The FTSE 250 was up 0.1% to 21,363 and the AIM was up 0.5% to 1,061 in early afternoon trading on Tuesday. Trustpilot helped the FTSE 250 higher with a 9% gain and raft of positive updates from AIM constituents.

Stronger commodities prices supported markets after Saudi Arabia said they were raising their May oil prices.

The price of Brent Crude oil rose to $109 per barrel following its plummet to $104 on Monday after state oil supplier Saudi Aramco increased its selling price for May to $9.35 per barrel for its Arab Light crude.

FTSE 250 Risers

Reviews company Trustpilot Group enjoyed a rise of 6.8% to 153.3p as the stock began to recover from a sharp selloff in 2022 which has seen their shares halve in value.

Lithuanian classifieds company Baltic Classifieds Group shares increased 4.9% to 153.8p as the stock continued to bounce back from significant losses sustained as the conflict in Ukraine began.

The IP Group surged 4.5% to 93.8p after the company’s First Light Fusion portfolio company reported a world first projectile-based fusion success which has the potential to open up the industry for faster and cheaper fusion energy.

FTSE 250 Fallers

Darktrace shares suffered a dip of 6.2% to 422.7p after investors turned pessimistic following claims by JP Morgan that the company looks set to struggle with customer retention amid rising competition and a projected increase in customer acquisition expenses.

“High competition and low customer stickiness will likely translate to higher customer acquisition costs and prompt Darktrace to increase investments in existing and new product development – both of which will limit margin leverage going forward,” said a spokesperson for JP Morgan.

Moneysupermarket.com fell 3.9% to 181.7p following speculation from Barclays that the insurance broker looks like it’s set for a weak period in Energy, and a current drop in its Money and Travel divisions, resulting in the bank dropping its rating from overweight to equal weight.

Housebuilding and urban regeneration group Countryside Properties dropped 2.6% to 271.4p as the rising cost of living impacts consumer spending.

AIM Risers

Osirium Technologies shares rose 45.1% to 9.2p following a strong Q1 report with growth in contract values along with a return to pre-pandemic levels.

Abingdon Health enjoyed an uptick of 17% to 12p after the firm reported the completion of the technical transfer of its Vatic KnowNow Covid-19 antigen test for diagnostics technology group Vatic Health.

Longboat Energy saw an increase of 17% to 72p in light of the company’s recent Kveikje exploration well oil and gas discovery based in the Norweigan North Sea.

“Excellent reservoir quality, close proximity to infrastructure and multiple development options make this an important and valuable resource and we look forward to working with the operator to mature the forward plan,” said Longboat CEO Helge Hammer.

“We believe that this is an asset that can be commercialised via either development or transaction given the high-value barrels that we have discovered.”

Sovereign Metals shares soared to touch all-time highs after the company announced their Kasiya Titanium Rutile project holds the world’s largest resource and is preparing for an updated scoping study.

Next Fifteen Communications rose as they released 2021 results that pointed to a 36% increase in revenue and encouraging organic revenue growth.

Echo Energy shares jumped 6% after production for Q1 2022 averaged 265 bopd, an increase of 10% compared to Q4 2021.

Borders and Southern Petroleum rose fractionally following the completion of a £1.35m funding round.

AIM Fallers

The Intercede Group plummeted 23.9% to 44.5p after the company reported an estimated 10% decline in revenue for 2021 on the back of delays in significant deals for the group.

Renalytix AI fell 11.6% to 247.5p after the company’s $30 million financing package excitement wore off and the firm’s stock headed back to its spiral downwards.

Keras dipped 13.1% to 0.08p following a decline in interest after the shares surged to 0.09p from 0.04p after its acquisition of the Diamond Creek mine.

Gooch and Housego shares fell 4% after the group said revenue was expected to be weighted to the second half.

The international home repairs and improvements business, Homeserve delivered results for FY2022 earlier today which were in line with the group’s expectations.

