LONDON (ShareCast) - Hydraulic platform specialist Lavendon reports revenue for the five months ended 31 May fell 10%, worse than the flat outcome predicted by analysts at Panmure Gordon.

But the company says the year-on-year decline reduced on a monthly basis throughout the period, and Panmure thinks the “worst is over”. It repeats ‘buy’ advice and 114p price target.

Hameldon Resources is still looking for the right acquisition after last year’s decision to sell marketing business Upstream to Next Fifteen for $1.1m (£756,000).

It’s switched focus to companies engaged in oil and gas, gold, copper and zinc production, but “continues in its attempts to find the most appropriate investments”.

A dark cloud descended over lighting, power and electronics systems maker LPA on Monday as it decided to scrap the interim dividend after swinging to a £307,000 loss in the six months to 1 April.

Chairman Michael Rusch blamed delays in customer project delivery schedules and predicted a “disappointing” outcome for the year despite expectations of a significant recovery in second half sales.

Ukrainian agricultural commodities producer Landkom International has forward sold a total of 35,000 tonnes of rapeseed at about $318 per tonne, 17% more than last year’s $273.

"We have held back a material portion of the expected rapeseed harvest for sale in the spot market and expect to benefit from any positive movements in the market price for those volumes,” said boss Vitaliy Skotsyk.

Department store operator Beale bumped up interim profits by two-thirds despite a 1.8% decline in turnover.

Profit before tax rose to £0.91m in the 26 weeks ended 1 May from £0.54m the year before on turnover that eased to £26.2m from £26.7m.

“The economic environment in the UK remains challenging for retailers. While we expect recovery from the recent recession to continue, we expect the pace of that recovery to be relatively subdued,” said chairman Mike Killingley.

Central China Goldfields is changing its name to GGG Resources to reflect the fact it sold its Nimu copper project in Lhasa, Tibet, to its Chinese partner.

The company had no revenue in 2009 and saw loss before tax widen slightly to £0.55m from £0.53m in 2008.

At the end of the year the company had cash and cash equivalents of £3.76m, up from £0.06m the year before.

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