Nostra Terra Oil & Gas (LON:NTOG) was the most searched for UK stock on Google Finance thanks to the recent sharp increase in its share price, which surged from 0.44 pence on Monday to Wednesday’s close of 0.55 pence.
This morning, Nostra Terra added a further 29 percent to reach 0.71 pence, valuing the group at £13.65 million.
Investors tried to find out the reason behind the surge, which was generally linked to expectations of results from the two wells currently being drilled by the company.
One of the wells is drilled at the Bale Creek project in Oklahoma, targeting what the company describes as a “very prolific system”.
In mid April, Nostra Terra decided to accelerate the programme at Bale Creek, which will consist of three wells. Additionally it said that another four wells could be drilled in a second phase of work.
The other well is being drilled on the Warrior prospect, which is also located in Oklahoma.
On message boards, investors speculated that the Bale Creek well was successful, triggering the buying spree.
Fellow oil and gas groups Empyrean Energy (LON:EME) and Tower Resources (LON:TRP) also saw their shares rise this morning.
Both companies reported their 2011 results, while Empyrean also announced that its partner in the Sugarloaf project in the US has rejected a takeover offer.
While noting that the Mvule-1 well drilled in Uganda this year was disappointing, Tower drew investors’ attention to the “particularly positive” competent person’s report completed on its Namibian licence in 2011.
The CPR identified two prospects and three leads in the large Delta structure, which could be targeted with one well and, if successful, could contain 9.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 14.5 trillion cubic feet of gas.
The report estimated the value of the Delta targets at US$1.886 billion, or 80 pence per share.
For comparison, shares in Tower closed at 2.98 pence yesterday.
“I believe that our prospects in Namibia have never looked more exciting, and feel that we have real momentum as we put in place the right company infrastructure to take advantage of opportunities during the year ahead,” said chairman of Tower Jeremy Asher.
This morning, the company rallied six percent to 3.15 pence, valuing the group at £45 million, while Empyrean advanced three percent to 8.75 pence after its partner in the Sugarloaf project in Texas Eureka Energy (ASX:EKA) rejected a takeover offer from Aurora Oil and Gas (ASX:AUT).
The A$0.45 per share bid valued Eureka at A$107 million.
Both Eureka and Aurora are Empyrean's partners in Sugarloaf.
Empyrean also reported its full year results today, which showed that it swung to a profit of £675,000 million in 2011 from a loss of £5.4 million as revenues climbed from £811,000 to £2.69 million.
In other M&A news, IDOX (LON:IDOX) has acquired Dutch based grants advisory business Currency Connect Holdings to capitalise on the upcoming European Union Horizon 2020 Framework for Research and Innovation, which will kick off in 2014 with a grant budget of €83 billion.
The Dutch based business, which was bought for up to €4.7 million, assists clients with obtaining funding for innovation projects through grant-based subsidies and research and development tax credits.
In addition, Currency Connect provides grants management software and advises clients on process change to accelerate their eligibility for related grants.
The deal will be funded with a combination of cash and existing debt facilities.
“His acquisition is an important step in our strategy to expand our current grants information service to deliver a full range of grants advisory solutions,” said chief executive of IDOX Richard Kellett-Clarke.
“The combined capabilities of Currency Connect and IDOX Information Solutions position us as a key adviser in the growing innovation funding market across Europe.”
The announcement was among the most read RNS statements of the day along with a trading update from Thorntons (LON:THT). The chocolatier said its sales fell 2.7 percent to £62.4 million in the 16 weeks to April 28, but noted that excluding the impact of store closures sales were broadly flat.
At own stores, sales dropped 6.1 percent to £29.4 million as 11 stores were shut down during the period and commercial sales fell 0.9 percent to £27.4 million, while franchise sales surged 12.6 percent to £3.1 million.
Online sales were up 2.2 percent at £2.5 million with a strong Easter trading period contributing to good growth in consumer and online sales of 7.3 percent.
“We saw a good performance at Easter across all our channels and were pleased by our customers' response to our new spring seasonal lines,” said chief executive of Thorntons Jonathan Hart.
“However, sales of our all year-round products in the Commercial channel were lower as the difficult consumer environment continues.
“We continue to focus on restoring profitability and we are seeing early signs of progress resulting in an overall satisfactory trading performance.”
Investors also had a raft of interim management statements from blue chips including Morrison Supermarkets (LON:MRW), RSA Insurance Group (LON:RSA) and Diageo (LON:DGE) to digest today.
Morrison said it continued to keep prices low to offset the impact of surging oil and commodity prices on consumers’ disposable incomes and, as a result, sales rose 1.5 percent in the first quarter.
However, like for sale sales, which exclude the impact of new store openings, were down one percent.
The grocer also updated investors on its £1 billion share buyback programme, reporting that it has so far purchased £491 million worth of shares.
Fellow FTSE 100 constituent RSA said it made a good start to the year, seeing its net written premiums rise five percent to £2.2 billion in the first quarter with all regions delivering good growth.
Emerging markets performed particularly well with net premiums jumping 20 percent to £281 million. Premiums in the UK and Western Europe rose three percent to £937 million, while the Scandinavian business posted one percent growth in premiums to £667 million.
The insurance group said it is confident of achieving strong premium growth for the full year.
“Growth has been led by our areas of key strategic focus including Emerging Markets, where Latin America was a particular highlight, global Specialty lines and Household and Pet in the UK,” said chief executive of RSA Simon Lee.
“For the full year, we remain confident of delivering good premium growth and a combined operating ratio for the Group of better than 95 percent.”
Diageo also got a boost from emerging markets, helping it to a six percent organic sales growth in the March quarter. In the nine months to end March, organic net sales growth was 7 percent with volume up 3 percent, which was in line with the first half of the year.
Net sales growth in the Latin America and Caribbean region reached 18 percent during the nine month period, while Asian Pacific delivered a 10 percent increase in sales, more than offsetting a one percent decline in Europe.
Sales in Africa and North America climbed 12 percent and five percent respectively.
“Trading in the third quarter remained strong with the year to date performance in line with the first half and our expectations,” said chief executive of Diageo Paul Walsh.
“Our year to date performance continues to demonstrate that Diageo is well positioned with our balance of businesses across categories and with a large and increasing presence in the faster growing emerging markets.
“We remain confident that the investments we have made and the changes we have implemented to our operating model will continue to drive improving performance.”