Alcoholic drinks giant Diageo (DGE) gives up 4.4% at £18.17 as it flags a disappointing 1.3% sales decline for the third quarter to March. The Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal and Captain Morgan maker says currency and economic weakness has hit confidence across many emerging markets and will crimp year-to-June top line growth as a result.
English luxury brand Mulberry (MUL:AIM) is marked down 38.75p (5.5%) to 670.75p on another profits warning. Taxable profits for the year to March will be 'marginally' below expectations at around £14 million after US store write downs and the costs of CEO Bruno Guillon's departure package. Interim executive chairman Godfrey Davis also warns the high-end bag maker's March 2015 profits will be hit by the introduction of more affordable new products to reinvigorate flagging sales.
Professional 'crowdsourcing' platform operator Blur Group (BLUR:AIM) flags a revenue crunch that swipes 30% of the share price to 315p, their lowest in six months. Bigger, more complex contracts are taking longer to complete, delaying Blur's 20% cut on the value, although . This is not a new issue, we flagged it in January.
'Always-on' server technology specialist WANdisco (WAND:AIM) continues to put up rapid growth numbers in today's first quarter update. It shows a 40% year-on-year increase in bookings to $4.2 million, although big data bookings continue to remain light at $200,000 roughly, a point we flagged up last month. But investors remain keen, pushing the shares 2% higher to 942.5p, although that's a long way shy of recent £13.70 highs.
Esrow and IT security services supplier NCC Group (NCC:AIM) rises a little more than 3% to 176.25p on a trading update that spells out revenue for the 10 months to end March up 12% to £90.4 million, or 10% up after stripping out acquisitions. The Manchester-based company is now focusing on a newly launched Domain Services division, where it hopes to quickly shift from development spending to revenue generation. We recently looked at the company after chief executive Rob Cotton sold £11 million worth of shares in the company.
A strong first quarter set against a still improving backdrop sees housebuilder Taylor Wimpey (TW.) adding 1.7% to 108.9p. The £3.4 billion cap's interim management statement assured investors that the group was confident of delivering further improvement in all its key financial objectives.
Small cap US oil producer Nighthawk Energy (HAWK:AIM) is ahead 3.3% to 12.4p as the Snow King 13-33 exploration well, close to its major Arikaree Creek oil field in Colorado, comes up trumps. The well has started producing at 300 to 400 barrels of oil per day.
Oil play Leni Gas & Oil (LGO:AIM) gains 16% to 0.87p on the news it has final sign off to drill the first well on its Goudron field onshore Trinidad. The well is set to spud after the Easter break and today's news repairs some of the damage to the share price wrought by the failure of its legal action against Aim-quoted peer Mediterranean Oil & Gas (MOG:AIM).
Medical testing device maker Omega Diagnostics (ODX:AIM) rises 6.7% to 31.7p on expectations that it will report a £1.1 million adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to April. Results are due 23 June. This would be significantly higher than last year's £280,000 equivalent figure. We looked at Omega's HIV testing kit opportunities in January.
Hygiene and sanitation specialist Synergy Health (SYR) falls 1.1% to £12.34 as fourth quarter revenues fall below expectations due to currency headwinds. Bad weather cancelling surgical procedures across the US and Europe is also blamed. The impact on its full-year results will be revealed in June (4).
Drug delivery specialist SkyePharma (SKP) improves 2.1% to 213.3p as it raises £112 million from a share placing and open offer at 191p per share. The new funds will strengthen the balance sheet and support new products.
