Identity management software provider Intercede (LON: IGP) has won two contracts from existing clients worth $3.8m. The main one is a $3.6m upsell for new perpetual licences for MyID CMS to a US federal agency. The share price gained 13.1% to 99.5p.

Smart video technology company SEEEN (LON: SEEN) has acquired media library and streaming software provider MEDIAL for up to £1.2m in cash and shares issued at 6p each. The share price increased 12.5% to 4.5p. The acquired business made a pre-tax profit of £210,000 in the year to April 2025. SEEEN can sell its services to the acquired company’s customer base and offer training packages.

Drug delivery company CRISM Therapeutics (LON: CRTX) announced positive preclinical results for the Docetaxel-ChemoSeed implantable drug delivery technology, which showed significant anti-tumour activity, drug response and tolerability in prostate cancer. This shows the effectiveness of a localised chemotherapy approach. The share price added 10.6% to 13p.

Floorcoverings distributor Likewise (LON: LIKE) has raised first quarter revenues by 15%. It continues to gain market share. The current forecast for annual revenues is based on 7.6% growth. A £3m property has been bought in Leeds for a new distribution hub. A 2026 pre-tax profit of £4m is currently forecast. The share price improved 8.7% to 25p.

Musical instruments retailer Gear4Music (LON: G4M) improved sales by 30% in the year to March 2026. Net debt is £5m. This has sparked an increase in the 2025-26 pre-tax profit from £9.3m to £9.7m. A new warehouse is being fitted out, and this will cost £10.2m, of which £3.6m has been paid. The share price rose 9.28% to 265p.

Shares in Facilities by ADF (LON: ADF) recovered 6.67% to 12p. The latest figures should mark the bottom for the business. A full contribution from Autotrak was the main reason behind the rise in revenues from £35.2m to £41.3m, although there was also a stronger second half. The loss was reduced from £2.8m to £800,000. There was a sharp second half improvement in EBITDA before exceptionals and for the full year it rose from £7,2m to £9.2m. New management has not had time to have an effect on the business. There are plans for increased integration of the three core businesses and generating greater revenues from non-film customers.

FALLERS

Mercantile Ports and Logistics (LON: MPL) continues to try to regain control of the Karanja Terminal & Logistics subsidiary. Mercantile says it can repay the related debt, but the proposal was rejected by the consortium of banks. They prefer an alternative plan from Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited and that has been approved by the courts. The company has appealed. The share price had been rising because of optimism about the outcome of the repayment proposal, and it has slumped 67.1% to 0.675p.

Internet of Things businesses investor Tern (LON: TERN) has launched a one-for-seven open offer at 0.6p/share. This could raise up to £644,000 for further investments in existing investee companies and cover overheads. The share price fell by one-fifth to 0.6p.

Capital equipment supplier Mpac (LON: MPAC) reported a rise in pre-tax profit from £10.6m to £13.5m, helped by acquisitions. The second half trading become more difficult. Earnings still rose by 2%. Trading conditions remain tough with projects being deferred and increasing competition on price. This year trading is expected to be more second half weighted. The share price declined 11.5% to 230p.

Meida analysis company Ebiquity (LON: EBQ) reported a slump in pre-tax profit from £6.5m to £1.1m, but results are expected to recover this year. Cash generation reduced net debt to £13.1m. Costs have been reduced, which should help pre-tax profit recover to £2.6m this year. AI investment will also help. The share price dipped  8.51% to 10.75p.

capAI shares surged on Tuesday after the AI services firm announced it was launching a number of offerings following a prolonged development period.

capAI says it is hitting a key inflection point, with multiple AI-powered platforms moving from development into live availability as the company says it shifts its focus towards user adoption and commercial validation.

This sparked a 60% rally in the stock that was trading near a 52-week low prior to today’s news.

Game42, the group’s generative game creation platform, is scheduled to go live this week. The tool allows users to turn inputs, from short text prompts to full-length books, into interactive game experiences. The company says this effectively democratises game development and opens the door to scalable user-generated content.

Alongside it, Creator42 will launch under the new name Movie42, converting text inputs into cinematic, trailer-style video outputs.

