logo-loader

ECSC on the right tracks after bagging rail and building supplies sectors contracts

Last updated: 15:37 27 Oct 2020 GMT, First published: 08:42 27 Oct 2020 GMT

Condor Gold PLC -

ECSC Group PLC (LON:ECSC), the cybersecurity services specialist, has landed two major contracts, sending its shares 7.7% higher to 70p.

The contracts have a combined revenue value of £580,000 and have been won through the Managed Detection and Response Division. The unnamed customers are major companies in the rail and building supplies sectors.

ECSC said it will provide around-the-clock cybersecurity monitoring, detection and response support in the UK and Australia employing its Kepler Artificial Intelligence technology.

3.25pm: Bloomsbury parties like its ... er ... 2008

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC’s (LON:BMY) shares increased in value by a sixth to 245p after half-year earnings came in ahead of management’s expectations.

Adjusted profit before tax shot up to £4.04mln in the six months to the end of August 2020, from £2.51mln in the same period of 2019. Reported profit before tax soared to £3.04mln from £1.30mln the previous year, with the difference between the adjusted and reported figures being largely accounted for by £883,000 (2019: £864,000) of amortisation of acquired intangible assets.

Revenues rose by 10% to £78.3mln from £71.3mln the year before, driven by strong online book sales and e-book purchases.

2.30pm: Induction Healthcare helps roll-out of hospital patients' records in Milton Keynes

Induction Healthcare Group PLC (LON:INHC) rose 3.2% to 95.5p after it said its Induction Zesty platform was involved in a roll-out of hospital patient records.

The company, working in collaboration with Apple Inc and health IT services group Cerner Corporation, has recently supported the rollout of Health Records on iPhone to patients at the Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Trust, one of the first two NHS hospital trusts to launch the feature in the UK.

The company said that hospitals using the Induction Zesty patient portal and Cerner Millennium, an electronic health records platform, can now take advantage of Zesty's very high patient adoption rates to maximise the number of patients accessing their health records on their iPhone.

1.35pm: HSBC the top Footsie riser as bad debts situation improves

HSBC PLC (LON:HSBA), up 5.0% at 335.15p, was the top riser on the Footsie after it posted a smaller-than-expected 35% drop in quarterly profit.

The Asia-focused bank also flagged an easing in bad debt provisions, citing an expected improvement in the economic outlook for its main markets. HSBC said it expected losses from bad loans to be at the lower end of the US$8bn to US$13bn range it set out earlier this year.

Reported pre-tax profit came in at US$3.1bn for the quarter ended September 30, higher than the US$2.07bn average of analysts’ forecasts compiled by the bank.

12.40pm: Bonhill of the vanities

Bonhill Group PLC (LON:BONH) dived 8.0% to 5.75p after it granted options over 13.52mln shares to its top brass.

The shares were issued under the business-to-business media business’s management incentive share option scheme. At the same time, the company cancelled a previous batch of options over 795,234 shares, the existence of which had not been incentive enough to management members to get the share price above the options’ strike price.

The company has a total of 14.45mln options in issue over shares representing roughly 14.7% of the company's issued share capital.

11.45am: HemoGenyx extends collaboration agreement

HemoGenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC (LON:HEMO) fell 17% to 10.125p as collaborative work on its CDX antibody product was delayed by issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.

On May 14, 2018, Hemogenyx announced a collaboration with an unnamed to work on the London-listed company’s CDX antibody and today it announced that the agreement has been extended to the end of this year.

“This additional extension of the collaboration will allow us to choose the best CDX antibody for pre-clinical and clinical development,” explained Vladislav Sandler, the company’s chief executive officer.

10.50am: St James House tumbles as it delays publication of its results again

St James House PLC (LON:SJH) shares were clobbered – down 18% at 35p – after the publication of its full-year results was delayed again.

The deadline for publication of the results for the year ending January 31, 2020, had been extended to 31 October but the company now reckons the report will be done and dusted by the end of November. As a result, trading in the company’s shares will be suspended with effect from November 2.

The lottery and e-commerce company said the delay was due to a combination of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and some heavy-duty calculations in relation to the fair value assessments of a number of assets.

9.55am: Clear Leisure lifted by swift progress in Italian legal proceedings

Clear Leisure PLC (LON:CLP) shot up 23% to 0.265p after it appeared that its legal dispute in Italy will be speedily concluded.

The AIM-listed group said the independent expert appointed by the court has formally accepted the appointment under oath at a hearing held on October 21 and will begin his assessment work on November 5.

Sipiem, the claimant, has appointed its own expert while the defendants have appointed two separate experts. The judge has set the hearing for consideration of the expert reports for March 10, 2021.

