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Proteomics specialist Proteome Sciences reduced half year losses and expects second half revenues to be significantly boosted as it doubles the number of biomarker tests available from PS Biomarker Services. The group expects major licences and contracts from its proprietary biomarkers and services, which should bolster revenues in the second part of the year. For the six months ended June 30th 2012 pre-tax loss from continuing operations reduced to £1.19m from a loss of £1.86m the same time a year earlier. Revenue for the period increased to £0.89m from £0.62m before. Licences, sales and services revenue rose 38% to £0.50m. Chief Executive Christopher Pearce commented: "The excellent first half performance has continued with strong news flow, product launches and activity." Biomarkers are set to rise over 100 in 2012 while its stroke licence is setting a new record with seven digits dollar fees and double-digit royalties. "The benefits of the investment we have made are being reflected in strong commercial and revenue growth across all divisions of the business as we close in on our goal of becoming a profitable and cash generative business."

Shares of Cambridge-based Vectura rose after it confirmed the Japanese government has approved its Seebri inhalation capsules used in inhaler devices. The treatment, which will be available to patients and physicians in Japan by year-end, will trigger a £2.5m milestone payment for Vectura from its partner Novartis. "The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has approved Seebri (glycopyrronium bromide) Inhalation Capsules 50 mcg administered through the Breezhaler device, as a once-daily, long-term, inhaled maintenance bronchodilator treatment for the relief of various symptoms due to airway obstructive disease in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic bronchitis and emphysema)," said Vectura in a company statement. It is the first approval for glycopyrronium bromide (Seebri) in COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), with further approval expected in the EU in 2012, the group explained. Vectura Chief Executive Dr Chris Blackwell commented: "The approval of Seebri Inhalation Capsules in Japan is an important event for Vectura, triggering a $2.5m milestone and further validation of our late stage respiratory platform." "Seebri Inhalation Capsules provides doctors and patients with a much needed, once-daily, treatment option for COPD, a condition that can lead to death and is increasing in prevalence in Japan and worldwide."

Car manuals specialist Haynes Publishing warned that first quarter revenue fell 9 per cent from the same period last year and if the same trend continues first half results will be hurt. UK sales were hit by weak orders as retailers snapped up the popular Fifty Shades of Grey novel, the group said. Haynes said: "There is little doubt that during the period retail purchasing budgets were tight and that much of those available budgets went towards the phenomenally successful Fifty Shades series." UK & European revenue ended the quarter 10% down on last year. Sales at its core printed automotive manuals fell 12% while sales of its non-automotive tiles ended the first quarter 21% down on the prior year. Revenue from the North American & Australian operations, in local currency, finished the first quarter 11% weaker on the same period last year, as sluggish orders from a small number of key customers continued to affect sales in the US. On a brighter note, sales of technical data to the professional markets by HaynesPro surged 17% in the quarter.

Manx Financial Group (MFX) Director name: Mr David Gibson Amount purchased: 250,000 @ 5.00p Value: £12,500

Hiscox Ltd. (HSX) Director name: Mr Ernst Jansen Amount purchased: 3,663 @ 482.15p Value: £17,661

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Terrace Hill Group (THG) Director name: Mr Robert Fredrik Martin Adair Amount purchased: 450,000 @ 9.75p

Shares of Cambridge-based Vectura rose after it confirmed the Japanese government has approved its Seebri inhalation capsules used in inhaler devices. The shares rose 2p to 86.5p, on news that government clearance will trigger a £2.5m milestone payment for Vectura from its partner Novartis. Whether by coincidence or not, Vectura director Dr Chris Blackwell chose this day to exercise options that entitled him to buy 277,776 ordinary shares at 48.125p a pop. The options were granted through Vectura's enterprise management incentive (EMI) scheme. Dr Blackwell and his spouse promptly offloaded 54,800 of these shares at 87p a throw, which the company said was to use up capital gains tax allowances. Dr Blackwell's beneficial holding in the company now stands at 0.64m shares, equivalent to 0.191% of the issued share capital.

