Smaller companies report: Thursday close

By This Is Money
Updated: 12:12 EDT, 12 January 2006

UK small caps close higher after a raft of positive earnings updates provided support. By the close, the FTSE Small Cap index was 11.6 points higher at 3,408.5, while the FTSE 100 finished up 3.6 points at 5,735.1.

Among the risers, Caspian Holdings jumped 8p to 16½p, after the oil and gas group said oil production from four out of five wells covered by its workover programme at the Zhengeldy field in Kazakhstan has been steadily increasing.

Elsewhere, record maiden results and news of expansion into the major market of United Arab Emirates boosted recent Aim newcomer Driver Group 10p to 74½p. The company, which provides specialist commercial and dispute resolution services to the construction industry, has concluded a significant agreement in Abu Dhabi.

Xaar was another riser, up 18¾p at 302¼p, after the inkjet printing technology group said trading remained strong during the second half of the year and the results for the 12 months to end-December were ahead of market expectations.

hoenix IT gained 28¼p to 294¼p after it was successful in renegotiating an EDS contract to supply department of work & pensions in the UK. House broker UBS said the deal removed a significant overhang on its shares. Buyers also came for Colliers CRE, 15½p better at 173p, after the UK real estate consultancy group said it has continued to demonstrate a strong performance across the business in the second half, particularly within the areas of investment and valuation.

On the bid front, Brandon Hire shot up 20½p to 189p amid talk that Speedy Hire, unchanged at 830p, is planning to gatecrash management buyout talks.

Elsewhere, Bateman Engineering notched up a gain of 15½p, at 293½p, in response to news that the company has been awarded by Equinox Minerals a major mining engineering contract in joint venture with Ausenco, an Australian-based engineering group. The contract is estimated to be worth $200m.

Among the losers, Bright Things tumbled 1534;p to 39½p after warning that pretax loss for the year ending March 31 will be between £4.5 and £5m.

Sports Cafe was also under pressure, easing 3½p to 29½p, after accompanying its second-half trading statement with a warning that its full-year results will be hit by weak trading.