Smaller companies report: Tuesday close

By This Is Money
Updated: 12:21 EDT, 4 April 2006

UK small caps ended higher, bucking the trend of the FTSE 100, with Plasmon assisted by upbeat trading news, dealers said.

At the close, the FTSE Small cap index was 5.4 points firmer at 3,636.4, just shy of the day's high of 3,639.0, while the FTSE 100 was 19.6 lower at 6,004.7.

Better levels were registered in Plasmon, 9p higher at 82½p, after the group revealed that trading in March returned to historical levels and added that its outlook remains positive.

Punters also circled Meridian Petroleum, 3¼p better at 26¾p, after the oil & gas exploration and production company, with key assets in the US and Australia, revealed that the Victory 1-21 production well has been successfully deepened in order to penetrate further a Niagaran reef.

Support was seen for James Latham, 17p higher at 185½p, as the construction company sold Nevill Long, its suspended ceilings, dry lining and partition systems distribution business, to Wolseley for £10.32m.

Aim-listed Mediwatch was also in favour, up ¾p at 11¾p after the firm said it has entered into an exclusive period on negotiation with Medtronic for the supply of urology diagnostics products and the potential purchase of Medtronic's urology diagnostic unit.

Zambezi Resources was a hit with punters, 1p better at 16p, after the company said drilling is set to start in May on the Cheowa copper-gold project in Zambia.

Cancer drug developer Antisoma edged up ½p to 22p following news that statistically significant new data on the company's aptamer drug AS1411 shows that it clearly reduced tumour growth in xenograft models of both renal and lung cancers.

Traders were also keen on Oxford Biomedica, up 2p at 30¾p, with market talk that the stock could hit the 40p-45p price level in the next couple of weeks. One City dealer put the notion down to 'solid pipeline material' and a run of institutional buying.

Another stock in favour with investors was FDM Group, up 2p at 82½p, after the company reported higher full-year underlying profits and forecast a 'successful outcome' for the current year, with year to date revenues and profits higher than last year.

The IT service provider's pre-tax profit before exceptionals for the year to December rose to £2.15m from £1.81m, while sales rose to £35.1m from £33m.

On the downside, early gains in Tower were erased at the close following news that the company's Vyke unit has entered into a distribution agreement with Mega Micro Technology International, a leading value-added communications distributor based in Russia.

Shares were off 0.25p at 1.62p.

Millbrook Scientific Instruments dipped 0.75p to 5.87p as the designer and manufacturer of innovative scientific instruments used for nanoscale investigations of surfaces, coatings and thin films raised around £790,000, before expenses, via a placing of 15.8m shares at 5p apiece.

Slightly higher full-year losses knocked 7¼p from global interactive digital broadcaster Cellcast, at 86¼p, while widening full-year losses saw Plethora Solutions retreat 6½p to 202p.

Finally, Britvic ran back 7p to 210p after a trading update indicated that branded revenue for the 24 weeks to 19 March 2006 was down 3.4% on a year earlier.