Holders Technology (AIM:HDT) PLC rocketed 22% to 107p after announcing its full-year results which saw the company move from a loss into a profit.
The London listed company reported that revenue and profitability was across all its divisions improved in the year ending 30 November 2021, helped by a general improvement in economic conditions.
It also said it made a profit of £349,000 compared to a loss of £249,000 the year before, helped by a 33% increase in revenue to £12mln.
It paid an interim dividend of 0.5p per share in October and a special dividend of 2p per share in January, with the directors recommending a final dividend payment of 0.5p a share.
2.37pm: Tandem plummets on lacklustre start to year
Tandem Group PLC (AIM:TND) sunk 19% amid significantly reduced revenues in the first 11 weeks of this year compared with 2021.
Meanwhile, its licensed character bicycles were 30% behind 2020 levels on supply chain issues, which caused re-sourcing of supply to other factories.
This coupled with the 43% drop in sales overpowered the cycle designer’s mostly positive full-year 2021 results, where it reported increased profit, revenues and earnings per share.
It said its reduction in cash resources to £2.3mln from £3.8mln was due to land purchases and construction carried out last year.
1.25pm: RTC Group dives as Covid-19 hits 2021 profitability
RTC Group PLC (AIM:RTC) lost around a sixth of its value after the recruiter reported a collapse in full-year profits.
Profit from operations in 2021 fell to £274,000 in 2021 from £1.1mln the year before while profit before tax slumped to £114,000 from £870,000.
The COVID pandemic continued to significantly affect client demand across many markets and where requirements for contract labour remained strong this was accompanied by higher operational costs to ensure the safety and well-being of the company’s workforce.
11.50am: Touchstone Exploration boosted by rising prices
Touchstone Exploration Inc (AIM:TXP, TSX:TXP, OTC:PBEGF) reported higher crude oil sales and prices for the first two months of this year, sending the shares 12% higher at 84.5p.
The company said its near-term priority is to bring its Coho and Cascadura exploration discoveries into production.
“Barring any significant delays, we forecast that our year-end 2021 liquidity position provides the funding required to meet our near-term focus of commencing production at Coho and Cascadura,” said president and chief executive Paul Baay in the company’s results statement for 2021.
“By the end of the year, we expect to develop into a sustainable cash flow generating production-based company with strong exploration prospects."
10.55am: Cambridge Cognition advances after autoimmune contract win
Cambridge Cognition Holdings PLC (AIM:COG) advanced 13% to 137p on news of a contract win.
The company, which develops and markets digital solutions to assess brain health, said it has won a contract worth just over £1 million with a top 10 pharmaceutical company to provide digital cognitive assessments for a pivotal phase III autoimmune disease trial. Revenue from the contract is expected over the next three years.
The trial aims to recruit and test hundreds of participants across nearly 40 countries.
10.00am: Brighton Pier rocks
Brighton Pier Group PLC (AIM:PIER) climbed 8.9% to 91.5p after it raised full-year expectations.
All divisions in the leisure group performed well in the second half of 2021 with recently acquired Lightwater Valley performing above expectations.
A consistent gross margin performance, the reduction in VAT and rates relief has enabled the group to make good progress on maximising earnings and paying down debt, it said in its interim results statement.
9.05am: DeepVerge climbs as COVID detection units are deployed across the country
DeepVerge PLC climbed by 5% to 13.2p after announcing that the first six installations of its Modern Water Microtox PD units have been deployed across the UK.
The units have been developed to detect COVID in wastewater and are being used as part of the Environmental Monitoring for Health Protection programme.
Investors were told that additional units are expected to be deployed over the next few months, with chairman Gerry Brandon adding “these are cornerstone installations for us”.
Elsewhere, United Oil & Gas PLC was up 7% to 2.8p after announcing it has commenced production at its ASD-2 development well in the Abu Sennan licence, onshore Egypt.
The well has an initial production rate of roughly 2,100 barrels of oil per day, which is “significantly above pre-drill expectations", according to a statement.
It also added there has been an “exceptionally” short turnaround time of six days from well completion to production and revenue generation.
A fifth firm well has been added to the drilling campaign thanks to the completion of technical work and a sustained high oil price.