Advanced surface-coating specialist Hardide plc (AIM: HDD) has secured a substantial £1 million follow-on order from a key North American customer.

The order, from the same ‘major new North American customer’ revealed in the company’s 1 December announcement, is scheduled for delivery in the second half of Hardide’s financial year ending 30 September 2026.

The £1 million deal adds to an initial £1.75m deal announced in December last year.

In late January, Hardide announced its annual results, showing a 30% increase in revenue and a 50% jump in gross profit for the year to 30 September. These two orders ensure the firm is off to a good start this year, and management now expects FY26 financial performance to exceed previous forecasts.

The additional revenue will fund infrastructure upgrades at Hardide’s Martinsville plant. The improvements aim to boost operational efficiency and accommodate surging demand across North America. The company plans to finance the investment with proceeds from the latest order, along with existing resources.

Hardide shares were 20% higher at the time of writing.

Plus500, the global fintech group, has entered the American retail prediction markets segment through its US trading platform, Plus500 Futures. The new offering includes products from Kalshi Exchange, the first regulated event-based contracts exchange in the United States.

Prediction markets allow participants to trade contracts based on the outcomes of real-world events, functioning as a transparent, regulated mechanism for expressing views on future developments. These markets have grown increasingly popular amongst both retail and institutional traders in recent years.

Prediction markets such as Polymarket are regularly cited by political and financial commentators when discussing the likelihood of future events.

Through Plus500’s new platform, US customers can access prediction markets covering economic indicators, financial events, geopolitical developments, and other measurable outcomes. Plus500 clears the trades directly using its full clearing membership with Kalshi Klear LLC.

The move follows Plus500’s December 2024 appointment as clearing partner for CME Group and FanDuel’s prediction markets platform.

These partnerships provided the company with the foundation to develop proprietary technology and risk-management infrastructure to support the launch of the new US platform.

Defence and space technology specialist Filtronic has delivered half-year results in line with expectations whilst investing heavily for future growth, securing its largest-ever contract and entering H2 with a record order book.

Filtronic reported revenue of £25.3 million for the six months ended 30 November 2025, broadly flat compared to £25.6 million in the same period a year prior.

Adjusted EBITDA fell to £5.1 million from £8.7 million, with operating profit declining to £2.6 million from £6.8 million.

Profits were hit by investments in people, facilities, and product development, which should bolster the foundations for future growth. Despite lower profitability, cash generation improved slightly, with operating cash flow improving to £3.4 million from £2.1 million.

Filtronic shares were marginally lower on Tuesday, which is no surprise given results were in line with expectations and the stock has already added around 80% over the past year.

Strong order momentum

Although profits were lower in H1, there is a lot for investors to look forward to. The period saw significant contract wins, including Filtronic’s largest-ever order, a $62.5 million agreement with SpaceX. The company also secured a €7.0 million multi-year contract with a European space customer and a £13.4 million deal with a leading European defence prime, demonstrating accelerating customer diversification.

Filtronic has notably entered the second half with a record order book, with approximately 90% of FY2026 revenues now covered by contracted orders, providing strong visibility.

Following strong momentum in new business activity, the firm remains confident it will meet current market expectations for FY2026 revenues and EBITDA, supported by a record order book and growing customer diversification across core markets.

“The first half of the year demonstrated the strength of Filtronic’s positioning in markets where performance, reliability and security are mission critical,” said Nat Edington, Chief Executive Officer.

“Demand across our space, aerospace and defence markets remains robust, and our focus on high-frequency RF technologies continues to differentiate us with customers operating in the most demanding environments.

“With a record order book, increasing customer diversification and the business now operating at greater scale, we have entered the second half confident of continuing our planned growth.”

The FTSE 100 completed a notable reversal on Monday after starting the day deep in the red amid a metals selloff that hit precious metals and copper miners.

London’s leading index fell as low as 10,145 before rebounding to trade 0.35% higher at 10,258 at the time of writing.

“Commodities markets have experienced a significant shockwave, with metal prices down sharply. This has reversed a winning trade for the plethora of commodity producers on the FTSE 100,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“Miners including Fresnillo and Antofagasta, and oil producers BP and Shell, were pulled into the red as investor sentiment towards their sectors wanes and earnings prospects are dampened as the prices of their goods have dropped sharply in a short space of time.

“Gold has now fallen 21% from its $5,594 per ounce peak on 29 January to an intraday low of $4,403 per ounce. Silver has fallen by more, down 32% since its year-to-date high less than a week ago. Copper and oil also fell in value.”

FTSE 100’s rebound on Monday was fuelled by the buying of heavily hit miners and overseas earners, including AstraZeneca, Unilever and GSK.

