After trading in a narrow range all week, the AIM All-Share was still struggling to make a meaningful break above 750 points on Friday. A light news day didn’t help the momentum.
Medical group Lombard Medical Technologies (LON:LMT) has got the green light from regulators to market its Aorfix endovascular stent grafts in the United States. It said that data from US trials had demonstrated that Aorfix worked for greater numbers of patients than competing devices. US approval means Lombard will receive £14.1million in the second of a two-tranche placing and subscription, which will be used to fund its work in the country. Shares in Lombard leapt by 28% to 229p.
Shares in business communications group Daisy (LON:DAY) lifted 2.3% to 106p on news that is had been appointed by Oakley Capital Private Equity to manage the 2e2 Data Centre business. Daisy said the deal marked a significant expansion of its data centre and hosting business. Meanwhile, security and surveillance company Synetics (LON:SNX) ticked up by 2.8% to 365p after being awarded a £2.7 million contract to develop and deliver security and CCTV solutions for Avon and Somerset Police.
US oil and gas company Sefton Resources (LON:SER) reported a month-on-month fall in production at its Tapia field in California during January. It blamed maintenance issues for the fall to 3,507 barrels of oil, down from 4,124 barrels in December. However, Sefton said it had received clearance to drill a water injection well, which it believes will help optimise field production. Shares in the company fell by 0.1p to 1.05p.
Finally, shares in oil producer Ithaca Energy (LON:IAE) fell by nearly 1% to 132.50p after activist shareholders controlling 7% of the stock requisitioned a shareholder meeting. JEC Capital Partners yesterday claimed that Ithaca’s current board had “stagnated” and that its acquisition policy was at risk of delivering no shareholder value. JEC said it would prefer to see Ithaca sold off and wants to appoint two directors to the board. Ithaca disagreed with the proposal and said it wasn’t in the best interests of shareholders.
