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Gold Miner Bullabulling pleased investors after it said results of a drilling programme showed better mineral resources than previously discovered at its Gold Project in Western Australia. The firm said a new resource estimate would be prepared with a moderate increase in contained ounces of gold anticipated. It shares rose 8% on the news.

LiDCO Group, a cardiovascular monitoring company, expects its results for the six months to July 31st to show a four per cent increase in revenue at £3.3m, with cash at the period end at £1m. Product sales were up by 18%, while sales in the UK increased overall by 49%, with both LiDCO and Argon distributed product sales increasing well. Surgical disposables unit sales in the UK showed a significant and encouraging increase of 33%.

Drug firm SkyePharma posted a strong rise in net profit after tax for the half year ended June 30th from £0.4m to £3.4m after research and development expenses fell from £10.1m to £6.3m and boosted by income from discontinued operations. Revenues were down 10%, in line with expectations, from £22.1m to £19.8m. Pre-exceptional earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) from continuing operations were £4.9m (H1 2011: £4.2m). Cash at the end of the period fell £15.2m

Infrastructure India, an AIM-listed investment group, pleased its investors with a 50.2 per cent leap in its net asset value (NAV) to 207.3m pounds over the year ended March. The value of the company's investments rose 94.9 per cent to 216.7m pounds, while the NAV per share climbed from 92p to 95p. The company's Chairman said the period was one of "significant operating progress" in what has been a challenging period for investing in Indian infrastructure and stressed that it has diversified and increased the size of its portfolio.

Exillon Energy, the Russia focused oil company, has announced a successful well dig at its West Siberian operations. Well East EWS I - 53 was spudded on July 19th 2012 and drilled and cemented in 24 days. It encountered the reservoir at 1,875 metres, confirming 20.3 metres of oil. The well is now connected to Exillon's existing production facilities. Well 53 is the fourth development well drilled from well Pad 5 following the success of Exploration Well 50 in 2011. "All five wells have shown consistent results. They have thicker than expected net pays, confirmed a highly permeable reservoir and none has discovered an oil water contact, proving a wider and thicker area of high quality reservoir across the northern extension of East EWS I. All five wells are currently flowing naturally, without pumps," the company disclosed

Somewhat to the market's surprise, WH SMith has even revealed that its High Street stores has seen an improvement in the sales trned of books, following the recent positive publishing schedule. In this e-book age where Amazon calls the shots, this sort of revival was not supposed to happen. It can't all be down to the popularity of 'Fifty Shades of Grey'... Looking back, the group's decision to get out of the music and DVD business looks like a well-timed and well-executed strategic decision, while the group's historic focus on travel hubs continues to hold it in good stead. Train fares rising much faster than inflation might be a concern but the train companies have commuters over a barrel, and until remote working becomes more of a feature of office life, WH Smith is likely to continue enjoying lots of passing trade generating impulse purchases.

Shares in newsagent chain WH Smith reached an all-time high on Thursday as the company raised profit guidance for the year and announced a new share repurchase programme. The company, which has returned £377m to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks since the end of August 2007 has earmarked another £50m to repurchase shares for cancellation between September 1st 2012 and August 31st 2013. While other retailers with overlapping product lines such as Woolworth, HMV and Borders have either gone to the wall or struggled on in reduced circumstances, WH Smith has hung in there, churning out cash, cutting costs and concentrating on improving margins rather than chasing sales. The doubters are still out there, however. "While the formula of falling like-for-like sales as the product mix shifts, rising gross margins and reduced costs has been enormously shareholder value accretive, it is not sustainable in the long run," said Panmure Gordon, which rates the shares as a hold. The broker is expecting sales to pick up on a 12-month view. "The board expects the outcome for the year to be 'at the top end of market expectations', which suggests around £100m pre-tax, compared with our forecast for £97.6m," Panmure Gordon analyst Philip Duggan speculates. Duggan took the hint and nudged up his full-year forecast to £100m.

Gold miner Randgold Resources has said it welcomes the appointment of a new interim government in Mali, which marks another step towards normalisation of the country following the coup attempt earlier this year. Randgold operates the Loulo and Gounkoto gold mines in Mali as well as the Morila joint venture and is one of the largest contributors to the country's economy. The temporary government has been formed with the support of Ecowas and the international community and has been extended to constitute a government of national unity including all the political parties and civil society. Chief executive Mark Bristow said it was pleasing to see that continued progress was being made in restoring full political stability in a country which had long been an "exemplary democracy". "We have often said that we have confidence in the ability of Mali's people to resolve their differences in a constructive manner and, while there is still some way to go, this confidence remains unshaken. In the meantime, we continue to stay in touch with all parties and to monitor the situation closely," he added.