Analysts react Broker Seymour Pierce saw little in the statement to persuade it to change its view on the stock. "When G4S admitted that it would not be able to fulfil its contractual obligations with LOCOG [the London Olympics organising committee], we downgraded our recommendation to a HOLD. In our view, little has changed since. It is still too early to assess the full ramifications of the Olympics affair. Restoring its reputation with the UK government is crucial to G4S: circa 10% of group sales are generated from the UK's public sector government and just under half of the UK's bidding pipeline is for government work (45%). "We leave our FY12E [fiscal 2012] estimates unchanged. expecting adj PBT [adjusted profit before tax] £424.3m. The shares are trading on a prospective P/E [price/earnings ratio] of 11.9x. We reiterate our HOLD recommendation with a target price of 255p."

John Connolly, who joined G4S as Chairman on June 8th, said: "G4S has accepted responsibility for its failure to deliver fully on the Olympic contract. We apologise for this and we thank the military and the police for the vital roles they played in ensuring the delivery of a safe and secure Games. "Our review of the company's performance on this contract has been extremely thorough and, whilst the failures are largely specific to the very special nature of this contract, we will learn from mistakes made. We are taking actions in relation to both the management and governance of G4S to ensure we continue to deliver the highest standards of customer service and contract delivery across the group." Analysts react Broker Seymour Pierce saw little in the statement to persuade it to change its view on the stock.

s for Buckles's culpability - or lack of same - in the whole sorry mess, the report concludes that he should stay at the helm. "Whilst the CEO has ultimate responsibility for the company's performance, the review did not identify significant shortcomings in his performance or serious failings attributable to him in connection with the Olympic contract," the report says. The board has accepted the resignations, however, of Taylor-Smith and Horseman Sewell, and made some changes to the management structure as a result. Richard Morris, currently the Group Managing Director of G4S Care & Justice Services in the UK, has been appointed as the CEO for the UK Region. Kim Challis, who currently runs a portfolio of UK commercial and Government businesses, will take on direct line management responsibility for all government businesses in the UK - assuming the company still has any in the future - as CEO, G4S Government and Outsourcing Solutions; this is a new role created to enhance G4S's focus on "this critically important area of our business". The Group Executive committee will also be strengthened with the appointment of a Group Chief Operating Officer (COO), who will work closely with the CEO, with responsibilities to include a specific focus on operational procedures, risk management and quality customer service and delivery. The Group COO role will be an external appointment. The group is also in the process of interviewing potential non-executive directors, with a view to adding two to the board.

Nick Buckles, Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of security firm G4S, is to keep his job after dodging the blame in the group's internal report into the Olympics staffing fiasco. David Taylor-Smith, Chief Operating Officer and Regional Chief Executive Officer of UK and Africa, and Ian Horseman Sewell, Managing Director, G4S Global Events, have been thrown under the bus, however. G4S's report concluded that the firm should have been able to handle a project of the size and complexity of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games security contract, but it screwed up on the delivery. The report implies that there might have been elements of complacency in the firm's approach, as it failed to recognise structures and processes that had served it well in the past needed augmenting for the Olympic contract. The monitoring and tracking of the security workforce, management information and the project management framework and practices were ineffective to address the scale, complexities and dependencies of the Olympic contract, the report concludes. By the time G4S realised there was a massive problem it was too late to do much about it except ask for outside help. That came in the form of additional military and police. G4S attempted to repair some of its battered reputation by highlighting the "substantial contribution from the thousands of G4S employees" who worked alongside military personnel and the police, "which led to a safe and secure games with continuously positive ratings on venue security from games visitors."

An interim dividend of 1.125p per share has been offered, up from 1.025p in 2011.

Shares of recruitment and IT outsourcing services group Harvey Nash firmed after it posted improved revenues and gross profit despite challenging trading conditions. Adjusted profit before tax increased to £4.2m for the six months ended July 31st 2012 from £3.8m a year earlier. Revenue gained 15% to £292.5m for the period after progress across all of its geographical areas. US operating profit soared 42%, UK & Ireland operating profit rose 15% while operating profit in mainland Europe increased 18%. Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Officer Albert Ellis, said: "Given the uncertainty in the market, this has been a robust first half performance, demonstrating the value of a diversified geographical footprint and a broad portfolio of services to offer clients." "The general trend across our markets is for a shift away from permanent employment in favour of temporary and contract recruitment, to which we have been swift to adapt. We are also continuing to focus on fast growing technology markets, in particular the digital, mobile and social media sectors. The Board is confident that the group remains on track to deliver full year results in line with expectations."

