AIM news

The frenetic March reporting season had a beneficial effect on the AIM All-Share overall, with the index adding 6 per cent at 702.4 points. As ever, the effect of company results proved rather unpredictable.

H&T Group, the expansionist pawnbroking play, put on a penny at 259.5p as investors warmed to some glittering 2009 numbers, achieved in a favourable market. CEO John Nichols unveiled 83 per cent pre-tax profits growth to £18.5 million and a 25 per cent increase in the dividend to 8.1p following a year in which the pawnbroking store portfolio expanded by 17 to 122.

Elsewhere, cash-generative, dividend-paying ceramic tableware maker Churchill China gave up 7.5p to close at 277.5p, despite announcing some pretty creditable financials carved out in a year of ‘uneven’ demand. On flat turnover of £42 million, Churchill made a respectable £2.1 million (2008: £3.4 million) pre-tax, with profits pegged back by lesser interest received on its cash pile.

In the technology space, shares in biometric and RFID products specialist RCG Holdings, bossed by CEO Dato’ Lee Boon Han, reversed 11.5p to 71.5p despite the delivery of decent growth in a more difficult 2009. Sales rose 22.4 per cent to HK$2.45 billion (£201.8 million), while pre-tax profits perked up more than 11 per cent to HK$789 million (£65 million). And after a strong recent rise, shares in bespoke software and systems specialist SciSys skipped ahead by a further 1.5p to 51.5p on news of an annual swing from losses to profits.