Author42, the company’s AI-native writing platform, is also progressing towards a hard launch, with expanded capabilities across fiction, memoir, editing and refinement. Management framed it as the connective tissue linking the broader Game42 and Movie42 ecosystem, supporting end-to-end content creation.

These all may sound impressive to the layperson, but the reality is that there isn’t much on capAI’s menu of offerings that can’t be easily completed through platforms such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Google’s Gemini. There are also numerous platforms that provide multi-model video creation, making it difficult to see where capAI has an edge.

capAI’s products may have gained some traction when they were first announced, but the world has changed dramatically since then, which may raise questions about how capAI can generate revenue at scale, given the plethora of AI tools it now has to compete with.

The proof will be in the pudding.

THG shares rose on Tuesday after delivering its best first-quarter revenue growth since the pandemic, with sales rising 7.0% on a continuing, constant-currency basis to £393.1m, as both Beauty and Nutrition gained momentum.

THG shares rose around 8% as the market digested a trading statement revealing growth across the board.

Beauty revenue grew 5.8%, accelerating on the 5.4% delivered in the second half of last year, driven by a strong performance in the US and 7% order growth in the core UK market.

Lookfantastic continued to outperform the UK prestige beauty sector, adding active customers and gaining share. In the US, Dermstore grew revenue and expanded market share on the back of a 10% increase in new customers and a new checkout partnership with Flex, allowing shoppers to pay with pre-tax health savings accounts. K-Beauty was a standout, with revenue more than doubling year-on-year.

Nutrition grew 8.8%, or 12.1% excluding Asia, where a deliberate shift to licensing with local manufacturing partners has created a near-term drag as the business rebuilds on higher-margin foundations.

The division is leaning heavily into categories beyond core protein powders, such as activewear, creatine, hydration and collagen, to offset record whey commodity prices.

Activewear now has an annualised run rate approaching £100m, with around 15% of active customers buying into the range in Q1 and those orders carrying average order values roughly 31% higher than the norm.

Myprotein’s retail footprint is expanding rapidly. The brand hit record UK market share in total sports nutrition and has a string of launches lined up for Q2 and Q3, including branded bays in Tesco stores nationwide, entry into 1,200 Kroger locations in the US, and expanded listings with GNC and Vitamin Shoppe.

Investors will have been pleased to see THG reiterate its full-year guidance. CEO Matthew Moulding said the better-than-expected start gives THG a stronger base heading into the rest of the year, even as the geopolitical backdrop remains uncertain.

One trade worth £3,000 at 16.5p/share has pushed up the share price of shell company Pacific Global Holdings (LON: PCH) by 16% to 1.45p. This is the largest trade this year.

Kropz (LON: KRPZ) had a record production month at Elandsfontein in March. There was 40,792 tonnes of phosphate concentrate produced, the previous record was 34,070 tonnes. Fourth quarter production was 115,686 tonnes. Elandsfontein is still in a trial production phase. Management says water-related challenges at the Hinda project should no longer be a significant risk. The share price increased 15.4% to 1.5p.

Wound care provider Advanced Medical Solutions (LON: AMS) has received a bid approach from US private equity firm TA Associates. Healthcare is a major sector for the firm. It has been suggested that the offer could be around 280p/share.  The share price is up 14.8% to 261.75p, which is the highest it has been since 2023.

Smart video technology company SEEEN (LON: SEEN) has appointed Zeus as nominated adviser and broker. Christopher Andrews is replacing Mark Williams as independent non-executive director. The share price improved 14.3% to 4p.

West Coast Silver, the joint venture partner of Alien Metals (LON: UFO) in the Elizabeth Hill silver project in Western Australia, has asked for ASX share trading to be halted pending an announcement of a JORC mineral resource estimate for Elizabeth Hill. The Alien Metals share price rose 12% to 0.16p.

