The Morning news update with HSBC, Fidessa, Rare Earth Minerals and PROACTIS

FTSE 100

Intertek (ITRK) – pre-tax profits down by 6.3% at £119.8 million in the six months to June, dividend increased by 6.7% to 16p per share.

British Land (BLND) – has completed its third letting in as many months at Marble Arch House, W1, with NERA Economic Consulting due to occupy the 11,500 sq ft third floor of the building.

HSBC (HSBA) – Underlying pre-tax profits down by 4% $12.56 billion for the six months to June, primarily reflecting the reduced effect of significant items.

FTSE 250

Ultra Electronics (ULE) – joint venture with Sparton Corporation, ERAPSCO, has been awarded a contract worth $166 million for the manufacture of sonobuoys for the US Navy.

esure (ESUR) – Profit before tax up by 0.4% to £57.1 million in the six months to June, dividend up from 2.5p per share to 5.1p.

Fidessa (FDSA) – pre-tax profits down by 4% at £19.7 million in the six months to June, dividend up by 5% at 13.1p per share.

Small caps

Kromek (KMK) – has been awarded up to $1.23m for a 12-month programme with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) commencing immediately.

MoPowered (MPOW) – has experienced strong demand for mobile commerce services from retailers in the building supplies, tools and DIY sector over recent months. This has resulted in the group winning contracts with a number of well-known retailers in this area, most recently Jewson. 

PROACTIS (PHD) – has acquired Intelligent Capture Limited, one of the UK’s leading providers of document scanning and optical character recognition services, to support the launch of PROACTIS’ new offering, ‘Activate’.

Rare Earth Minerals (REM) – Initial assay results starting to be received from Rare Earth Elements target in Greenland, with 4 of 10 samples exceeding 2,000 ppm Total Rare Earth Oxides with the highest at 2,887ppm.

Angle (AGL) – has been granted a second United States Patent for its Parsortix system, which captures rare cells in blood for medical analysis.