Small caps round-up: PureCircle, Mobile Streams,Northacre ...

21st Jul 2010 11:13

Natural ingredients firm PureCircle said that the US Food and Drug Administration has issued a 'no objection' letter in respect of the user of the company's SG95 sugar substitute as a food and beverage ingredient in the USA.Mobile content seller Mobile Streams expects half-year revenue to rise 20% year-on-year and forecasts a small profit after tax.In the first half, group revenue from Operator Services remained stable while Mobile Internet revenue tripled following a strong performance in Latin America."We expect the current industry trends to continue in the second half of the year," chief executive Simon Buckingham said.Losses grew at residential property developer Northacre grew from £50,000 to £3.9m in the year to 28 February as turnover fell 31% to £6.23m. "Although there has been a slight improvement in the prime residential sector, there continues to be a lack of confidence in the lending market resulting in a lack of bank senior debt funding for new development opportunities," said the firm.Retinal imaging company Optos kept third quarter revenue steady at $24.2m and said it had made "solid" progress in the there months ended 30 June. But it cautioned that the positive impact of increased asset utilisation rates had been offset by a slightly lower installed base year-on-year and a more flexible pricing model aimed at rewarding customer loyalty.Shares in online gamer The Weather Lottery more than double as it signed a partnership contract with another major football club, Derby County FC. TWL will provide a full package of on-line gaming products to the club and its supporters. In addition TWL will run the Derby County Club Lottery under the new themed "FC Lotto" brand. Canadian General Investments, which primarily invests in Canadian companies, saw its net asset value (NAV) per share ease to $18.12 at the end of June from $19.27 at the end of 2009. The NAV return, with dividends reinvested, for the six months ended 2009 was -5.4%, compared with a -2.5% total return for the benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index.During the first half of 2010 the company's investment manager increased the weighting of cash and short-term securities to 3.3% and 7.6%, respectively, of the total portfolio. These increasing balances have been built up to offset a portion of the leverage in an effort to provide protection to falling markets. Media rights company ContentFilm posted a small rise in normalised pre-tax profits to £1.7m in the year ended 31 March from £1.5m last time.Shares in Dominion Petroleum are sharply lower after the Bermuda-based oil and gas explorer said results from Ngaji-1, the first ever well in the Lake Edward Graben, in Uganda, were inconclusive.Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment group Energy Technique dropped after full-year profits fell to £15,000 from £255,000 a year ago. AIM listed Firestone Diamonds has made a recommended all share offer for Kopane Diamond Developments, valued at about $70.7m.