Consumer products supplier Supreme (LON: SUP) says trading was better than expected in the year to March 2026. Shore has upgraded its pre-tax profit forecast to £30.7m, down from £32.4m following the banning of disposable vapes. Even so, sales of vapes have held up. Recently acquired SlimFast made a good contribution. Despite spending on acquisitions and a new wellness manufacturing facility, Supreme had net cash at the year end. The 2027 forecasts have not been changed yet, and they will be hit by the UK vaping tax in October. The share price recovered 9.86% to 156p, which is eight times estimated earnings with a forecast yield of around 3%.

FALLERS

Clinical messaging technology developer Feedback (LON: FDBK) continues to talk with the NHS about the deployment of its technology. However, a decision has been delayed until the end of the year or early next year. This means that there will be no significant boost to revenues until next year, although the existing contract with Queen Victoria Hospital in Sussex. Feedback is not renewing its contract with the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust. There should be enough cash until the middle of 2027. Unsurprisingly, the share price dived 21.9% to 11.25p.

Caledonian Holdings (LON: CHP) is changing its investing policy and plans to consolidate 1,000 shares into one new share on 12 May. Caledonian Holdings intends to acquire financial services and payments company, and this requires the change in investing policy. Aspire will provide an operating and technology platform, which can be used to deploy products of investee companies. The share price slipped 19.5% to 0.0033p.

ECR Minerals (LON: ECR) is acquiring Paleogold for up to A$10.6m. This company owns interests in to exploration and development stage gold projects in Australia. The main interest is a 50% stake in six Maddens Flat mines, which have an estimated mineral resource of 6,322 ounces of gold. That was estimated in 1999 and there is scope to increase it. The mines could be in production within six months after A$1m of investment. There is also a 20% stake in the Salt Bush Flat gold mine, which could have 10,000 ounces of gold. ECR Minerals already has assets near to production. Raglan could be in production within two months. The share price declined 5.45% to 0.26p.

The FTSE 100 was lower on Monday after the potential US/Iran peace agreement was dealt a blow by a US strike on an Iranian ship that approached its blockade.

We ended last week on a high, driven by optimism that talks between the US and Iran would soon see the uninterrupted flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

But these hopes were dashed over the weekend after Iran said it would close the Strait again, and the US struck and seized an Iranian ship testing their blockade.

Oil prices jumped in early trading on Monday, with Brent rising 5% to $95 per barrel. Higher oil prices fed through into weakness in the FTSE 100, which was down 0.6% at the time of writing.

“It appears last week’s market enthusiasm over the Strait of Hormuz reopening may have been premature,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

“Events over the weekend have left the ceasefire between Tehran and Washington looking as fragile as ever.

“The Strait was open for just a day before the US seizure of an Iranian vessel. The continuing blockade of the country’s ports over the weekend created a cloud of uncertainty over whether the next round of peace talks will go ahead and saw shipping from the region disrupted once more.”

Although developments over the weekend will be a kick in the teeth for equity bulls, they may be encouraged by the diminishing impact of negative headlines. Given the volatility we saw in March, a 0.6% drawdown in the FTSE 100 on Monday, which is around 1,000 points above March’s intraday lows, won’t be a major concern.

The vast majority of FTSE 100 stocks were down at the time of writing, but only marginally.

It will come as no surprise that higher oil prices led to stronger oil majors and weaker housebuilders and miners on Monday.

BP was the FTSE 100’s top gainer, rising 2.9%, closely followed by Shell, which added 2.5%.

Miners and housebuilders have become the proxy for good and bad news coming out of the Middle East and were lower again on Monday as relations between Iran and the US took a step backwards.

Antofagasta was the top faller, losing 4.8% as Persimmon and Barratt Redrow faded from last week’s rally. Persimmon was down by 3.4% at the time of writing.

Photonics shares are providing a solution to one of the biggest challenges facing the increased adoption of artificial intelligence: power consumption.

Copper interconnects, which have handled this work for decades, are power-hungry and distance-limited above 800G, pushing hyperscalers towards optical alternatives that use light and lasers to save electricity and deliver more efficient computing power.

We look at three Photonics stocks at the forefront of the industry:

• Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ: AAOI)
• Credo Technology (NASDAQ: CRDO)
• Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE)

Applied Optoelectronics

Applied Optoelectronics (NASDAQ: AAOI) is a transceiver specialist. Its edge is vertical integration: it designs and fabricates its own indium phosphide (InP) lasers in Sugar Land, Texas, then assembles them into the pluggable modules that slot into AI switches.