HomeServe made significant strategic and financial progress in FY22, achieving an acceleration in performance over FY21, which was in line with expectations.

Customer satisfaction was high, and global policy retention increased by 1% to 84% in 2022, demonstrating the Membership business’s usual robustness and value to homes in times of economic volatility.

HomeServe’s three business divisions saw strategic progress with innovative new products gaining traction in North America, progress in building three complementary businesses in EMEA – Membership, HVAC and Claims Assitance; and progress in Home Experts on creating businesses to match homeowners with deals of quality.

North American Membership and HVAC

North American Membership and HVAC segment performed strongly.

Despite the ongoing effects of the Omicron on HomeServe and its partners, policy retention was 86% remaining the same as in 2021, and affinity partner households increased to £73M from £66m in 2021.

To promote future growth, the company is expanding its customer offerings to let households engage in the green home revolution and align with partners’ to achieve carbon reduction goals.

HVAC As A Service provides worry-free heating and air conditioning replacements with a yearly servicing and breakdown cover for a monthly subscription. After a successful trial with a large utility in New York State, the service is now available.

Through a new 4.6m household utility relationship and expansion with an existing partner, HomeServe’s installation and maintenance proposition for domestic electric vehicle charging is now available to 9m households.

In addition, HomeServe’s water loss cover product, which is supplied on a bill by municipal water utilities to protect their customers from unexpectedly large expenditures due to home water leaks, has seen strong growth.

EMEA Membership and HVAC

The division continued to execute on its transformation and growth targets across EMEA Membership and HVAC.

Customer numbers ended the year in line with the group’s forecasts, and policy retention was higher than in 2021 in the UK, indicating that the company’s transformation plan is on track.

France and Spain did well, with the Spanish claims handling company seeing a significant increase in job volumes.

In the second half, HomeServe’s Japanese joint venture inked two more marketing agreements.

Home Experts

As planned, the Home Experts segment turned a profit for the first time in a full year, owing mostly to Checkatrade’s sustained growth as the UK’s top online platform for connecting homeowners with quality trades.

Checkatrade had 47,000 paying trades at the end of the year compared to 44,000 in 2021, and the average revenue per trade is likely to surpass the Milestone 1 objective of £1,200 compared to £939.

As trade supply and consumer demand began to rebalance in the second half, the number of trades on the platform increased.

With robust cash generation in HomeServe’s busier second half largely offset by the CET acquisition in the UK and subsequent attractive HVAC M&A across all of HomeServe’s Membership & HVAC companies, net debt on 31 March 2022 was 2x EBITDA.

HomeServe shares gained 2.25% to 884p following the announcement of results performing in line with group expectations.

The Property Franchise Group enjoyed a 0.5% rise to 348p in late morning trading on Tuesday after the company reported a 118% jump in company revenue in its final results for 2021.

The property franchise proprietor announced a record like-for-like group revenue increase of 26% to £24 million against £11 million in 2020.

The firm reported a network income rise of 67% to £157 million compared to £94 million in 2020 and a like-for-like network income boost of 17% to £110 million.

The Property Franchise Group’s EBITDA soared 81% to £10.4 million against £5.8 million in 2020, and a like-for-like rise of 19% to £6.8 million.

The company added that its adjusted earnings per share increased 61% to 27p compared to 16.8p in 2020.

The Property Franchise Group reported an increased sales pipeline by 73% to £26.5 million against £15.3 million in 2020, alongside a rise in managed rental properties to 74,000 from 58,000 in 2020.

The firm also expanded its portfolio with the acquisitions of estate agency Hunters in March 2021 and mortgage broker group Mortgage Genie in September 2021.

“2021 has been a milestone year for The Property Franchise Group,” said Property Franchise Group CEO Gareth Samples.

“Our determination to make the most of a buoyant sales market saw us achieve record levels of like-for-like revenue, Management Service Fees and profits.”