Shares of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) tumbled after it warned that proposed European regulatory changes will cut net treasury income over next financial year. Recommendations published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) look set to change the rules of the game, and differ considerably from the initial proposals published in March 2012. One of the key changes is a requirement that as much as 95% of a European clearing house's cash deposits placed with financial institutions be collateralised with debt instruments. This will have an impact on the LSE's Italian central counterparties (CCP) business, CC&G. If implemented, the recommendations will require central counterparties - i.e. middle-men - to meet certain conditions regarding, among other things, liquidity and credit and market risk, the LSE said in a company statement. "If adopted in their current form, the recommendations will have some implications for LSE's existing wholly owned subsidiary CCP, CC&G," it added. The move could significantly reduce net interest income from its Italian clearing house, which currently accounts for over 15% of total group revenue.

Operating costs (at constant foreign exchange) are expected to be around 4% higher than the prior year, of which around £3.5m, or a couple of percentage points, is due to previously disclosed additional costs, which are skewed to the first half. Investments to drive future sales growth and inflation are expected to have a negative impact on operating costs by a further two percentage points. The shares plunged to 195p in the first two hours of trading from 219.7p overnight, despite the group's attempts to talk up second half (H2) prospects. "We expect results in H2 to benefit from a return to sales growth and actions to improve operating margins. Sales growth should benefit from easier comparators and continued implementation of our strategic initiatives," the group's outlook statement said. "Gross margins should benefit from targeted selling price increases and actions to improve discount effectiveness. Efficiencies from the implementation of our new global organisation structure are expected to deliver cost savings of £3m to £4m in H2. Combined with other cost actions, operating costs as a % of sales should be lower in H2 than H1," the statement said. "With a strong balance sheet and leading global market positions, we believe the group is well placed to continue to take market share in international markets," declared Ian Mason, Group Chief Executive.

Electronics and maintenance products distributor Electrocomponents has warned that full year profits are likely to be lower than the market is expecting after a disappointing first half performance. The consensus forecasts for full year headline profit before tax range from £110m to £120m, and Electrocomponents said that, assuming no change in market conditions, it expects the actual number will be "slightly below the lower end of consensus." Headline profit before tax at the interim stage will be around £40m, down from £59.4m in the first half of last year. Group sales growth in the first half of the financial year is expected to be flat on the prior year, with maintenance sales growing slightly and electronics sales declining slightly. Within the period sales trends were similar between the first quarter and the second, with continuing strong comparators and a challenging economic environment. During the second quarter the rate of sales decline in North America reduced as the quarter progressed. Group eCommerce growth in the first half will be around 3% and in the UK and Continental Europe eCommerce growth is expected to be over 10%. Group eCommerce share in the first half will be around 54%, the group revealed. The group gross margin in the first half of the financial year is likely to be around 1.2 percentage points below what it was in the corresponding period of last year, for a variety of reasons, such as the increased use of customer discounts and a stronger performance from lower-margin technologies. Unhelpful exchange rates will also have an effect on margins.

Utility company BG Group had signed an agreement with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) aimed at supporting the long-term supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan and creating opportunities for Japanese companies to participate in energy projects around the world. Under the cooperation agreement the British company will liaise with JBIC, a policy-based financial institution wholly owned by the Japanese government, on BG Group's natural gas developments and JBIC will consider providing financial support for these projects. The relationship is expected to help ensure Japan receives stable supplies of natural gas in the form of LNG and create opportunities for Japanese companies to participate in BG Group projects. We will continue to diversify and extend our funding sources to underpin BG Group's plans to deliver our current investment programme," said Sir Frank Chapman, Chief Executive Officer of BG Group.

Positive Points Assets under management rose, with the board again highlighting a resilient portfolio performance. Management previously noted that "longer term trends are favourable to specialist lenders. The imbalance between demand and supply of credit will continue to provide opportunities to generate superior returns." Following a three year extension of its main banking facilities in the summer, the group has raised another £80 million through a retail bond issuance, further strengthening its balance sheet. A progressive dividend policy continues to be pursued. A total dividend for the last financial year of 19 pence was announced, up from 18 pence in 2011.