Xaar Share News (XAR)

Shares in print heads developer Xaar are soaring ahead following a strong trading statement and a £15m placing to finance capacity expansion. The share price has more than doubled in the past year having recovered to levels last achieved before sales problems in China. The placing is at 170p a share. Net cash was £7.8m at the end of September 2010. Xaar will spend the money expanding its Platform 3 manufacturing capacity at Huntingdon to keep up with demand for its Xaar 1001 print head. At the interim stage it had announced that the planned closure of the Scandinavian factory was not going ahead because of the strong demand for products. Demand continues to rise in the industrial and packaging markets. Margins are improving. Annual capacity will rise from 20,000 units to 45,000 units at the end of 2012. The order book is so strong that Panmure Gordon estimates that 85% of 2012 production is already covered. GlaxoSmithKline reported better than expected earnings per share before restructuring costs but it says that the operating environment is challenging. The shares fell back after the figures but they are starting to recover. Revenues were similar to expectations at £6.81bn in the three months to September 2010, against £6.76bn in the same period last year. Underlying sales growth is estimated at 6%. Pre-restructuring earnings were 28.2p a share, slightly down on the 28.5p a share reported last year. Including restructuring costs of £171m, the earnings figure is 25.3p a share. Strong cash flow enables GSK to increase its third quarter dividend by 7% to 16p a share. The ex-dividend date is 27 October. Net debt fell by £652m to £8.8bn at the end of September 2010. FTSE TechMARK - RisersXaar (XAR) 212.50p +19.38%Cryptologic Ltd. (CRP) 65.00p +18.18%Vectura Group (VEC) 60.75p +10.45%NXT (NTX) 4.13p +10.13%Asterand (ATD) 11.50p +9.52%Gresham Computing (GHT) 22.00p +7.32%Renovo Group (RNVO) 31.00p +6.90%BT Group (BT.A) 155.50p +3.53%Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 10.50p +2.44%Sepura (SEPU) 45.00p +2.27%FTSE TechMARK - FallersNetwork Technology (NTY) 600.00p -7.69%Filtronic (FTC) 34.50p -5.48%Psion (PON) 89.00p -5.32%Anite (AIE) 53.50p -2.73%ProStrakan Group (PSK) 74.00p -2.63%KCOM Group (KCOM) 50.75p -2.40%E2V Technologies (E2V) 94.75p -2.32%Dialight (DIA) 440.00p -2.22%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,265.50p -2.05%Innovation Group (TIG) 13.50p -1.82%