper explorer Asiamet Resources LIMIted (LON:ARS CVE:ARS) is mulling going deeper at its BKM prospect in Kalimantan after it hit more thick mineralisation in the BK044 Zone. Moderate to high-grade copper mineralisation extended more than 100 metres below the base of the conceptual open pit design, said the junior, though further exploration will be needed along strike (north-south) and laterally to establish the continuity of this deeper domain.