Samples pointed to a strong outlook for the company as activity returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“Looking ahead, we see an exciting period of further development for all our franchisees in 2022. While we expect over the year we’ll see sales activity return close to 2019 levels, so far we have seen continued high levels of demand for both sales and lettings, well above pre-pandemic norms.”

“Aside from market conditions, we have great confidence that the execution of our strategic initiatives, alongside the benefit of a full year’s contribution from our acquisitions, will underpin continued growth this year and beyond.”

Sovereign Metals updated its Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for Kasiya on Tuesday, where it confirmed Kasiya as a Tier 1 natural rutile deposit. The company also confirmed the mine’s potential to be a substantial source of low-CO2 footprint critical minerals natural rutile and graphite.

Kasiya is currently the world’s largest rutile deposit, with more than double the contained rutile of its closest rutile peer, Sierra Rutile, according to the latest MRE. Kasiya is also the world’s second-largest flake graphite deposit, according to the graphite by-product MRE.

Rutile mineralisation can be found in laterally extensive, near-surface, flat “blanket” form bodies in places where the weathering profile has not been substantially degraded. The MRE features extensive zones of exceptionally high-grade rutile that run simultaneously over an area of more than 180km2.

Overall, the new MRE reveals several additional substantial, but generally separate high-grade rutile zones, especially in the resource area’s southern and eastern regions. The discovery and identification of these new high-grade mineralised zones have been the driving force behind the resource base’s tripling.

Kasiya’s Latest MRE Findings

A total of 662M tonnes which is 37% of the total MRE, reports to the Indicated category, with a recovered grade of 1.73% RutEq at 1.05% rutile and 1.43% TGC.

The deposit is large, with high-grade rutile mineralisation grading 1.2%-2.0% in the first 3-5m from the surface. Mineralisation of moderate grade Rutile, which ranges in grade from 0.5%-1.2%, frequently continues from 5m to the end of the hole, where it remains open at depths of >10m in several drill-defined, N to NE-striking zones.

In the first 3-5m, graphite is generally depleted, with grades ranging from 0.1%-0.5% total graphitic carbon (TGC). Graphite grades normally grow with depth until about 8m, at which point they remain constant, ranging from 1%-8% TGC.

At depths of >8m, some of these zones contain graphite grades in the 4%-8% TGC range, indicating large coarse flake graphite volumes. So far the contained flake graphite by-product stands at 2.3b tonnes.

At depth, several higher-grade graphite zones have been discovered, which are usually connected with higher-grade rutile at the surface.

At a rutile grade of 1.01%, the underlined cut-off of 0.70% yields 1.8b tonnes, triple the previous MRE, with high-quality components yielding over 352m tonnes at a rutile grade of 1.44% at a 1.20% cut-off. At the global 0.7% cut-off, the total recoverable rutile equivalent grade for the MRE is 1.64% RutEq.

Sovereign’s Managing Director Dr Julian Stephens commented, “It is a really remarkable achievement by our team to have made the largest natural rutile discovery ever in just two years since initial identification. The JORC MRE of this scale and grade is clearly highly strategic, Tier 1 and of global significance in a market where natural rutile is in extreme supply deficit.”

“The step-change in scale will now allow us to examine potentially higher-grade throughput, increased production levels and a longer mine life in the upcoming scoping study update.”

“The company is targeting a large-scale, low carbon-footprint and environmentally sustainable natural rutile and graphite operation which will also positively impact the environmental footprint of titanium pigment and other industries, and provide a significant contribution to the economy of Malawi.”

Sovereign Metal’s shares soared 16.5% to 53p after the company announced finding the largest rutile deposit ever discovered in Kasaiya, the group’s flagship project in Malawi.

Water Intelligence shares fell 0.6% to 810p in early morning trading on Tuesday after the company announced a $17 million expansion to its credit facilities.