US-based laser manufacturing is becoming increasingly strategic as hyperscalers seek supply chains outside China, and Applied Optoelectronics is perfectly positioned.

In March, it landed a first 1.6T volume order worth more than $200 million from a long-standing hyperscale customer, followed in April by an upsized 800G order that took total commitments from a second hyperscaler to $124 million.

The firm posted record full-year 2025 revenue of $455.7 million, up 83% year-on-year, with management guiding for more than $1 billion in 2026.

The shares have tripled this year on the back of it, reflecting a company that has shifted from an optical component also-ran to a front-row AI infrastructure supplier in the space of 12 months.

Credo Technology

Credo Technology (NASDAQ: CRDO) operates the connectivity layer. This is the plumbing that actually moves bits around an AI cluster.

Its active electrical cables, retimers, and high-speed SerDes silicon have become quietly indispensable to hyperscalers building scale-out networks, and Q3 FY26 demonstrates this. Revenue of $407 million, up 51.9% quarter-on-quarter and 201.5% year-on-year, at a GAAP gross margin of 68.5%.

What makes Credo more than a copper story is the recently announced acquisition of Israeli silicon photonics specialist DustPhotonics for up to $1.3 billion. The deal brings photonic integrated circuit technology in-house, extending Credo’s reach across 800G, 1.6T and 3.2T optical interconnect and giving it the tools to compete in near-packaged and co-packaged optics as copper runs out of headroom.

Management expects the combined optical business to generate more than $500 million in revenue in fiscal 2027.

Lumentum

Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE) sits at the laser end of the stack. Its externally modulated lasers (EMLs), narrow-linewidth lasers and optical components are the light sources that AI transceivers depend on. The company is becoming increasingly important to emerging optical circuit-switching (OCS) architectures that route data as light in AI data centres.

Fiscal Q2 2026 revenue came in at $665.5 million, up 65% year-on-year, with non-GAAP operating margin expanding 1,700 basis points to 25.2%.

Recognition of Lumentum’s prowess in the area came in March, when Nvidia took a $2 billion strategic stake in Lumentum, alongside multi-year purchase commitments totalling billions.

An OCS backlog above $400 million has now been supplemented by a fresh multi-year OCS agreement with an existing hyperscaler, with manufacturing capacity for AI components reportedly sold out through the end of 2028. Guidance of $780–830 million for the current quarter points to 85%+ year-on-year growth.

M&C Saatchi has reported a sharp decline in revenue and profits for 2025 but says it is targeting a return to growth this year as it looks to simplify the business and unlock shareholder value.

Like-for-like net revenue fell 7.3% to £204.7m, hit by the unprecedented US government shutdown in the fourth quarter, tariff-related disruption in Q2 and Q3, and a difficult macroeconomic backdrop.

Operating profit dropped 26.1% to £24.9m on a like-for-like basis, with margins contracting 310 basis points to 12.2%.

The board has opted to scrap the dividend entirely, redirecting those funds into an enhanced share buyback on the basis that it will generate greater shareholder value.

No final dividend will be proposed for 2025, compared with 1.95p the previous year.

Dame Heather Rabbatts, who took over as executive chair in early April, said the priority is to simplify the group’s structure, sharpen its market proposition, and unlock what the board sees as the business’s intrinsic value.

Mark Crouch, market analyst for eToro, said: “M&C Saatchi’s full year results underlines just how tough the backdrop remains for marketing and communications businesses, with macro pressures and geopolitical disruption clearly feeding through into top and bottom line performance. A 7.3% like-for-like revenue decline and a sharper 26% drop in operating profit highlight the operational gearing in the model, particularly when higher-margin segments such as Issues are disrupted.”

“That said, the picture isn’t without encouragement. Cash generation remains robust, with conversion at 94% and net cash edging higher despite acquisition activity, pointing to a resilient and capital-light structure. Management’s decision to pivot away from dividends towards an enhanced share buyback also signals confidence in the underlying valuation, even if it may divide income-focused investors.”