InterContinental Hotels Group was the top riser, adding 2.7%.

Endeavour Mining was the top faller at the time of writing, down 3%, but was well off the lows of the session. The same could be said of Fresnillo that was down 2.7% at the time of writing.

Housebuilders were marginally higher after Nationwide said UK house prices rose 1% in the year to January.

“Today’s modest rise in UK house prices points to underlying resilience, but momentum remains constrained by affordability pressures and a ‘higher for longer’ interest rate backdrop,” said Daniel Austin, CEO and co-founder at ASK Partners.

“While recent rate cuts signal easing inflation, they are unlikely to transform market conditions overnight. Mortgage pricing has improved, yet buyer and developer confidence remains fragile following a Budget that offered little direct stimulus for housing.”

Persimmon rose 0.7% while Barratt’s added 0.1%.

Continued volatility

One would expect the session to remain choppy, with markets still pondering the implications of Kevin Warsh taking over from Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, and Trump’s nominee set to shake up traditional thinking on the central bank’s approach to monetary policy.

“Markets tend to talk about new Fed chairs in terms of “hawk versus dove,” but that framing misses the shift a Warsh Fed would represent,” explained Lale Akoner, global market analyst at eToro.

“This wouldn’t be a tightening shock, nor a return to ultra-easy policy. Rates could still move lower, with one or two cuts likely, but the bigger change would be in how support is delivered. A Warsh Fed would rely less on balance-sheet expansion and heavy forward guidance, and more on market pricing, private capital, and fundamentals.”

In addition to considerations around the new Fed chair, geopolitical risks haven’t gone away and are likely to drive trade later in the week.

Blue Star Capital (LON: BLU) investee company SatoshiPay’s Vortex fiat-to-crypto infrastructure platform processed more than $10m of transactions in January, more than double the level in December. There are plans to expand in the US. The share price jumped 41.2% to 12p.

Healthy snacks supplier Tooru (LON: TOO) says that free-from OAF has increased the number of products in Tesco and the number of stores they are sold in. Three more products will be added after Easter. Asda will start selling OAF products in April. The share price rose 17.4% to 0.27p.

Localisation and digital media services provider Zoo Digital (LON: ZOO) is seeing signs of recovery in activity and has received initial orders from two studios. Gillian Wilmot and Mickey Kalifa are stepping down from the board after many years and Nathalie Schwarz will replace Gillian Wilmot as chair. Two new non-executive directors will be appointed. The share price increased 16.2% to 10.75p.

Full year revenues at restaurants operator Various Eateries (LON: VARE) were in line with expectations at £52.4m, but margins were better that expected and the loss was lower than expected at £2.4m. There was 2% like-for-like growth in revenues and there was a strong performance over the Christmas period. Zeus has reduced its 2025-26 loss estimate to £1m with forecast net cash of £1.9m. The share price gained 11.4% to 12.25p.

Tungsten West (LON: TUN), which owns the Devon-based Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine, has published an updated project value on the back of strong metals prices. The NPV7.5% has increased from $190m to $1.7bn. The debt financing discussions are continuing with multiple lenders. Important equipment is being ordered as the company seeks to restart operations at the mine. The share price improved 8.31% to 21.5p.

FALLERS

Image Scan (LON: IGE) says a major defence contract that was going to use the company’s ThreatScan® portable X‑ray systems has been terminated. The was a 36-month programme that would have been a major contributor to 2026-27 and 2027-28 revenues. The termination reduces the order book from £4.67m to over £1m. The share price slumped 31.7% to 1.4p.

Ethernity Networks (LON: ENET) has raised £367,500 at 0.004p/share. This will repay short-term debt and provide working capital. Warrants are being issued and could raise a similar amount, and this could provide enough cash for most of 2026. In 2025, revenues were $1.03m and they could be more than $1.7m this year. The share price declined 21.4% to 0.0044p.

At the weekend Serabi Gold (LON: SRB) reported a fatality at the Palito complex in Brazil. This relates to a traffic accident underground. Production in the area has stopped but it should resume in a few days. This is the second fatality in one week. The other was at the production face of the Coringa mine. The authorities are investigating both deaths. The share price fell 20.6% to 260p.

Bars and escape rooms operator XP Factory (LON: XPF) had a weak Christmas trading period at Boom Battle Bars, where like-for-like revenues were 7.2% lower. Escape Hunt trading has held up with like-for-like growth of 6.4%. The pace of new openings will slow because of the weaker trading environment. Net debt is higher than expected at £5.6m. Cavendish expects a pre-tax loss of £1.3m this year and £1.5m next year. The business is still cash generative. The share price fell below 12p early in the day, but it has recovered some of the loss and is down 3.57% at 13.5p.

