Smaller companies report: Friday close

By This Is Money
Updated: 12:48 EDT, 9 June 2006

SHARES in UK smaller companies closed higher today following a volatile week for UK equities.

At the close, the FTSE Small Cap index was up 27.1 points at 3,365.3, off a low of 3,338.2. The FTSE 100 index was 92.3 points firmer at the end of trading with the index standing at 5,655.2.

Among shares in the news and on the move today, Designer Vision jumped 39%, adding 1.375p at 4.875p after a positive trading update from the portable multimedia systems supplier.

The group said it expects results for the year to Dec 31 2006 to be well ahead of current market forecasts after trading in the first five months of the current year came in significantly ahead of the same period last year.

The company also said it has arranged a convertible loan of up to £1m through a facility provided by the Headstart Funds.

Elsewhere, shares in Tower added a third in value - up ¼p to 1p - on news the AIM-listed voice over internet protocol (VOIP) service provider's Norwegian unit, VYKE will launch commercial sales and advertising of its mobile VoIP service in conjunction with the Nokia E60 dual radio phone on June 12.

The service allows users to make VoIP calls from their mobile phone whilst in Wi-Fi zones, the company said.

Users will be able to make calls at IP telephony rates equal to a discount of 80%. VYKE's campaign starts in Norway and will be rolled out across Europe during the summer, it added.

And InterQuest Group added 7p at 58p after the IT recruitment specialist announced the acquisition of Sand Resources for up to £5.2m in cash and shares. The group also said it has appointed David Seear, the managing director of Sand, to the group's operational management board.

Sand, which provides specialist IT recruitment services to the public sector, generated turnover of £6.16m in the year to May 31 2005 and pretax profit of £323,000.

Among other gainers, shares in Pantheon Resources added 13p at 132p following news its joint venture gas drilling programme on Padre Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, is set to take delivery of a rig in late June.

Golden Gate Petroleum, which is operating the Padre Island site, will lease the rig for 12 months initially and has an option for a further 24.

Pantheon qualifies the deep drilling operations as 'moderate risk high reward'. Fellow oil & gas minnow Northern Petroleum also moved higher, gaining 14½p at 131½p after news its NP Netherlands (NPN) unit has been awarded a 25-year production licence for the Papekop oil field in the Netherlands.

The Dutch government will take a 40% stake in the licence, with NPN holding the remaining 60%.

The oil field has proven plus probable recoverable reserves of 39.4bn square cubic feet of gas and 12.2m barrels of oil. The group said this is an increase of 1.5m barrels of oil from initial projections and brings its total Netherlands reserves to 56m.