Although the performance of the AIM Index proved largely flat over the past month, there were, as ever, a number of extravagant movements among its individual constituents.
By far the biggest riser was health and leisure investment minnow Addleisure, which almost quadrupled from 1.5p to 5.75p as private healthcare giant BUPA acquired a 29.9 per cent stake for £3 million and agreed to invest a further £3.7 million in one of its subsidiaries.

At the other end of the scale, shares in troubled Biofuels Corporation, down more than 95 per cent in just over a year, fell further as chairman Mike Buzzacott revealed the company was unable to continue without the support of its bank and proposed a financial restructuring to sidestep insolvency.

A similar story emerged at CMS Webview, where at the company’s AGM management informed shareholders that talks with potential suitors had come to nothing and that the decision had been taken to propose voluntary liquidation. The shares shed more than 80 per cent of their value to 0.15p on the day.