According to the water solutions and infrastructure company, the investment will include an additional $15 million contributed to further acquisitions of its American Leak Detection franchises (ALOC), alongside a two-year extension on its $2 million working capital line.

Water Intelligence said that the $17 million expansion is set to complement the firm’s £12.5 million, which it raised from an equity placement in Q4 2021.

The group added that the financing would facilitate continued accretive growth in favour of all shareholders, due to the ALOC’s $15 million in non-dilutive capital to reacquire part of the estimated $100 million in profitable gross sales currently being executed within the company’s American Leak Detection subsidiary.

“We are pleased to deliver for shareholders an optimal corporate finance plan that blends debt and equity to reinforce accelerated growth at a lower cost of capital,” said Water Intelligence executive chairman Dr. Patrick DeSouza.

“The expansion of our credit facilities and launch of a relationship with M&T Bank, which has substantial additional capabilities, are very exciting.” 

“Today’s bank transaction complements Q4’s expansion of our investor base with first-tier institutional funds.” 

“We look forward to continuing to deliver strong results despite the volatility that currently characterizes the wider marketplace.” 

“For the Group itself, market demand for water infrastructure solutions continues to be strong.” 

IP Group shares were up 1.7% to 91.3p in early morning trading on Tuesday following the firm’s announcement that its portfolio company First Light Fusion had achieved world first fusion results with ‘projectile fusion.’

According to the IP Group, the First Light Fusion project might open up the potential for cheaper and faster fusion energy production.

The project was independently validated by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), and harnessed the bespoke target technology produced by First Light.

The portfolio company reportedly spent less than £45 million on the project and said it holds a faster rate of performance improvement than any other fusion scheme in history.

First Light Fusion is also working towards a pilot plant which would produce 150 mega-watts of electricity and cost less than $1 billion in the 2030s.

The firm is working with UBS Investment Bank to explore options for the upcoming stages of its commercial and scientific development.

The IP Group added that it was optimistic that this project would see First Light Fusion double in value, and third-party valuation suggested that a doubling to quadrupling could be hit in the coming funding round.

The company currently estimates that the portfolio company has a carrying value which could generate a net fair value gain of £57 million, which represents approximately 5p per share.

The IP Group held an undiluted beneficial holding on 27.4% in First Light Fusion of 27.4% in December last year, amounting to £57.3 million.

“Following the success of Oxford Nanopore, Ceres Power and others, this is another example of IP Group having helped establish a business with the potential to have enormous impact and supporting it over many years to a significant inflexion point,” said IP Group CEO Greg Smith.

“In this case, we helped found First Light in 2011 with the belief that its differentiated technology had the potential to provide a much cheaper route to fusion energy.”

“Hitting the fusion milestone is a hugely important step on that journey and we’re delighted for the team at First Light and are extremely proud of their achievements.”

“We continue to have strong conviction in the Company and the potential its technology offers.”

Mining development and exploration company Greatland Gold announced drilling results from its 2021 drill programme at its Scallywag license on Tuesday. The assay results demonstrated widespread geochemical anomalism, indicating the presence of mineralising processes and validating the area’s development potential.

The results of the seven holes dug at four prospects, as well as the ground Electro-Magnetic survey, have been collected. The ground electro-magnetic investigations have discovered new conductor targets for drilling in 2022.

The drilling campaign and ground EM survey at Scallywag in 2021 were the second stage of a comprehensive exploration programme that began at Scallywag and included seven holes totalling 3,863m, testing the Swan, Barbossa West, Architeuthis and Teach targets.

Swan

Swan is made up of a strong, deep aerial EM conductor (A33) that is found in an interpreted fold structure with a corresponding gravity high that has evolved next to or truncated by structures in the Kaliranu Fault Zone.

Between 15 to 25 metres of transported sediments blanket the Swan area. Huge, dark, siliceous massive silty sandstone, quartzite, dominates the geology.

