Friday May 9, 12:36 PM
RPT UK small caps down at midday; Claimar Care slides as FD resigns
(Repeating to correct spelling of Claimar in headline)
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK small caps continued their fall in midday trade, as optimism failed to pierce the wider market pessimistic gloom, with Claimar Care (LSE: CCGP.L
- news) losing 26 percent of its share value after its finance director David Jackson resigned.
At 12:00 p.m., the FTSE small cap index dived 15.6 points to 3223.4, while the FTSE 100 was down 80.5 points at 6190.3.
Claimar Care was 20-1/2 pence lower at 57 by lunchtime, as traders didn't take kindly to the loss of the company's finance director.
The news overshadowed the company's bullish statement that it expects its full-year performance ending Sept. 30, 2008, to be in broadly in line with market expectations, and it continues to make good progress and that it is confident of its prospects.
The market took a bearish stance on Oxford Biomedica (LSE: OXB.L - news) 's in-line trading update, dropping 1-1/4 pence to 25-1/4, despite Evolution Securities reiterating its 'buy' recommendation and 70 pence target price.
And Redline Communications lost 3 pence to 75 after announcing first-quarter losses, albeit reduced.
Still with the fallers, traders took profits in Intec Telecom (LSE: ITL.L - news) , 2-3/4 pence lower at 55-1/4, in the wake of Thursday's 'very preliminary' takeover approach.
A broker downgrade clipped 3-1/4 pence off Majestic Wine to 226-3/4 as Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - news) cut its recommendation to 'sell' from 'neutral' on valuation grounds.
There was still plenty of positive news, Blinkx (LSE: BLNX.L - news) tickled trader's fancy, lifting 8 pence to 26 on the back of 60 pence-a-share takeover talk, possibly by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Sources say he is likely to face competition from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG - news) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - news) .
Bid news also lifted Tinopolis (LSE: TIN.L - news) 9-1/2 pence to 43-1/2 after it agreed on a recommended cash offer of 45 pence a share by Red Dragon Acquisitions.
Still with M&A activity, Flomerics (LSE: FLO.L - news) soared 13-1/2 pence to 102-1/2 after the company rejected a 104 pence-a-share cash offer from Mentor Graphics (NASDAQ: MENT - news) , saying it has had potential interest expressed by a number of other parties.
ReEnergy rose 1/4 of a penny to 4-3/4 after entering into an agreement with a LSE-listed company for the possible sale of its autoclaving technology unit Estech Europe Ltd., for about 1.9 million pounds cash.
Not content with making a good start to the year TDG (LSE: TDG.L - news) , rising 40 pence to 270, also caught the eye of Wincanton (LSE: WIN.L - news) , down 3/4 pence at 366-1/4, which said it sees the possibility of significant profit improvement in a tie-up with TDG.
Elswhere, Venue Solutions (LSE: VSH.L - news) ticked up 1.125 pence to 4.625 on reports of significant commercial progress of the YourDay videocapture service during the first eight days of the summer season at AltonTowers.
And Invu, up 1-3/4 pence to 30, teased investors before its results, released on 13 May, 2008, by announcing a deal with Wacom, to integrate Wacom's digital pen technology with its Ergo (Milan: EGP.MI - news) software.
The news prompted Arbuthnot to reiterate its 'strong buy' recommendation.
Cains Beer Company moved up 0.875 to 8.75 after the company secured a nationwide listing with supermarket group William Morrison for its Finest Lager brand.
Soaring pretax profits and a bullish outlook pushed Mercury Recycling (LSE: MRG.L - news) up 6-1/2 pence to 26. and a significant reduction in its pension deficit helped Dawson International (LSE: DWSN.L - news) climb 1/4 of a penny to 1.625 pence.
Buying ahead of full-year results, scheduled for next Friday, lifted
Freedom4 Communications, the old Pipex Communications (LSE: FFC.L - news) , 0.06 to 1.585.
Buyers were about in Psion (LSE: PON.L - news) , up 5-1/2 pence to 110-1/4 following a positive trading update where the company said orders for the first four months of 2008 were strong, and it sees first-half results in line with its forecasts.
Finally, Zambezi Resources (LSE: ZRL.L - news) found favour with investors, jumping 0.652 pence to 10-1/4 as it found a 'potentially significant' anomaly at its 100 percent-owned Kangaluwi copper project in southern Zambia, using a Versatile Time-Domain Electro Magnetics (VTEM) airborne survey.
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