register and receive 3 compimentary small cap company reports

Penny Share Review 344

03 July 2006

The Daily Mail from Saturday reviews the prospects at Ennstone (ENN), which has had the shine taken of it by a slowdown in economic growth and public spending. The CEO believes the strength of its balance sheet provides the room to do more deals. On 14.5 times earnings for 2007 (at 48.75p), the shares are not dirt cheap, but the paper believes a “bid is always possible” and concludes with a ‘Hold’ rating. The stock was unchanged this morning at 48.63p.

The ‘People’ column of the Financial Times on Monday notes the appointment of a new non-executive Michael Bucks to the Board of Essentially Group. The equity stood at 18.00p on Monday, unchanged from the previous trading day.

Monday’s Daily Mail briefly notes the IPO of Australian exploration company Greatland Gold today on AIM and the raising of £1.3m at 2p to finance drilling work on its Tasmanian gold project. The stock opened up and remained at 2.25p on Monday morning.

The Midas column of the Mail on Sunday focuses on prospects at Griffin Mining (GFM) following the shares’ drop back to 82.25p after being within a whisker of £1. Analysts estimate headline profits of £18m, which puts the stock on a multiple of just eight times pre-tax profits. The article concludes by saying bid speculation may spark the shares again, along with any spike in metal prices. Without these potential sparks, the fundamentals remain extremely sound. The shares moved further ahead to 88.00p, up 5.75p so far on the day.

Today’s Daily Telegraph, reports Plus Markets (PMK) plans to change the name of the Ofex market, details of which may be revealed this week. The article recaps on events to date and its belief that Ofex is a staging post before AIM, rather than a real rival to AIM. Shares in Plus Markets traded unchanged at 31.25p.

The launch of a new cut-priced broadband service from Pipex Communications (PXC.L) gains the attention of the Sunday Telegraph. The £3m marketing and advertising campaign is to be fronted by the actor David Hasselhoff and undercuts by £2 per month a similar service offered by Carphone Warehouse. The equity moved ahead by 0.25p to trade at 10.00p on Monday.

“According to chatter” by both the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail on Saturday, Venteco (VTO) is about to announce a reverse takeover of a European environmentally friendly pest control company for £7m. Although the Daily Mail said the announcement is to be made on Monday, at the time of writing (10.17am) nothing had been revealed by the cash shell. The shares nudged ahead this morning to 2.75p.

The prices given above were taken between 10.14am and 10.17am on 3 July 2006.

Announcements

The following companies, in which City Equities customers may have an interest, released announcements to the market this morning. These can be found by entering the relevant company name or ticker code in the search box on this site.

Aerobox (ARX) – Appointment of FD.

African Platinum (APP) – Resource update.

Ariana Resources (AAU) – Director dealings.

Interactive Gaming Holdings (IGH) – Launch of casino game.

Mano River Resources (MANA) – Drilling update, Petra JV update and first quarter results.

Media Steps (STEP.L) – Disposal.

Oxus Gold (OXS) – Termination of purchase agreement.

Sefton Resources (SER) – Asset disposal.

Sibir Energy (SBE) – Salym update.

Teleunit (TLU) – Trading statement.

Look out for this week

Monday 3 July – CIPS manufacturing survey.

Tuesday 4 July – Nationwide consumer confidence.

Wednesday 5 July – Nothing of note.

Thursday 6 July – Industrial production and manufacturing output.

Friday 7 July – Nothing of note.

The next Penny Share Review will be posted on Monday, 10 July 2006.

Compiled by Jason Robertson.

Penny Shares Online - penny shares research and information service.




Risk Warning

There is an extra risk of losing money when shares are bought in some smaller companies including 'Penny Shares'. There is a big difference between the buying price and the selling price of these shares. If they have to be sold immediately, you may get back much less than you paid for them or you may have difficulty in selling them. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. The price may change quickly and it may go down as well as up. You could lose every penny put into a particular share.

The information contained above has been compiled from documented sources which are believed to be reliable but, due to their very nature, are subject to a degree of historical inaccuracy and have not been independently verified and cannot be guaranteed. The pages on this website are provided for information only. City Equities Limited will not accept responsibility for loss incurred by any person or body acting, or refraining from acting, as a result of information and/or opinions given anywhere on this website. Issued by City Equities Limited, Aldermary House, 10-15 Queen Street, London, EC4N 1TY. Registered in England. Registered No. 2742847. Registered Address: Amwell House, 19 Amwell Street, Hoddeson, Herts. EN11 8TS. City Equities Limited is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Registration No. 155051.