MyCelx Technologies Corporation (LON:MYX) shares rose on Thursday as the clean water technology group announced a new purchase order in Saudi Arabia and the sale of equipment in Australia.
The new purchase order is for a three-month extension for the rapid response unit that was placed in February 2018 and was secured in collaboration with one of the company's Saudi waste management partners.
As for the equipment sale in Australia, that marked MYCELX's first sale into the liquified natural gas market in the country.
The order and the sale will bring a combined US$2.7mln and, following another significant order secured earlier this month, MYCELX upped its full-year forecasts.
The AIM-quoted firm now expects 2018 revenues in the range of US$16-17mln.Shares were up 4% to 106.5p in late-afternoon trading in London.
Aura Energy Limited (LON:AURA) shares advanced as the company updated investors on plans to spin out its Swedish vanadium operation.
The company aims to separately list the vanadium business in the second half of this year.
Aura's wholly-owned H??gg??n vanadium battery metals project in Sweden will be the primary asset for the new company. The asset is presently held in a separate entity.
Aura is expected to retain a substantial ownership of a new vehicle, expected between 70-80%, but it is open to further divestment of its stake - via 'third-party investments or sell-downs' - as value accrues in the new vehicle over time.
Some 13.1bn pounds of inferred vanadium resources are contained in H??gg??n, making it one of the world's largest potential sources of the metal.
Acacia Mining PLC's (LON:ACA) first-quarter profits slumped by almost half as the miner reduced operations at its flagship gold mine in Tanzania amid a long-running tax row with authorities in the country.
Acacia is Tanzania's largest gold miner but it has scaled back its operations in the East African country after the government introduced a ban on concentrate exports. The government claims Acacia owes royalties on undeclared shipments.
Gold production fell 45% in the first three months of the year to 120,981 ounces (Q1 17: 219,670 oz), mainly due to lower output from its Bulyanhulu mine.
Given the lower output, adjusted underlying earnings (EBITDA) fell to US$44mln from US$82mln a year earlier.
The miner stuck to its full-year production targets of between 435,000-475,000 ounces of gold - almost 40% lower than 2017 - at a cost of US$935-985 per ounce.
Acacia shares fell 11.3% to 137.6p on the news, meaning they have now lost more than two-thirds of their value since the export ban was introduced just over a year ago.
Shares in Shire PLC (LON:SHP) jumped shortly before midday after reports surfaced that Japanese drugmaker Takeda has lodged an indicative takeover offer worth about ?46.50 a share.
That's according to a brief article by Reuters, which said it got the scoop from two unnamed sources. Other reports around the web have suggested any deal would be cash-plus-shares.
If the offer turns out to be true, it would represent a premium of more than 50% to March 27 - the day before Takeda first revealed its interest.
Takeda confirmed last month that it was interested in bidding for Shire, but the takeover was thrown into doubt last week when Shire agreed to sell off its oncology unit to France's Servier for US$2.4bn.
Investors aren't taking the reports as gospel though, with shares jumping 5.4% to ?39.57 - still a little way below the reported price.
Digital ads group RhythmOne PLC (LON:RTHM) soared at the opening bell on Thursday as it flagged "at least" a 900% rise in underlying earnings for the year just gone.
RhythmOne, which designs ads for desktop, phones and tablets, expects adjusted underlying earnings (EBITDA) to be at least US$14.0mln in the year ended 31 March, compared with US$1.4mln last year.
That's on revenues of US$255mln - 71% higher than the US$149mln it raked in last year. The San Francisco-based outfit said the surge profitability was down to "excellent price performance, indicative of [its] inventory quality".
Towards the end of the fiscal year, RhythmOne snapped up video adverts specialist YuMe for US$26.5mln. The company said today that it now expects larger synergies than it originally anticipated from that acquisition, which bodes well for the future.
"We believe we are well-positioned to deliver a further strong performance in FY2019 - fully in line with current consensus estimates in market - as we realize the full contribution of the YuMe acquisition," said chief executive Ted Hastings.
Shares rose 19.1% to 212p early on Thursday.
The morning's top riser is ValiRx PLC (LON:VAL) though.
Shares in the drug developer shot over 20% higher in early trading after it said its optimised VAL101 compound has been effective in inducing programmed cell death in cancer cell models, a process called apoptosis.
The company said the results showed a "superior apoptotic effect in comparison to currently available reagents".
ValiRx added its studies involved a wide range of technical and scientific approaches that demonstrated the enhanced effect of the compound on the prevention of cancer growth at cellular biochemical and genomic levels.
