Internet of Things investment company Tern (LON: TERN) had a 63% take up of its open offer which raised £406,000 at 0.6p/share. The share price rebounded 22.5% to 0.6p.

Truetide (LON: TRUE) chief executive Trevor Brown bought 175,000 shares at 1.9p each. He owns 28.2% of the investment company. The share price increased 16.3% to 2.5p.

The new board of mathematical modelling and biostatistics company Physiomics (LON: PYC) has started a review of the business. Costs will be controlled and directors will receive part of their payments in shares that will be issued each year at the price prior to issue. The board says that it has identified new opportunities that can be exploited over the medium-term. Cash should last until 2027. The share price recovered 10% to 0.55p.

Furnishings brand Colefax (LON: CFX) has traded ahead of expectations in the second half. Like-for-like sales are 7% ahead in the three months to April 2026. Full year pre-tax profit is expected to be at least £10.5m. The share price gained 9.35% to £13.45.

Ceardusk Partners has taken a 3.2% stake in floorcoverings supplier Victoria (LON: VCP). The share price rose 8.96% to 32.85p.

Real-time equipment monitoring technology developer Tan Delta Systems (LON: TAND) has received an order worth £395,000 from a leading manufacturer of large commercial and industrial engines. It is for real-time oil analysis systems. The share price is 7.94% higher at 34p.

EPE Special Opportunities (LON: ESO) had net assets of 428.69p/share at the end of April 2026. The share price improved 6.45% to 231p.

IG Design (LON: IGR) chief executive designate Gerald Kuehr has bought an initial 1.25 million shares at 69p each. The share price increased 6.38% to 75p.

FALLERS

Shares in Vertu Motors (LON: VTU) fell 1.53% to 84.2p ahead of full year results on 13 May.

IAG shares descended on Friday despite reporting a strong start to 2026 as investors focused on a cut to it profit forecasts.

IAG enjoyed reasonable trading in the early months of 2026, with operating profit jumping 77.3% to €351 million in the first quarter on revenue growth of 1.9% to €7,181 million, as the British Airways and Iberia owner enjoyed robust demand across its networks and brands.

Operating margin expanded 2.1 percentage points to 4.9%, driven by revenue growth and limited cost impact from the Middle East conflict in the period.

Adam Vettese, market analyst for eToro, said: “IAG’s Q1 results show the strength of its premium-focused model in a seasonally soft quarter. Operating profit jumped 77% to €351m, lifting the margin to 4.9%, on resilient premium yields, higher load factors and a standout performance from the high-margin loyalty business.”

But the problem for investors is that IAG is now operating in a very different environment, largely as a result of the conflict in Iran.

Garry White, Chief Investment Commentator at Charles Stanley, said: “IAG struck a cautiously confident tone in its first-quarter update, highlighting resilient demand and strong forward bookings, but signalling a clear deterioration in the outlook as fuel costs surge.

“The group pointed to its diversified portfolio, strong brands and balance sheet as buffers against current headwinds, while noting bookings for the second quarter remain in line with historical norms at about 80%.

“However, it has already started to trim capacity growth and warned that profits will come in below earlier expectations as higher fuel prices feed through, with only around 60% of the increase likely to be offset this year. Positively, capital returns remain on track.”

Around 3% of capacity was exposed to the Gulf region pre-conflict, with much of that now redeployed to higher-demand routes, including Bangkok, Singapore, Male, India to the US, and Caribbean and Sri Lanka winter-sun destinations. Iberia and Vueling have shifted Tel Aviv capacity into domestic Spanish routes.

Capacity guidance has been trimmed, with the group now expecting Q2 growth of around 1% and Q3 of around 2%, down from a previous full-year guide of 3%.

The bigger issue is the cost of fuel to facilitate this capacity. Total fuel costs are projected at around €9.0 billion, with IAG hedged at 70% for the rest of the year. Management expects to recover around 60% of the higher fuel cost through revenue and cost actions, but profit will come in below original expectations.

“The impact of the higher fuel price will inevitably lead to lower profit this year than we originally anticipated,” said Luis Gallego, IAG Chief Executive Officer.

IAG shares were 2% lower at the time of writing.

SRT Marine Systems has secured a £5 million one-year support contract with a long-standing sovereign customer, covering technical support and data services for an existing SRT-MDA deployment from 1 January to 31 December 2026.

The SRT-MDA system is a marine surveillance solution that combines multiple data sources, such as radar and satellite, and is sold to coast guards and governments.

The deal is the second annual support contract with this customer and comes in larger than the first, reflecting growing use of the system.

SRT expects these recurring annual support contracts to scale further in value as the customer broadens its SRT-MDA footprint through future system expansion contracts.

Simon Tucker, CEO of SRT, said: “This is an important long term sovereign partnership with significant future system growth ambitions. This further system support contract, which provides a blend of services for our existing system, is a strong example of our long term, multi revenue stream business model delivering value for both SRT and the customer, who relies daily on a state of the art digital maritime surveillance system.”

SRT Marine Systems recently announced a 95% jump in revenues to £51m for the half year to December 2025.

The FTSE 100 slipped on Thursday after yesterday’s surging rally faded amid hopes of a lasting ceasefire in the Middle East, and oil stocks dragged on the index.

After such a strong run-up in stocks yesterday, it wasn’t surprising to see the FTSE 100 ease off slightly on Thursday.

Apart from reports of the US attacking an Iranian-flagged ship and Israel striking Beirut, the Middle East diplomatic efforts remained on track, with Trump claiming they were close to a deal.

