Directors buying a few shares often does wonders for the share price and China New Energy Limited (LON:CNEL) was a case in point today.
The AIM-quoted engineering and technology solutions provider to the bioenergy sector saw its shares climb 10% to 1.125p after director Yu Weijun purchased 8,079,728 shares at a penny a pop to lift his stake to 99mln shares, equivalent to 20.15% of the company issued share capital.
1.30pm: Discrepancy between share price and NAV still there for Alpha Real
Alpha Real Trust Limited (LON:ARTL) said its net asset value (NAV) per share had risend to 205.6p at the end of 2018.
That represented a handy increase on the end-September NAV of 178.4p and prompted market makers to push the shares 10% higher to 160.5p.
A quarterly dividend of 0.8p has been proposed.
12.30pm: Global Petroleum slides despite narrowing half-year losses
Namibia-focused Global Petroleum PLC (LON:GBP) was trading lower in lunchtime trading after it reported a marginal narrowing of half-year losses.
During the half-year ended 31 December 2018, the group recorded a loss of US$916,390 versus a loss the year before of US$975,145).
Cash balances at the end of the year stood at US$3.78mln, down from US$4.93mln at the end of June. The group currently has no debt.
The shares were down 5.2% at 1.375p.
11.30am: R4E lower as shareholders give green light to share issue and acquisition
Shares in reach4entertainment enterprises PLC (LON:R4E), which is chaired by former BBC controller Michael Grade, were on offer Friday after its share issue was approved.
All resolutions set out in the circular dated 22 February 2019 were duly passed and now the company has applied for 250mln shares to be admitted to trading on Aim on Tuesday.
READ Lord Grade's reach4entertainment snaps up advertising agency in deal worth up to £10mln
The share placing raised £3mln that went towards the cost of the acquisition of the Sold Out advertising agency.
Shares in R4E were down 5.5% at 1.3p; the shares were placed at 1.2p each.
10.45am: Zinc picks up a dent after a patchy set of interims
The share price of Zinc Media Group PLC (LON:ZIN) sustained a hefty dent after the TV and multimedia content producer’s interims disappointed.
Group revenues in the second half of calendar 2018 crawled higher to £9.86mln from £9.76mln while the loss before tax narrowed to £711,000 from £1.8mln the year before.
The group said the UK TV market remains tough but it still expects underlying earnings (adjusted EBITDA) to be positive over the full year.
Zinc’s shares, trading as high as 0.7p back in June fell 15.3% to 0.3p.
10.00am: GCM Resources surges after second hook-up with PowerChina
AIM-quoted exploration group GCM Resources (LON:GCM) shot up by more than a fifth as it announced a second joint venture with PowerChina.
The agreement is for the development of an additional 2×1,000 megawatt coal-fired power plant project at the site of the company's proposed coal mine in North-West Bangladesh.
The project, providing an estimated US$14.5bn in foreign investment, is anticipated to be a catalyst for local, regional and national growth, GCM said.
9.15am: OMG! OMG's shares rise after the company gets into bed with virtual reality firm
OMG! Shares in Oxford Metrics PLC (LON:OMG) were up in early deals as the software firm unveiled a strategic partnership with Sandbox VR.
Sandbox VR is a big name in the location-based virtual reality (LBVR) market and the two companies will work together to explore opportunities in this market.
As part of the partnership, Sandbox has initially purchased a total of five systems from Vicon, a subsidiary of Oxford Metrics that is a specialist in motion capture measurement systems.
OMG shares were up 2.4% at 85p.
Proactive news headlines:
Specialist plastics group Symphony Environmental Technologies PLC (LON:SYM) lifted sales over the past year but increased marketing costs affected profits. Group revenues increased by 6.5% to £8.8mln in 2018, driven by a near 200% jump in sales of anti-microbial products to £930,000.
Alba Mineral Resources PLC (LON:ALBA) executive chairman George Frangeskides told investors that the company is pleased with the ongoing performance of the Horse Hill extended production testing programme. UK Oil & Gas PLC (LON:UKOG), the largest Horse Hill stakeholder with 50.635%, this morning provided the market with an update from Horse Hill, highlighting a number of milestones.
OptiBiotix Health PLC’s (LON:OPTI) subsidiary, ProBiotix Health, has extended its original supply agreement with German probiotics supplier HLH Biopharma. The new three-year agreement grants HLH an exclusive licence to produce, package and commercialise a capsule containing Opti’s cholesterol-reducing LPLDL strain in Germany.
Amphion Innovations PLC (LON:AMP) has reduced its stake in partner company Motif Bio PLC (LON:MTFB) (NASDAQ:MTFB) to 7.88%.
BlueRock Diamonds PLC (LON:BRD) has received the necessary permissions to allow it to move to 365-day operations at the Kareevlei Diamond Mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa and said it expects first-quarter production to be near the upper end of guidance.
Toral project developer Europa Metals Limited (LON:EUZ) spent A$958,000 on exploration in the last six months, which contributed to interim losses rising to A$1.53mln. For the remainder of 2019 and subject to funding, plans are for an infill drilling campaign targeting the high-grade core of the Toral deposit to boost the resource.
discoverIE Group PLC (LON:DSCV) announced that following six years of service, non-executive directors Henrietta Marsh and Richard Brooman will be retiring from its board at the conclusion of the annual general meeting in July 2019. The group said Bruce Thompson will succeed Brooman as its senior independent director, and added that the recruitment of an additional non-executive director and Audit Committee chair is underway and an announcement will be made in due course.
Regency Mines PLC (LON:RGM) said it has received notice from YA II PN Ltd and Riverfort Global Capital Ltd. of the partial conversion of US$105,705.69 (£80,072) of its outstanding US$1,279,800 (£969,447) loan note originally announced on 6 June 2018 and then refinanced on 14 January 2019. In consequence, the group added, it has issued 97,292,904 new ordinary shares in the company at a price of 0.0823p each.
APQ Global Limited (LON:APQ), the AIM-listed emerging markets growth company, has announced that as at the close of business on 28 February 2019 its unaudited book value per ordinary share was 96.59 US dollar cents, equivalent to 72.62p.
United Oil & Gas PLC (LON:UOG), the independent oil and gas developer, said it will host a shareholder conference call at 12:00pm UK time on 19 March 2019. The call will be hosted by the chief executive officer, Brian Larkin and chief operating officer, Jonathan Leather, who will be available to answer shareholders' questions.