9.00am: Pure Gold Mining and Condor Gold shine after drilling updates

Pure Gold Mining PLC (LON:PUR) was an early bright spot on Tuesday morning, rising 7.3% to 147p on the back of drilling results.

The London and Toronto-listed company said ongoing surface exploration drilling near the PureGold Mine in Ontario continues to establish greater continuity and expansion of gold mineralisation with high-grade results returned from multiple drill holes.

In addition, underground mine stope delineation drilling has intersected bonanza grades in areas targeted for first ore delivery and gold production from the mine, the company added.

In a similar vein, another dual-listed firm, Condor Gold PLC (LON:CNR) took flight, rising 9.9% to 44.5p after it started investigational drilling in preparation for mine construction at La India Project, Nicaragua.

The company told investors it has commenced a ground investigation programme consisting of 20 geotechnical drill holes and 58 test pits on the tailings storage facility, water retention reservoir and processing plant site at La India.

Condor said it is accelerating La India Project from a pre-feasibility level of design to final engineering designs on key infrastructure in preparation for construction on the fully-permitted La India gold mine project.

Proactive news headlines:

Clear Leisure PLC (LON:CLP) has issued an update on its €10.8mln Sipiem SpA in Liquidazione legal claim against the previous management and audit committee. The AIM-listed group said the independent expert appointed by the court has formally accepted the appointment under oath at a hearing held on October 21 and will begin his assessment work on November 5. Sipiem, the claimant, has appointed its own expert while the defendants have appointed two separate experts. The judge has set the hearing for consideration of the expert reports for March 10, 2021.

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC’s (LON:BMY) interim results statement was a real page-turner with a happy ending, as earnings came in ahead of management’s expectations. Adjusted profit before tax shot up to £4.04mln in the six months to the end of August 2020, from £2.51mln in the same period of 2019. Reported profit before tax soared to £3.04mln from £1.30mln the previous year, with the difference between the adjusted and reported figures being largely accounted for by £883,000 (2019: £864,000) of amortisation of acquired intangible assets. Revenues rose by 10% to £78.3mln from £71.3mln the year before, driven by strong online book sales and e-book purchases.

Sunrise Resources PLC (LON:SRES) said good progress is being made at its CS Perlite-Pozzolan Project to deliver test samples of perlite to potential offtake partners. In a stock market release providing updates on the company’s projects in Nevada (USA) and Western Australia, Sunrise said a 100-ton bulk sample of perlite is to be processed at the end of this week at the CS Pozzolan-Perlite Project. Around 20-30 tons of coarse horticultural grade raw perlite will subsequently be split between five different customers across the USA for expansion testing.

Condor Gold PLC (LON:CNR)(TSE:COG) has commenced a ground investigation program consisting of 20 geotechnical drill holes and 58 test pits on the tailings storage facility, water retention reservoir and processing plant site at La India project, Nicaragua. Condor is accelerating La India project from a pre-feasibility level of design to final engineering designs on key infrastructure, in preparation for construction on the fully-permitted La India gold mine project.

Kodal Minerals PLC (LON:KOD) said it is “well funded” to continue development of its Bougouni lithium project in southern Mali as it secured additional financing from a loan agreement. In an update, the mineral explorer said the second and final advance of US$750,000 under its US$1.5mln convertible loan note agreement with Riverfort Global Opportunities and YA II PN Ltd meant it had sufficient funds to continue the gold exploration strategy at Bougouni, adding that progress on its mining licence application for the project has recommenced with all documents updated for the new ministry and interim constitution of the Mali Transition Government.

ECSC Group PLC (LON:ECSC), the cybersecurity services specialist, has landed two major contracts with a combined revenue value of £580,000. The new work has been won through the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Division and the unnamed customers are major companies in the rail and building supplies sectors. The company said it will provide around-the-clock cybersecurity monitoring, detection and response support in the UK and Australia employing its Kepler Artificial Intelligence technology. Separately, ECSC said it has delivered its first Nebula Cloud MDR service to another new client, utilising its AI technologies.

Anglo Asian Mining PLC (LON:AAZ) has announced that the company’s Vejnaly project, which lies in territory previously occupied by Armenia, has now been restored to the control of the Azerbaijan government. Vejnaly is in the Zangilan district of Azerbaijan, occupied by Armenia since 1994. The Zangilan district is a mineral-rich district in the south-west of Azerbaijan. Under the terms of the company's existing production sharing agreement, the company has been granted the right to exploit Vejnaly, which is close to the villages of Amirkhanly and Aghband. The contract area covers approximately 300 square kilometres and contains the Vejnaly deposit which contains 6.5 tonnes of gold in the C1 and C2 categories.

