MOVERS OF WEDNESDAY 6 JANUARY 2021
(GRG ) shares rose by 10.34% to 1,965p despite posting first loss in 36 years
Shares in the UK food-on-the-go retailer rose during Wednesday trading despite the group posting its first loss for 36 years. Greggs said it expects up to a £15m loss for the FY 2020.
GRG said it does not expect profits to return to pre-Covid levels until 2022 at the earliest. It added that the significant uncertainty over the duration of social restrictions, along with the impact of higher unemployment levels, makes it difficult to predict performance.
‘As we enter 2021 Greggs is maintaining a strong financial position for the benefit of all its stakeholders. We have a strong pipeline of new shop opportunities and expect to open around 100 net new stores in the year ahead, subject to prevailing market conditions.’
The bakery chain said its digital offer continues to develop and the rollout of its national delivery offer, in partnership with Just Eat, is supporting the recovery in sales levels.
(OBC ) shares jumped 45.26% to 69p as stock continues to rise
Shares continue to rise for the blockchain and cryptocurrency company which stated that it saw no material impact as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, for the year gone by, shares in Online Blockchain shares have more than tripled, reaching recent highs of 71p.
Last week the company said it associated the recent share price movement with its recent £0.4m raise via a placing of 1.8m new shares through Monecor, which trades as ETX Capital.
OBC will use the proceeds to fund the launch of crypto and blockchain-based products, including a new development project in decentralised finance of a DeFi protocol, Umbria, which the company hopes to commence beta-testing in the first quarter of 2021.
Umbria's objective is to enable user-friendly swapping between pairs of crypto-assets by interfacing with existing third-party DeFi protocols such as Uniswap, Sushiswap and Yearn.
(ARK ) shares soared 41.05% to 67p after high-grade gold discovery
Shares in the explorer soared after the group identified new high-grade gold bearing vein outcrops during the company’s recent winter trenching programme at Inishowen.
"The trenching results at Inishowen match if not exceed our best expectations. The discovery of new high-grade gold veins eighty-five metres along strike from the initial 2016 drill holes, represents a watershed moment for the Inishowen Gold Project,” the group said.
John Teeling, Chairman, said that “the trenching results provide the geological team with field data that will allow full mapping of the vein systems in the area to determine length, average width and grade. The output of this mapping exercise will delineate high priority gold targets which the Company intends to explore via a fully funded drilling programme in the spring."
A fully funded drilling programme is now being devised as a next stage exploration step based on these results. It said it believes that it has overcome these obstacles and is ‘confident of further positive results’ as the Company works to identify a gold resource.
Drilling at Inishowen will be planned along with the drilling at the Mine River project in Co. Wicklow/Wexford with the aim to move operations swiftly between the two projects as they develop in 2021.
(GMR ) shares rose 23.42% to 27.2p as it increases US presence
The gaming content group was awarded a provisional iGaming supplier licence by the Michigan Gaming Control Board, as it focuses on increasing its presence in the US.
The licence will allow Gaming Realms to provide its Slingo Originals game content to Michigan's licensed online casino operators once iGaming is approved to go live by the State's Gaming Control Board, which is expected to happen imminently.
Michigan is the tenth largest state within the U.S., with a population of c.10 million people.
“We are delighted to have obtained our provisional iGaming license in Michigan, which presents a larger player market than New Jersey, where the Group operates at present.
"We already have a number of deals signed with operators licensed in Michigan and we are confident that it will be a strong market for us, given the awareness of Slingo as a successful gaming brand,” commented Michael Buckley, Executive Chairman of Gaming Realms.
(PRTC ) shares fell 4.52% to 391p after gaining ground
Shares dipped today despite the stock having gained over 70% in value since the beginning of November 2020. In fact, shares jumped yesterday after it announced the appointment of financial analyst and biotech executive George Farmer as its new Chief Financial Officer.
"This is an important moment for PureTech, as we recently initiated three clinical trials based on programs from our Wholly Owned Pipeline and expanded our presence with the NASDAQ Global Market listing. We believe that George's depth of experience will be very helpful as we share the PureTech story with a broader community of investors,” it said.
Last month, the biotherapeutics firm initiated a first phase clinical trial for the potential treatment of metastatic solid tumors that are difficult to treat and have low survival rates.
The clinical trial is to assess the safety and tolerability of escalating doses of the company’s LYT-200 product. It said results are expected in Q4 2021.
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