The FTSE Small Caps index gains 0.2 percent, lagging the mid-caps, up 0.6 percent, and the blue chips, up 0.7 percent.
Sula Iron and Gold gains 6 percent after announcing it has starteddrilling at its only licence.
"Drilling of the Banded Iron Formation (BIF) in Sula Iron and Gold's licencewill allow the strike continuity, thickness and grade of mineralisation to betested," analysts at Northland Capital say in a note.
Roxi Petroleum gains 3.7 percent after announcing that early testsindicate oil is present at the Kazakhstan focussed oil firm's 806 Well at itsflagship BNG asset.
"As we have stated previously, we believe the three pronged production rampup from Galaz, BNG and Munaily will provide Roxi with valuable cashflow andexceeds market expectations for 2013," analysts at WH Ireland say in a note.
"Although much uncertainty has been created by the recent exit of the KoreaNational Oil Corporation from the BNG licence, we believe that this nadir hasbeen overcome through the recent strategic investment by Mr Satylganov with aUS$40m injection."
Reuters messaging rm://alistair.smout.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net