Induction Healthcare Group PLC (LON:INHC) said its Induction Zesty platform, working in collaboration with Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and health IT services group Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ:CERN), has recently supported the rollout of Health Records on iPhone to patients at the Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Trust (MKUH), one of the first two NHS hospital trusts to launch the feature in the UK. The company said that hospitals using the Induction Zesty patient portal and Cerner Millennium, an electronic health records platform, can now take advantage of Zesty's very high patient adoption rates to maximise the number of patients accessing their health records on their iPhone.

ANGLE PLC (LON:AG) (OTCQX:ANPCY) has unveiled plans to raise £20mln, an additional investment that will propel the company firmly into the commercial phase of its development. Parsortix, its breakthrough liquid biopsy, has now been submitted for clearance by the US Food & Drug Administration for use in women with metastatic breast cancer. Now management is now looking at how best to develop and deploy its technology.

Cornish Lithium Ltd has appointed Varshan Gokool as its chief financial officer. Gokool will join the Cornish Lithium executive team to assist in the development of lithium projects in Cornwall in an economically and financially robust framework. He has over 22 years of experience in guiding publicly listed mining companies from project definition through to development and construction. Gokool was most recently president and CEO of Euromax Resources Ltd.

Redx Pharma PLC (LON:REDX), the drug discovery and development company focused on cancer and fibrosis has appointed Dr Jane Robertson as its chief medical officer. She is a well-respected UK haemato-oncologist with more than 17 years' experience of clinical development in oncology (cancer treatment) and has a breadth of experience investigating multiple tumours and agents. Dr Robertson is currently the chief medical officer at Achilles Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on the creation of a personalised T cell therapy directed against clonal tumour neoantigens. She will commence her role at Redx at the beginning of March next year.

IronRidge Resources Ltd (LON:IRR) has revealed final results from its second phase drilling programme at the Ebilassokro and Ehuasso targets, both within the Zaranou gold project area in Cote D'Ivoire. The licence borders with Ghana and is along strike from significant operating gold mines including Chirano, Bibiani and Ahafo. Among the highlights from Ehuasso were five metres at 33.63 grams per tonne gold, 14 metres at 4.67 grams and nine metres at 4.16 grams.

Amur Minerals Corp (LON:AMC) has revealed that certain existing shareholders of Nathan River Resources Pte Ltd have opted to provide further US$10mln in equity financing to advance the shipment of stockpiles and processing of mined blocks at the Roper Bar iron ore project in the Northern Territories, Australia. The idea is to take advantage of the current high iron ore prices. Amur was offered the opportunity to participate in the additional equity but declined in order to focus existing funds on the Kun-Manie nickel-copper sulphide project.

Power Metal Resources PLC (LON:POW) the AIM-listed metals exploration and development company announced it has received a notice to exercise warrants over 5,596,800 new ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each in the company at an exercise price of 1.0p per ordinary share. Subscription monies of £55,968 have been received by Power Metal in respect of these exercises.

Ariana Resources PLC (LON:AAU), the exploration and development company operating in Turkey, said it has been informed of the following share transactions. On October 23, 2020, Michael de Villiers, its chairman, disposed of 500,858 ordinary shares in the company at 5.61p per share; on the same date, de Villiers purchased 425,000 ordinary shares in his SIPP at 5.86p per share; and on the same date, his wife purchased 75,000 ordinary shares in her SIPP at 5.86p per share. Accordingly, the holding of de Villiers now stands at 55,799,142 ordinary shares in the company, representing a holding of 5.25%.

Instem PLC (LON:INS), a leading provider of IT solutions to the global life sciences market, has said it will be hosting a presentation through the digital platform, Investor Meet Company, at 4.30pm November 4, 2020. The company will discuss recent results, where it provided an update on trading and progress on its acquisition strategy following its July 2020 fundraiser. It will also discuss divisional developments, specifically within the areas of Informatics and SEND (the Standard for the Exchange of Non-clinical Data). No new price sensitive information will be provided. Investors can sign up to Investor Meet Company for free and add to meet Instem via the following link: https://investormeetcompany.com/instem-plc/register-investor. A copy of the presentation will be made available on the company's website shortly after the presentation.

Benchmark Holdings PLC (LON:BMK), the aquaculture health, advanced nutrition, and genetics business, has said it will announce its full-year results, for the period ended September 30, 2020, on Friday November 27, 2020. It added that Trond Williksen, the group’s chief executive officer and Septima Maguire, its chief financial officer will host a webcast for analysts on that day at 8’30am UK time. To register interest, investors should contact: benchmark@mhpc.com

FTSE starts flat, Unilever jumps on ice cream overhaul - Market Report

The FTSE 100 has opened flat, with the largest gain coming from multinational consumer goods heavyweight Unilever. The company lifted more than 5% in early trading after launching plans to sack 7,500 workers as part of an overhaul of its ice cream business. Over in the pharmaceutical...

1 hour, 6 minutes ago