Kainos Group (LON:KNOS ) shares increased 28.69% to 1,314p with good trading
Shares in the IT provider jumped after it said ongoing customer demand remains high, resulting in ‘a very strong trading performance’ for the period from 1 April 2020 to date.
The group said it expects results for the full year ending 31 March 2021 to be materially ahead of current consensus of revenue and significantly ahead of adjusted profit forecasts.
Kainos said its Workday Practice continues to benefit from its international scale and an ability to secure new consulting contracts across all our geographies.
Specifically, the group’s Workday automated testing platform, Smart, supports over 200 international clients and to drive new client acquisition, especially within the US market.
Looking forward, the group said it remains confident in its outlook for the financial year, which it detailed is underpinned by ‘a robust pipeline and a significant contracted backlog.’
Results for the six months ending 30 September 2020 will be made in mid-November 2020.
Alien Metals (LON:UFO ) shares rose 45.83% to 1.225p as it advances project portfolio
The exploration group told investors last Friday that it had successfully completed a follow-up detailed geological mapping and sampling programme at its Hamersley Iron Ore Projects.
The Company announced back in September 2020 that it had begun follow-up work at the site in order to validate its recently announced exploration targets across its two projects.
The projects, the Brockman Project and the Hancock Ranges Project are in the Hamersley Province in Australia, known as one of the premier iron ore producing regions of the world.
Alien said detailed mapping was conducted over four of the project’s five priority projects during a site visit and consisted of four-to-five kilometres of grid-based sampling across priority prospects as well as detailed mapping over exposed iron ore formations.
Assay results are expected later this month and final results from the sample assays and detailed mapping are to assist Alien with the preparation of its maiden drilling campaign.
In recent weeks, Alien Metals said it has added more than 100 square kilometres of ground to the already highly prospective Elizabeth Hill silver project in Western Australia.
The new ground at Elizabeth Hill, which was acquired by the company last month, is thought to contain as much as three million ounces of unmined silver relatively near to the surface.
Touchstone Exploration (AIM:TXP ) shares rose 32.95% to 117p after significant discovery
The Canadian-based international upstream oil and gas company announced a significant gas discovery at the Chinook-1 exploration well Trinidad in which it holds 80% working interest in which Paul R. Baay, President and CEO said “exceeded pre-drill expectations.”
The group encountered significant hydrocarbon accumulations based on wireline log data at Chinook-1, its third exploration well drilled on the Ortoire exploration block and the third hydrocarbon discovery since starting the exploration drilling program in August 2019.
Chinook-1 was drilled to a depth of 10,039ft, encountering around 589ft of net gas pay across three sections in the Herrara sands, and 20ft separately in the shallower Cruse formation.
Chinook-1 will now be tested and completed for production during the first quarter of 2021.
Commenting on the growing potential of the Ortoire exploration block, R. Baay said:
“The successful exploration well further confirms the geological model developed by our team and is expected to provide significant development opportunities in the Chinook area.”
Polarean Imaging (AIM:POLX ) shares jumped 16.13% to 72p as it awaits FDA approval
The medical-imaging technology firm submitted a New Drug Application and request for priority review to the US Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") for hyperpolarised 129Xenon gas used to evaluate pulmonary function and to visualise the lung using MRI.
As explained in an FDA guidance document, a priority review pathway expedites the review of a product with the FDA reviewing a drug in just six months instead of the standard 10.
The submission of the NDA follows the Company's successful completion of the two Phase III clinical trials which demonstrated an effective measurement of regional lung ventilation.
Back in January, the group said clinical trials from a phase III study successfully met their primary endpoint and that its data would be used in an NDA application to the US FDA.
In a half-year report published last month, Richard Hullihen, CEO of Polarean Imaging described the positive readout as one of the group’s “most important milestones to date”.
"The positive results of these Clinical Trials validate our belief that Polarean's technology allows clinicians to visualise aspects of the lung function, which have never before been visible by MRI, both safely and quantitatively.” said Hullihen at the time of the results.
He added: “More than 30 million Americans suffer from a chronic lung disease and the financial burden of lung disease now exceeds US$150 billion annually.”
The group also recently outlined that the "129Xe MRI Clinical Trials Consortium" continues to discuss the application of its technology to the case of post infection COVID-19 patients in regard to assessing the long-term effects and case management of patients with the virus.
Polarean said it is looking towards a potential commercial launch before the end of 2021.
Cineworld Group (LON:CINE ) shares fall a further 4.64% to 26.82p after COVID hit
Shares in the cinema group continue to fall almost two weeks after the FTSE 250 firm told investors that it would be temporarily shutting all of its 128 cinemas in the UK and Ireland.
In recent days, Mooky Greidinger, CEO of the world’s second-largest cinema chain has written to UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, asking to reinstate the furlough program active during its closure during lockdown, alongside other measures which could aid the industry.
In the letter, Gredinger said Cineworld’s decision to temporarily shut its sites would “likely lead to the jobs of 5,500 Cineworld employees being significantly affected and many thousands more on contract work — cleaners, security guards, technicians — also at risk.”
He asks to “avert a generation of adults and children suffering a cultural blackout and to help keep the credits rolling on a multi-billion-pound industry that is the envy of the world”.
The cinema group now has net debt of almost $8.2 billion as recorded at the end of June.
In recent weeks, shares in Cineworld Group have been trading over 87% lower than the start of 2020, meaning that the stock is sitting at its lowest level since markets crashed in March.
CEO, Mooky Greidinger’s letter to Boris Johnson is published via online news site Deadline.
IG Bank said a possible future takeover would rely on the buyer having belief in the long-term future of the cinema industry, ‘which is now in question as streaming sites gain traction.’
The letter comes as analysts at Bank of America warn that Cineworld could run out of cash within weeks, forecasting that it could burn through £324m cash in the next six months.
According to the Evening Standard, the firm is also facing a High Court demand from AEW UK for £0.308m in unpaid rent between March and June this year during national lockdown.