This follows on from work to optimise VAL101, which will now be taken forward for preparation and use in clinical trials. The drug candidate was created using the company's proprietary GeneICE platform. Shares were up 26.5% to 3.5p in early trading on Thursday.
High-street department store chain Debenhams PLC (LON:DEB) had a shocker though.
The retailer saw profits halve in the first half of its financial year, as it warned on its outlook for the second time this year and chopped its dividend. Oh, its chief executive, Matt Smith, is also quitting to become the chief financial officer of rival Selfridges.
Like several of its high street peers have done in recent months, Debenhams blamed the "challenging UK market background" as underlying profits slumped to ?42.2mln.
On top of that, the small cap business said that, based on its current view of the second half of the financial year, its full-year pre-tax profit was expected to be at the lower end of the current range of broker forecasts of ?50mln- ?61mln. It had previously guided for full-year profits of ?55mln- ?65mln, having made ?95.2mln last year.
Unsurprisingly the stock got hammered, losing almost 10% to trade at 21.3p.
ValiRx PLC (LON:VAL) said its optimised VAL101 compound has been effective in inducing programmed cell death in cancer cell models, a process called apoptosis. The company said the results showed a "superior apoptotic effect in comparison to currently available reagents".
A second drill programme at its jointly held Pandora prospect in Djibouti hit a bumper gold vein in a previously untested area, said Stratex International PLC (LON:STI). Pandora is being explored by Thani Stratex Resources (TSR), a joint venture with Thani Emirates.
Researchers using ANGLE PLC's (LON:AGL) Parsortix device for capturing circulating tumour cells may have found another "clear high value application" for the system. For not only have they discovered a method of successfully culturing the cancer cells from blood samples taken using Partsortix, they have also designed a work flow for the process.
Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas Ltd (LON:ECO) has updated investors as work continues on recently acquired data from a 3D seismic exploration programme, which spanned some 2,550 square kilometres in the Orinduik block offshore Guyana.
Highlands Natural Resources PLC (LON:HNR) told investors it has secured a natural gas sales deal for the East Denver project which is expected to see gas monetisation in the second half of this year. It presents a further revenue opportunity and adds further upside potential for the asset, the company said.
Cabot Energy PLC (LON:CAB) has reported a 33% increase in revenue for the financial year ended December 31 as the group's growth initiatives in Canada paid off. The AIM-quoted junior oiler generated US$4.8mln in the year as gross average production rose 43% to 411 barrels of oil per day for the 12 months - such was the pace of growth, the gross rate for December alone measured 653 bopd.
Customised electronics supplier discoverIE Group PLC (LON:DSCV) has continued the strong momentum of last year into 2018.
Challenger Acquisitions Limited (LON:CHAL) has said it will begin legal proceedings to recoup loan costs following the cancellation of the Star Sanctum event.
Cell-based therapeutics specialist ReNeuron Group PLC (LON:RENE) has won a ?1.5mln grant to further develop its human retinal progenitor cell (hRPC) therapy which is used to treat blindness-causing, degenerative eye diseases.
Drug developer Motif Bio PLC (LON:MTFB) is to present new safety and efficacy data for its next-generation antibiotic iclaprim at a top European conference this weekend (21-24 April).
Shanta Gold PLC (LON:SHG) reduced production from the New Luika gold mine in Tanzania in its latest quarter as its focus remained on cost-cutting. Output in the three months to March was 17,663 gold ounces against 21,288 in the previous quarter, though this was in line with the annual target of between 82-88.000oz, said the company.
Thor Mining PLC (LON:THR) is to proceed with the previously announced acquisition of more acreage in the Bonya Creek area in Australia's Northern Territory.
Sunrise Resources PLC (LON:SRES) said recent exploration work at its Baker's Gold Project in Western Australia had enhanced the marketability of the asset. The company paid for mapping and sampling within the Dicky Lee open pit at the up-for-sale Baker's Gold Project and to conduct infill soil sampling within the nearby DRL4 gold-in-soil anomaly.
US Oil & Gas PLC (USOIL) has confirmed the start of drilling at the Hot Creek Valley project in Nevada, where the new Eblana well aims to follow up a previously encountered oil discovery. The Eblana-3 well is described as an appraisal well. It is positioned 'updip' and around 1.2 kilometres from the Eblana-1 discovery well.
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (LON:BMY) has announced the appointment of Penny Scott-Bayfield as its group finance director with effect from 16 July 2018.
OptiBiotix Health PLC (LON:OPTI) has announced the appointment of Steven Riley as head of online sales and marketing from 2 May, to develop the company's web presence.