Halfords Group (LON:HFD) announced a share buyback programme of up to £75 million and said that it expects to post pre-tax profits for the financial year 2011 (to 1 April) of between £124 million and £127 million, while sales are expected to be around £869 million. Shares in the group lost 4 percent on the news.
Berkeley Mineral Resources (LON:BMR) announced that its director Masoud Alikhani has purchased 250,000 ordinary shares at a price of 6.35p per share, taking his stake to 1.72 percent. Another director Mark Wainwright purchased 100,000 shares at the same price to increase his shareholding to 0.012 percent.
Oilex (LON:OEX) announced that drilling contractor Black Pearl Drilling Services has commenced the mobilisation of the “Black Pearl Rig 1” rig and related services, to drill the onshore Cambay-76H well in Gujarat, India on behalf of the Cambay Field joint venture.
The well will evaluate the production potential of the extensive Eocene “tight” Y-zone reservoir that extends across the 161 km2 Cambay PSC contract area.
Coastal Energy (LON:CEO) announced that the Bua Ban North A-04 well, which was drilled to 6,417 feet TVD to test Miocene and Upper Oligocene targets in an upthrown block west of the discoveries in the A-01 well, encountered 22 feet of net pay in the Miocene with average porosity of 29 percent.
Ithaca Energy (LON:IAE) announced today that sales in the first quarter reached 314,340 barrels of oil equivalent (boe), which, as previously notified, was 20 percent below the net average daily target for the period. Net sales to Ithaca reached 131,796 boe in January, 112,051 boe in February and 70,493 boe in March with the average net sales reaching 3,493 boe per day. The Q1 sales volumes included contributions from the Beatrice and Jacky oil fields and from the Anglia and Topaz gas fields.
Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) has signed a cultural heritage management agreement (CHMA) with the Bidjara people, paving the way to advance its Adavale potash project. Shares in the company surged 5 percent to trade at 12.50 pence on the news this morning.
Shares in Biome Technologies (LON:BIOM) surged 15 percent after the company announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Biome Bioplastics has filed a patent application for its innovative new range of bioplastics that are stable at high temperatures.
Condor Resources (LON:CNR) has expanded its ongoing drill programme at the La India concession, it announced. It has now hired a second rig and it plans to drill another 1,500 metres. Originally the plan was for one rig to drill 5,000 metres. Now there will be two and the programme will total 6,500 metres.