On the target, two observation holes, SWD001 and SWD002, as well as three lines of ground EM, were completed. A further 1.5 km east of Swan, hole SWD003 was bored to test an aerial EM anomaly.

The geology and geochemistry of drill holes SWD001, SWD002, and SWD003 were all promising.

Conductor plates were identified to the west and east of hole SWD001.

The Au-Bi-Te-Sb (Au-gold, Bi-bismuth, Te-tellurium, Sb-Antimony) abnormal intersections could be peripheral to higher-grade mineralisation associated with the new ground EM conductive plates.

The presence of several intervals of moderately intense quartz-carbonate veining, patches of sericite, hematite, and albite hydrothermal alteration, trace sulphides, anomalous Au and Bi-Te-Sb pathfinder metal geochemistry, and a possible supergene dispersion zone, all suggest mineralising fluids were active in the area.

The source of an airborne electromagnetic anomaly was not completely explained by drilling. Surface soil sampling will also be tried to see whether a source for the apparent supergene dispersion zone can be found.

Future limited conductor targets were located in the Swan area by recently completed ground EM surveying, which will be followed up with more drilling.

Barbossa West, Architeuthis and Teach

Four drill holes, one each at Architeuthis and Barbossa West, and two at Teach were used to test magnetic and structural targets that had been discovered beneath deep cover along the Scallywag Syncline.

All of the holes intersected the basement at depths ranging from 85 to 240m and achieved their target depths. Several zones of anomalous gold and pathfinder mineralisation have been discovered.

To help clarify the stratigraphy, drive geological understanding, and improve targeting, the drill hole logging and assay data will be reviewed again.

Scallywag Results

SWD001 at the Swan target intersected significantly anomalous Au with Bi-Te-Sb pathfinder geochemistry, including 2.6m at 0.19g/t Au from 35.4m and 3m at 0.19g/t Au from 430m in Swan hole SWD001, coupled with broad zones of substantially anomalous Bi-Te-Sb pathfinders.

Three more holes at the Swan and Barbossa West prospects yielded anomalous gold and pathfinders: 7m at 0.10g/t Au from 18m in Swan hole SWD003, 1m at 0.48g/t Au from 384m in Swan hole SWD002, and 1m at 0.20g/t Au from 296m in Barbossa West hole BWD001.

A ground EM survey was performed, revealing eight intriguing EM conductor plates in four targets, including two plates next to Swan hole SWD001 above, indicating probable higher grade mineralisation close to the anomalism discovered at Swan so far.

Outlook

More work needs to be conducted at Swan, especially in terms of drill testing of ground EM conductor plates to the east and west of the region. The upcoming tests of Swan have become a priority for the group and are planned for by the 2022 field program.

The 2022 exploration drill programme is meant to test ground EM conductors at Pearl, Swan and Swan East.

The use of surface geochemistry with Ultra Fine Fraction geochemistry is planned for appropriate sites.

The group will also continue the analysis of the 2020 airborne Electro-Magnetic survey to find other “Pearl-like” aerial EM anomalies for ground EM follow-up. The drilling results from 2021 and 2020 will also be analysed further and integrated into ongoing basin-wide geophysical and geological modelling to help guide future targeting.

Shaun Day, Managing Director, Greatland Gold, commented, “We are pleased with the results from the 2021 drilling campaign on our 100% owned Scallywag licence. Gold mineralisation has been intercepted in four of the seven holes reported, which is highly encouraging.”

“These results, together with identifying several new conductor targets from the ground EM programme and results from the 2020 work, increases our confidence regarding the prospectivity for intrusion related and other styles of mineralised systems at Scallywag.”

“In addition to identifying prospective drill targets for our 2022 drill program, this rich set of data builds  our understanding of the regional and prospect scale geology as we continue to develop and refine our targeting strategy ahead of our 2022 exploration programmes.”

Greatland Gold shares have dropped 2% to 12.85p following the results from the drilling operation in Scallywag.