Smaller companies report: Friday close
SHARES in UK smaller companies closed higher, bucking weakness in the wider market. At the close, the FTSE SmallCap index was 2.0 points firmer at 3,410.5. Thee FTSE 100 index ended 24.1 points lower at 5,711.0.
Gold Oil jumped 1.50p to 4.37p. The company has won a provisional licence to carry out seismic, drilling and development operations in Northwest Peru.
The London-based oil exploration company said the licence will go now go to the Ministry of Energy and Mines for approval, which could be forthcoming anytime between February and May of this year.
Accountancy services company Tenon added 5½p at 30p following news of a possible management buyout. Tenon said in November that difficult trading conditions were persisting and that parts of its business had experienced a slower first half than in previous years.
Analyst Andrew Shepherd-Barron at KBC Peel Hunt kept his recommendation at 'hold'. The sticking point for value will be how much debt the business can support, he said. It already has £31m net debt.
Aim-listed digital broadcaster Cellcast rose 9¼p to 73½p after it expressed confidence in exceeding market expectations for the year ended December 31. And Felix Group added 4¼p at 39¾p after the company behind sales promotion channel Everyone's A Winner
said it has signed an agreement with Kesa Electricals unit Comet under which Comet will provide £10m worth of products for the channel's prize bank.
The day's biggest small-cap casualty was Superscape Group. It fell 6¾p to 16¼p after warning it expects fourth-quarter revenues to be below expectations. It blamed a poor trading performance in November that resulted from lower-than-expected publishing revenues from Java mobile phone operators in Europe and the US.
The company now expects total revenues for the year to be broadly in line with the previous year and said it will be restructuring to sustain the drive towards profitability.
Electrical contracting and engineering company T Clarke also issued a profits warning. While sales have held up well, margins have come under pressure in the final quarter of 2005 and full-year profits are now expected to be 'at the lower end' of market expectations. The shares fell 12p to 250p.
Ultimate Leisure shed 6p to 245p after the pubs and nightclub operator after disappointing Christmas and the New Year trading. This, it said, reflects the historic lack of investment in the group's bars and greater competition from rival nightclubs.
Analyst Paul Hickman at KBC Peel Hunt warned the group's recovery will take even longer than first expected and he downgraded his stance on the stock to 'hold'.
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