Gattaca Plc (LON:GATC) was among the market's biggest faller in late afternoon trading, dropping 18% to 205p after a profit warning and on news its chief executive officer, Brian Wilkinson has tendered his resignation as he wishes to retire from full time executive roles.
In a statement, the group said Wilkinson will step down from the board with immediate effect and the board has commenced the process to recruit his successor and will look both externally and internally.
In a separate trading update, the recruitment company - which specialises in the engineering and technology sectors - said pretax profit will, as expected, be 15% lower in the first half of 2017 as a result of its investments in staff and support costs.
It added that that, in light of revised full year expectations, the board has decided "to reset the rate of dividend in order to restore a more sustainable dividend cover ratio, to enable the pay down of debt, and to reflect a more normalised yield." It said the board intends to set the dividend cover at approximately 2x, against 1x in 2017.
Among other fallers, Reach4Entertainment Enterprise PLC (LON:R4E) shed 5% at 1.95p after the theatres operator cautioned that a staff restructure would affect this year's results.
Terrorist incidents in London and Manchester had affected trading and the firm said one-off costs would take a further ?1mln off profits in 2017.
Another broker upgrade provided a boost for Direct Line Insurance Group PLC (LON:DLG) in late morning trading, with the FTSE 100 listed firm's shares up 1.4% to 367.4p as Peel Hunt raised its stance.
After Barclays Capital on Tuesday hiked its rating to 'overweight', Peel Hunt today upgraded the insurer to 'add' from 'hold' with an increased target price of 415p, up from 360p as it believes valuation has become attractive after a recent de-rating.
Peel Hunt's analysts said Direct Line's digital retail strategy is starting to deliver underlying policy growth momentum, improving the earnings outlook of the Motor portfolio and filtering through into other classes such as Commercial and Rescue.
An upgrade in rating also gave a lift to FTSE 250 listed UDG Healthcare PLC (LON:UDG), which added 5% at 779p as Liberum Capital moved to 'buy' from 'hold.
In a note to clients, Liberum's analysts said: "Consensus earnings expectations are too pessimistic, lying at the bottom-end of a 2018 guidance range (implying zero organic growth) that we expect management to beat.
"The same applies for 2019 where we think there is too much scepticism around Sharp US following 18 months of underperformance."
And blue-chip support services firm Rentokil Initial PLC (LON:RTO) gained 0.9% at 284.3p as traders highlighted a rating upgrade by Credit Suisse to 'outperform' from 'neutral', while Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (LON:RBS) edged up 0.1% to 274.6p on reports of an upgrade from Investec Securities.
Broker comment weighed on a number of stocks in mid morning trading, with troubled outsourcing group Capita PLC (LON:CPI) losing 1.6% to 194.35p as HSBC Securities downgraded its rating to 'hold' from 'buy' after chopping its price target back to 200p from 640p in the wake of last week's profit warning.
In a note to clients, HSBC's analysts said the profit warning and accompanying rights issue "necessitate more caution".
They added that they see 145% upside if Capita can get through a properly tough period, but think "the risk appears to be too much".
Another faller on broker comment was Cineworld Group plc (LON:CINE), down 1.6% to 228.2p as JPMorgan Cazenove cut its target price to 300p from 780p to reflect an adjustment for the cinema's massive discounted rights issue to fund its reverse takeover of US chain Regal Entertainment.
The US bank's analysts said: "Cineworld has set itself the target of $100 million in combination benefits from the integration of Regal and is confident of achieving at least that amount.
"If it can (and our updated earnings estimates assume it will), we believe Cineworld shares will trade on too much of a discount to its peers."
And Sanne Group PLC (LON:SNN) extended yesterday's falls following a slightly cautious trading updates, losing 3.2% at 670p as Liberum Capital downgraded its rating to 'hold' from 'buy' with a reduced target price of 745p, down from 905p.
Liberum's analysts said: "We continue to believe that Sanne is extremely well positioned to take advantage of long-term structural trends in the fund administration industry.
"In addition to an attractive exposure to strong end markets we believe that Sanne is well placed to consolidate a fragmented industry.
"However, certain headwinds - most significant being the weakening US dollar - have dented its medium-term growth potential."