Brave Bison Group plc, the next-generation marketing and technology firm, has announced the largest ever contract win for its MiniMBA subsidiary.

Brave Bison shares were 3% higher at the time of writing on Monday.

MiniMBA, the UK’s leading marketing skills and training platform, will provide its Brand Management programme to one of the world’s largest food and beverage conglomerates. Thousands of employees across the Asia-Pacific region will receive training throughout 2026 under the €1.3 million agreement.

The contract was secured approximately six months after Brave Bison’s acquisition of MiniMBA. Revenue from the deal will be recognised in the current financial year.

“MiniMBA is thrilled to announce the largest enterprise deal in our history, reflecting the growing need among global organisations to ensure a high level of marketing capability in their teams, in a rapidly changing environment,” said Tim Plyming, CEO MiniMBA.

“This deal is a testament to the impact our courses deliver for organisations around the world, and to our core belief that training makes better marketers. Our teams across MiniMBA and Brave Bison are excited to be delivering this dedicated programme based on the MiniMBA in Brand Management.”

Brave Bison shares have increased dramatically over the past year as the company integrated a string of acquisitions and fought off shareholder requisitioned resolutions.

Sancus Lending (LON: LEND) shares jumped 362.5% to 1.8p on an unexpectedly strong trading performance in 2025. The finance provider increased revenues by one-third to £22.1m and a 2025 pre-tax profit of more than £1m is estimated, although that includes gains of £2.6m from repurchasing ZDPs. New lending facilities nearly doubled to £212m and total loans were one-third higher at £317m. The share price soared 288% to 1.55p.

Empyrean Energy (LON: EME) has come to an agreement with Conrad Asia Energy to resolve its dispute over the Duyung PSC and Mako gas field in Indonesia. First gas could be in the fourth quarter of 2027. A special purpose vehicle will be established to own these investments, and Empyrean Energy will own 8.5%. After this Empyrean will pay $353,000 to Conrad and a further $353,000 will be paid out of dividends from the special purpose vehicle. Empyrean’s secured convertible note will be restructured, and the lender will be paid out of dividends from the project. The share price jumped 138% to 0.0894p.

Ovoca Bio (LON: OVB) has completed the acquisition of Tadeen International and it will change its name to Talisman Metals. There was £1.155m raised at 7.7p/share. This means the company has £2.255m in cash. The main asset is copper deposits in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. The share price rose 88.4% to 6.5p.

Physiomics (LON: PYC) has been awarded a new contract by long-standing client Numab Therapeutics. The project is for modelling the company’s pipeline to accelerate development of therapies. The share price improved 66.1% to 0.465p.

FALLERS

Contract proteomics services provider Proteome Sciences (LON: PRM) has raised £840,000 via a placing at 1.75p/share and a retail offer raised £132,000, which was more than double the target. The cash will be used to increase Tandem Mass Tags plexing rate from 32x to 96x and introduce novel Solvent Shift chemoproteomic workflows. It will also go towards launching a new range of DXT isotopic plex tags and concluding a DXT licence, will increasing capacity in San Diego. The share price dived 43% to 1.84p.

Sensing and measurement technology developer Transense Technologies (LON: TRT) has not been securing new contracts as fast as it hoped. Also, iTrack royalty income is likely to be10% lower than expected at £2m with the total revenues for the group are forecast at £5.2m, down from £5.55m last year. The SAWsense and Translogik businesses should grow revenues by 30%. The company was profitable in the first half and had cash at £1.33m. The interim results will be released on 17 February. The share price slumped 40.8% to 72.5p.

Eqtec (LON: EQT) is raising £1.3m at 0.035p/share and this represents 36% of the enlarged share capital. A restructuring of £5.79m of debt will lead to £1.93m being converted into shares. The rest will be changed into £1.93m secured, zero-coupon debt and £1.93m. There is £166,000 of debt owed on the convertible facility with GIS. As part of its new strategy Eqtec is acquiring 99% of the Green Rock copper gold exploration project. It is paying $150,000 in cash and shares. The remaining 1% stake has a carry up to $350,000 and after that it will be lent cash by Eqtec to pay for its contribution with repayment out of future revenues. There is also an option over a 99% interest in the Peak Hills gold copper exploration project in Western Australia. The waste to energy activities will continue to be a core part of the group. The share price dipped 26.3% to 0.07p.

Botswana Diamonds (LON: BOD) been awarded eight prospecting licences in north west Botswana. They have been chosen for prospectivity for copper, gold, silver and other critical minerals. The company is speaking with potential joint venture partners. The share price fell 26.2% to 0.225p.