This was taken as progress towards an eventual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and oil prices reacted accordingly, with Brent dropping to $98.97.

“European markets mostly continued yesterday’s strong session, which saw equities rally globally on hopes of a resolution to the Middle East conflict,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.

“The exception was the FTSE 100 which fell 0.6% as energy stocks weighed on the index amid oil falling back below $100 a barrel.”

There were several high-profile corporate updates that also weighed in on the index on Thursday.

“Shell reported bumper profits, but the market had fully expected that outcome. BAE Systems also pulled back on its trading update as investors were disappointed at the lack of upgrades to its forward guidance,” Russ Mould said.

But beyond the headline stories and the index-level decline, there were reasons for investors to be optimistic.

JD Sports was the FTSE 100’s top riser, jumping 6%, as the market dared to view its full-year results in a positive light.

“JD Sports hasn’t kicked off the year in style, but there were early signs of improving trends in its largest region, North America,” said Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“On the face of it, total sales growth of 11.7% in a tough retail market looks impressive. But stripping out the impact of its Hibbett and Courir acquisitions, organic sales growth came in at a more slender 2.1%. The Middle East conflict hasn’t had a direct impact on JD Sports so far, given its lack of presence in the region, but there’s potential for it to weigh on consumers’ confidence and spending power going forward if energy prices remain elevated.”

JD shares were 6% higher at the time of writing.

Hiscox shares reacted well to the news that insurance contract written premiums increased by 10.2%. Hiscox jumped 5% on the news.

Miners were higher, demonstrating underlying positive sentiment. But this was offset by companies such as RELX and Admiral Trading ex-dividend.

Neo Next+ Energy Upstream, which is part of the largest North Sea oil group, has bid 7.7p in cash per share for Deltic Energy (LON: DELT) and it has been recommended by the board of the oil and gas company. The value is £7.2m. The bidder is providing a bridging loan of up to £2.9m. The share price jumped 23.8% to 6.5p.

Investment that Light Science Technologies (LON: LST) into gaining approvals in additional sectors for its contract electronics manufacturing business is starting to pay off. An initial order has been won from a medical devices supplier. This is worth £160,000 and could be worth up to £650,000 annually. This follows an order earlier this week worth £410,000 for the supply of Injectaclad material for fire protection. The share price rebounded 13.9% to 2.3p.

NAHL Group (LON: NAH) increased pre-tax profit by 129% to £4.97m in 2025. This helped net debt more than halve to £3.2m. This reflects the success of handling personal injuries claims through its own National Accident Law firm. Uncertainty about its future hit the performance of the critical care division, but NAHL has decided to retain it and has changed the management. However, currently more claims are being settled is greater than new enquiries and that will hit the performance of NAHL this year. There is no forecast for 2026. The share price recovered 11.8% to 38p.

Active Energy Group (LON: AEG) has secured a deal in the UAE that will help it to expand its digital asset mining operation in Abu Dhabi. This includes a dedicated Abu Dhabi cryptocurrency mining licence. An initial 50MVA capacity of mining will be developed over multiple sites and there will be support in securing ultra-low cost power capacity. The share price rose 12.2% to 0.12p.

Tap Global Group (LON: TAP) has launched Tap Earn, which will offer a yield of up to 7% on eligible cryptocurrency and stablecoin holdings that are part of the Tap mobile app. Tap Earn will generate income from the spread between the gross yield earned by the company and the yield paid to the client. The share price increased 8.7% to 1.25p.

FALLERS

GreenRoc Strategic Minerals (LON: GROC) says it will hold the opening of its pilot graphite processing plant in Horsholm, north of Copenhagen on 2 June. The share price dropped 17.8% to 4.15p.

Dillistone (LON: DSG) reported a 14% fall in 2025 revenues to £4.2m, but an improved pre-tax profit of £400,000. This relates to the original IT recruitment software business, and new management has come into the group to pursue a buy and build strategy. That means the company could be significantly different in one year. The current business appears to be stabilising. The share price lost a small proportion of the gain it achieved after the new management came in and is down 9.62% to 11.75p., which is still 38% higher this year.  

Quantum Blockchain Technologies (LON: QBT) says the examination report from the European Patent office raises two objections to its patent application titled “Message Scheduling for Cryptographic Hashing”. They relate to the current claim formulation and prior publications by Dr Nicolas T. Courtois and a US patent application filed by Intel Corporation. The company believes that the problem is the scope of the claims in the patent application. The plan is to improve the wording and put forward arguments that reinforce the novelty of the technology. A separate US patent application has been rejected and the claims for this application will be amended. The share price declined 5.62% to 0.36p.

Strategic Minerals (LON: SML) says additional analysis of old and new drill samples from the Redmoor tungsten tine copper project in Cornwall shows unidentified mineral zones and infill sections. However, the results are not considered material to the recent mineral resource estimate. The share price fell 4.81% to 4.95p.

Ex-dividends

TF & JH Braime (LON: BMTO) is paying a final dividend of 10.5p/share and the share price is unchanged at £15.50.

Franchise Brands (LON: FRAN) is paying a final dividend of 1.35p/share and the share price rose 0.75p to 141.25p.

James Halstead (LON: JHD) is paying an interim dividend of 2.85p/share and the share price is unchanged at 141.6p.

Power Probe (LON: PWR) is paying a final dividend of 1.6p/share and the share price increased 0.5p to 73.5p.

The Property Franchise Group (LON: TPFG) is paying a final dividend of 15p/share and the share price declined 10p to 480p.