East Star Resources Plc (LSE:EST) lost around one-sixth (that 16% for those not so good with fractions) of its value at 3.85p after it published the remaining drilling results from its Apmintas licence.
The Kazakhstan-focused gold and copper explorer said hole AP_021 in the Eshkilitau II target recorded 14m @ 2.54 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au) from 40 metres (me) downhole including 5m @ 4.97 g/t Au from 44m.
Anomalous gold was confirmed across all Eshkilitau occurrences of the Apmintas Licence confirming a gold-bearing system with a strike of more than 4km, while anomalous gold on other targets confirm gold-bearing systems with further fieldwork required prior to drilling.
3.35pm: Kromek chair buys 338,344 shares
Kromek Group PLC (AIM:KMK), which issued a trading update this morning, put in a spurt in the afternoon after it was revealed that Rakesh Sharma, non-executive chair, grabbed 338,344 shares in the company, paying 8.87p per share.
Shares in Kromek, already going well after this morning’s update, advanced to 9.55p, up 18% on the day.
The radiation and bio-detection technology company said commercial momentum quickened more rapidly than anticipated in the second half of the fiscal year.
2.40pm: Petropavlovsk plunges as it misses interest payment on loan notes
It is hard to keep Petropavlovsk PLC (LSE:POG) out of the news these days, which is perhaps not surprising giving its area of operation is Russia.
The gold miner saw its shares lose almost a third of their value at 1.45p after it revealed the revolving credit facilities between Gazprombank and the group's Russian subsidiaries have been assigned to a new creditor, Nordic LLC.
The miner also announced that it is unable to pay the coupon due on 14 May 2022 of about US$12.36mln in respect of the US$500mln 8.125% guaranteed notes 2022 issued by Petropavlovsk 2016 Limited (of which US$304 million remains outstanding).
1.45pm: MADE.Com tumbles after it issues profit warning
MADE.com Group PLC saw its shares slide 13% to 55.2p after it warned that trading has been tougher than expected this year.
Third-party data suggests that the online furniture and home market is down around 30-40% so far this year, the company said, and while MADE.com has outperformed the market, with first-quarter sales down 10% year-on-year, the group has resigned itself to the market remaining tough for the rest of the year.
“We remain very confident that MADE will continue to outperform the online home and furniture market by at least 20 percentage points,” the company said as it issued new full-year guidance for several key metrics.
12.50pm: Wishbone Gold ready to drill Wishbone II
Wishbone Gold PLC (AIM:WSBN) has signed the drilling contract for its Wishbone II Gold-Copper Project in Northern Queensland.
Shares in the Aussie gold project developer rose 11% to 10.85p after the company signed on the dotted line after heritage surveys were completed over all the planned drill sites.
Deployment for drilling is now dependent only on weather in the Townsville area improving.
11.55am: Woodbois lifted by origin of timber agreement
It is often hard to discern whether a particular piece of news is going to have much impact on the share price. A case in point is Woodbois Ltd (AIM:WBI), which is up 8.9% at 5.12p.
The forestry and timber trading company announced a new partnership with World Forest ID, a specialist in origin tracing and species identification.
The partnership will enhance the traceability and identification of timber originating from the company's forest concessions in Gabon. Judging by the share price reaction, this is “a good thing”.
11.00am: RWS slumps as Baring Private Equity Asia opts not to bid
RWS Holdings (AIM:RWS) PLC seems pretty happy that Baring Private Equity Asia Fund VIII Limited is no longer considering making an offer for the company.
That’s despite the share price slumping by 19% to 360p following the fund’s announcement that it does not intend to make an offer for RWS, adding that the decision is not a reflection of its views on the RWS business.
RWS said the interest from BPEA was unsolicited and did not result in any proposal being made. “The board of RWS believes the company has a strong future based on its clearly defined strategy, as outlined at its Capital Markets Event on 23 March 2022, which includes accelerating organic growth, capitalising on a simplified technology portfolio, driving operational leverage and enhancing growth and returns,” RWS said.
10.05am: NetScientific continues impressive turnaround
We seem to be specialising in back from the dead companies today – see Synairgen below.
NetScientific PLC (AIM:NSCI), up 15%, comes into the category. Things were once so bleak the company put itself up for sale and nobody was interested in buying it at a sensible price so it soldiered on independently with a new management team.
The turnaround has been impressive and continued today with the company announcing that its subsidiary ProAxsis had completed the development and evaluation of an AstraZeneca COVID-19 antibody test with "impressive performance evaluation results”.
9.10am: Vast Resources soars as share dilution worries disappear; Synairgen not dead yet
Vast Resources PLC (AIM:VAST) said it has repaid in full the outstanding bonds owed to Atlas Special Opportunities LLC.
The repayment means Atlas no longer has any conversion or any right to call for the issue of Vast ordinary shares, thus removing share dilution fears on that front.
Vast’s shares shot up 36% to 1.13p on the news.
Synairgen PLC (AIM:SNG, OTC:SYGGF), up 50% at 40.02p, topped the risers in London after the company suggested it is not yet out for the count.
A review of phase III data identified a group of virus sufferers that could potentially benefit from SNG001, the company’s inhaled interferon beta drug that failed to be the boon for Covid sufferers that the company had hoped for.
However, there appears to have been a clinically significant impact on those people in the company’s Covid trial who showed clinical signs of compromised respiratory function. In all, this cohort was around a third of the study group. Researchers found the risk of progression to severe disease and death compared to a medicinally inert placebo was reduced by 70% by taking SNG001.