Oil tiddlers surge

The market recovered from last week’s dotcom shenanigans in Tokyo, with the FTSE 100 posting a 90.1 points rise to 5769.5. AIM also joined in the bullish mood, moving ahead 23.1 points to 1137.2.

Most of the progress resulted from soaring oil and gas stocks. Meridian Petroleum jumped 138 per cent to 15p after uncovering ‘commercial quantities of gas’ at its Calvin field in Louisiana.

On a larger scale, Victoria Oil & Gas surged 45 per cent to 220.75p after an extremely favourable report on its Western Siberia block suggested that 1.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent could be recovered.

Gold Oil gushed 16.2 per cent higher to 5.38p on news that it has been allowed to start exploring its Northern Peru prospect. The first well will be drilled in April. Interim figures to October showed a £251,000 loss, but £3.1 million cash remains.

Cash shell Gasol edged up 0.125p to 10.75p on Friday on confirmation that it is finalising a £3 million placing backed by existing investors Artemis and Blue Star Capital.

In a related field, biodiesel developer D1 Oils moved ahead 21 per cent to 256p after chairman Karl Watkin steadied investors’ nerves by buying shares at 265p. Chief executive Philip Wood recently left the group.

Empire perks up
Gaming concern Empire Online, which has endured a sapping battle with major client Party Gaming, the FTSE 100 poker giant, improved 29 per cent to 110.75p on better than expected trading news.

Profits are still expected to hit $37 million this year, as previously forecast, from all businesses except its own Empire-branded poker site. The dispute with Party Gaming, which itself reported strong fourth quarter figures on Friday, is close to being resolved. Empire’s shares are still way below last summer’s 175p float price.

Another major riser was health drink maker Provexis, up 22 per cent to 11.62p, on suggestions that Tesco might be stocking the group’s products.

A year-end trading update failed to revive Real Good Food Company, whose shares have fallen from 193.5p to 74.5p over the past year. Trading was ‘marginally’ short of expectations in 2005, despite record sales from its subsidiaries.

Investors in pubs owner and manager Honeycombe Leisure were in a sombre mood on news of a four per cent fall in like-for-like sales for the half to October, mainly due to tough Euro 2004 comparators and increasing competition at two sites. The shares surrendered 6.7 per cent to 24.25p on Thursday.

Wafer supplier walks tall
Customised wafer outfit IQE sparked up 12 per cent to 11.5p after winning a contract from ‘a major US-based chip manufacturer’, worth at least $2 million this financial year and $10 million over the life of the contract.

In his update for 2005, Dr Drew Nelson flagged up strong second-half progress and said annual sales would come in at around £21 million, a 37 per cent leap over 2004, with 2005 losses likely to be substantially reduced.

Ceres Power, led by chief executive Peter Bance, firmed 4.4 per cent to 203.5p on Thursday following its selection as the only fuel cell company in Gordon Brown’s new Energy Research Partnership. Ceres will work alongside key energy players such as BP, Shell, E.ON, the DTI and the Carbon Trust.