Falanx Group Limited (LON:FLX) was a strong gainer in early morning trading after the global intelligence, security and cyber defence provider announces a number of multi-year contract wins.
In a statement, the AIM-listed group announced a new MidGARD service contract, with a total revenue value of ?700,000, and also said an award-winning UK Top 20 International law firm has signed a 3-year managed service contract with Falanx to deliver advanced security monitoring of its entire global estate.
Falanx also unveiled a newly awarded 3-year managed Cyber Security service contract, which is an expansion of the existing estate of a client, resulting in the contract value growing from ?250,000, to generate more than ?380,000 of revenues.
Mike Read, Falanx's chairman and CEO, commented: "Our pipeline of similar opportunities continues to grow and I look forward to announcing further contracts in the near future."
Among other early gainers, Touchstone Exploration Inc (LON:TXP) (CVE:TXP) jumped 15.5% higher to 13.0p on news it has kicked off a new ten well drill programme in Trinidad.
The group said the first well, PS-602, located in the Grand Ravine WD-4 Block, was spudded on February 3 and is being drilled down to around 5,500 feet, targeting two zones (the upper and lower Forest formations).
Meanwhile, Highlands Natural Resources Plc (LON:HNR) shares rose for a second day, up 7.2% to 24.25p after it told investors that the latest well to use its patented DT Ultravert well services solution has, as expected, protected against 'bashing'.
The process involves the injection of nitrogen gas into an existing well at the same time as a new nearby well is fracked. It is designed to prevent the older well from being damaged (known as bashing) by the new one.
Anglo Pacific Group plc (LON:APF), the royalty specialist, enjoyed a record year in 2017 as higher coal and vanadium prices combined with increased production on its land. Royalty income rose 90% to ?37mln- ?37.75mln with a further ?4.7mln/ ?5mln to come from uranium operation Denison/McClean.
Next 15 Communications Group PLC (LON:NFC) has acquired Brandwidth Group, a UK based voice interface specialist for an initial ?6.2mln in cash and shares. Tim Dyson, Next 15's chief executive, said: "Brandwidth is a great addition to Next 15. It brings significant digital skills to the group, in particular we are excited to be able to offer clients its capabilities around the use of voice."
Synairgen plc (LON:SNG) said the first patients have been dosed in a phase II clinical trial of its lead drug SNG001. Researchers are investigating whether the inhaled interferon beta treatment is able to protect sufferers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from the exacerbating effects of illnesses such as flu and the common cold.
Belvoir Lettings PLC (LON:BLV), the UK's largest property franchise, traded in line with expectations in 2017.
Touchstone Exploration Inc (LON:TXP) (CVE:TXP) has kicked off a new ten well drill programme in Trinidad. The first well, PS-602, is located in the Grand Ravine WD-4 Block. It was spudded on February 3 and it is being drilled down to around 5,500 feet, targeting two zones (the upper and lower Forest formations). These are the main producing formations at Grand Ravine, and the well is positioned in what's seen as an 'undrained' portion of the property.
Strategic Minerals Plc (LON:SML) (USOTC: SMCDY), the diversified mineral development and production company, has announced the appointment of experienced mining operations manager Jeffrey Harrison as a non-executive director. The group said Harrison's appointment will support execution of Strategic Minerals' strategy, particularly the planned development of the Redmoor tin/tungsten project in Cornwall into production.
HemoGenyx Pharmaceuticals PLC (LSE: HEMO), the biotechnology company announced that on 5 February 2018 Dr Vladislav Sandler, chief executive officer and co-founder of the company, purchased 26,800 ordinary shares at a price of 2.37p each. Following this transaction, Dr Sandler now holds 40,478,010 ordinary shares, representing approximately 11.37% of the company's issued share capital.
Aggregated Micro Power Holdings plc (LON:AMPH) announced that it was notified on 6 February 2018 that on the same day its executive chairman, Neil Eckert, purchased a total of 5,000 ordinary shares in the company at an average price of 95.5p each. Following the Purchase, the firm said, Eckert's total beneficial interest in the company is 7,850,700 Shares representing approximately 18.2% of the issued share capital; plus ?645,000 nominal worth of convertible loan notes.
Landore Resources Limited (LON:LND) has announced that a new copy of its corporate presentation is available to view on the company's website