Smaller companies report: Monday close

By This Is Money
Updated: 13:02 EDT, 20 February 2006

SMALL caps were slightly weaker at the close of trade, hurt by weakness in the shares of Fairplace Consulting and Ekay, dealers said.

At the close of trade, the FTSE Small Cap index was down 0.3 points at 3552.9, off highs of 3556.7. The FTSE 100 closed up 16.8 points at 5863.0.

Fairplace Consulting fell 4p to 15½p after the career management and human resources consultancy announced a £450,000 share placing at 12p a share and unveiled a widening in underlying losses for the six months to 31 December.

The operating loss before goodwill widened to £490,000 from £380,000, with the year earlier figure excluding discontinued business.

Aim-listed Ekay dropped 7½p to 34½p on profit taking after announcing first-half pretax profit was up 42% to £474,000 from £334,000 a year earlier on sales which more than doubled to £16.4 from £6.3m.

Ekay said it expects to pay a dividend for the financial year to June 2006.

Looking ahead, chief executive Eddie Powell said: 'We have a keen eye on growth through acquisition opportunities and are considering a number of earnings enhancing, synergistic targets and look forward to the second half with confidence.'

Also on the downside, CRC Group slumped 4½p to 67½p following a profits warning late on Friday. The specialist technology repair company warned it expects its pretax profit for the year to 31 December to be below market expectations. The company added that the results, which were due to be published today, will be delayed.

John Lewis Of Hungerford dropped 0.05p to 0.55p after swinging to a pretax loss in the year to end-August 2005 and warning that current first-half trading is likely to show a 'significant' trading loss.

On a more positive note, Empyrean Energy jumped 27p to 164½p after the company said the potential net oil pay from the Eagle North-1 well in California has increased more than 90% from the previously announced net pay figure.

'The increase in potential net pay will have a significant positive impact on the project providing commercial flow rates can be achieved from production testing,' said executive director Thomas Kelly.

Still with the explorers, Genesis Petroleum edged up 0.38p to 1.85p following news of an agreement with one of the world's leading offshore seismic data providers, to access modern offshore 3D seismic data from a data library of approximately 150,000 square kilometres covering proven hydrocarbon basins offshore Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany and the UK.

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Elsewhere, comment in today's Independent newspaper boosted Chaco Resources 2.13p to 16.65p. The South America-focused oil and gas explorer awaits news on whether it has been granted an exploration and production licence for Colombia's Primavera block and word has it a decision is imminent, the newspaper said.

Shares in Quadnetics rose 27½p to 260p after the company reported a solid set of interim results and said it is looking forward to a 'strong' second half.

Regal Petroleum also put in a strong performance, up 19¼p to 94p, after announcing that the the Supreme Court of Ukraine has ruled in favour of the company and dismissed the final appeal brought by Chernihivnaftogasgeologia (CNGG) regarding the distribution of assets within their former joint-venture.

Finally, a satisfactory trading update lifted Petards Group 0.12p to 0.97p. The Aim-listed developer of surveillance systems said it expects to book a full-year operating profit and a pretax loss for the year ended 31 December broadly in line with market expectations.