Altitude (LON: ALT) non-executive director Martin Varley bought 115,473 shares at 21.59p each. He owns 13.1% of the promotional products platform operator. The share price rose 10% to 22p
Gear4Music (LON: G4M) forecasts have been upgraded on the back of its trading statement. The musical instruments retailer is continuing its recovery, and first quarter sales are 27% higher and the growth is continuing into the second quarter. UK and international sales are growing. The 2025-26 pre-tax profit forecast has been raised from £2.7m to £3.6m. Peak trading is before Christmas, and this will be important for the outcome. There will be an interim trading statement on 21 October. The share price increased 8.68% to 288p.
Broker Peel Hunt (LON: PEEL) is trading ahead of expectations. It has handled significant mergers and acquisition transactions and there has been more fundraising activity. Execution services revenues are materially ahead of the prior year. Results for the year to March 2026 will be ahead of expectations. The current consensus was a pre-tax profit of £3.8m, up from £800,000 last year – which was before restructuring costs. There will be an interim trading statement published on 1 October. The share price recovered 8.37% to 110p.
Hutchmed China (LON: HCM) says new data from several studies of compounds discovered by Hutchmed will be presented at the 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Barcelona. The share price improved 8.84% to 234p.
Metals One (LON: MET1) has acquired a stake in Evolution Energy Minerals and is partly underwriting a right issue. Metals One has bought 37.9 million shares at A$0.011/share – a total cost of £202,000. The mining investment company will underwrite up to £257,000 of a rights issue at A$0.01/share. Evolution owns the Chilalo Graphite project in Tanzania, which has a post-DFS NPV8 of A$518m. This diversifies the portfolio of Metals One interests into graphite. The share price is 6.01% higher at 4.198p.
FALLERS
Canaccord Genuity has reduced its stake in escape rooms and bars operator XP Factory (LON: XPF) from 18.9% to 17.8%. This follows Monday’s full year results announcement. In the year to March 2025, revenues increased 19% to £57.8m. Trading has been tough since the year end because of the weak economy and hot weather. So, Boom Battle Bars like-for-like sales were 5.6% lower sine the end of March, although Escape Hunt like-for-like sales are 0.4% higher. Trading has improved since June. The share price lost part of the gain earlier in the week and is down 3.85% to 10p.
Black Rock has cut its stake in vet practices operator CVS Group (LON: CVSG) to below 5%. The share price declined 1.48% to 1198p.