Anglo said it intends to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes. Cynthia Carroll, Chief Executive of Anglo American, said: "Today's commercial agreement demonstrates Anglo American's and Codelco's focus on our future and potential as partners in the best interests of both companies, while we have both gained significant value for our shareholders and other stakeholders, and recognise Mitsubishi's contribution to facilitating today's agreement. "The combination of Anglo American, Codelco, Mitsubishi and Mitsui forms a compelling proposition for future investment in the Los Bronces district - one of the world's most exciting producing and prospective copper ore bodies - for the benefit of all our respective shareholders." The dispute occurred when Codelco decided to exerice its option, dating back to 1978, to purchase a 49% stake in Sur and agreed a bridge loan from Japanese company Mitsui. In response, Anglo sold a 24.5% stake in Sur to Mitsubishi, a move which implied a price on Sur that was around twice the value of the Codelco option. The assets that were under dispute include Anglo's Los Bronces mine, which it is estimated could produce as much as 490,000 tonnes of copper each year.

Mining giant Anglo American and the world's largest copper miner Codelco have signed a deal to end their 10-month battle over the Sur unit in Chile, which was, somewhat ironically, formerly known as The Disputed One. The two firms have told a Santiago court that they have reached an out-of-court settlement over the world's fifth biggest copper mine. Under the deal, Anglo American will retain control of Sur, reducing its 75.5% shareholding to 50.1%. A Codelco and Mitsui joint venture company, which will be controlled by Codelco, will acquire a 29.5% interest in Sur through two transactions. The first of these is $1.7bn in return for the 24.5% shareholding, which represents a consideration of $1.8bn and has been adjusted for dividends that were paid in relation to the shareholding since January of this year. As part of this, certain undeveloped mining tenements to the east of Codelco's Andina mine have been transferred from Sur to Codelco. These are expected to offer significant synergies and value to Codelco. The second transaction is a 5.0% shareholding in Sur, made up of 0.9% from Anglo and 4.1% from Mitsubishi, which will be transferred to the Codelco/Mitsui joint venture. This will reduce Mitsubishi's holding in AA Sur to 20.4%. In consideration for Mitsubishi's participation in the transaction, Anglo American will pay it a fee of $40m.

Positive Points: The balance sheet remained strong, said management, and the group added it would continue to focus on value-enhancing acquisitions in its targeted fields of operation. IMI reported growth in both its Severe Service and Merchandising businesses, although margins fell slightly in Severe Service. During the half year, IMI acquired Remosa SpA, a leading engineering business specialising in valves and related flow control products for severe applications, for £107 million. IMI stated it had contingency plans in place to defend margins should activity levels weaken from current levels.

Negative Points: IMI is exposed to specific risk in relation to the US consumer, as both the beverage dispenser and merchandising systems businesses are dependent on US consumer spending and continued investment. Currency movements hold a high degree of risk given that 90% of IMI's sales originate outside the UK. Potential costs pressures emanating from rising metal/raw material prices could impact going forward. As at 30 June, the group’s pension deficit stood at £208 million (2011: £188 million).

Financial Highlights: IMI posted half year pre-tax profits of £154.4 million (2011: £144.3 million). Revenue for the six months ended 30 June was £1.09 billion (2011: £1.03 billion). The board recommended an interim dividend of 11.8 pence per share (2011: 11.0 pence per share)

interim results: IMI on target but pace of growth likely to slow. Engineering company, IMI Plc registered an increase in half year pre-tax profits and said the pace of revenue growth is likely to slow in the second half of 2012. As expected, geographical performance had been more variable, with growth in both the Americas and Asia being offset by a weakening market in Europe, the company said. Whilst management advised the pace of revenue growth is likely to slow in the second half, given in particular the weakening economic conditions in Europe, IMI still expects to make further progress in the remainder of the year.

Engineering group IMI Plc can trace its roots back to 1862. Today, the company operates through five divisions. 1) Severe Services - designs, manufactures, supplies and services control valves and associated equipment for power generation plants, and oil and gas producers 2) Fluid Power - designs, manufactures and supplies motion and fluid control systems, principally pneumatic devices, for original equipment manufacturers in commercial vehicles, life science, rail and other industries 3) Indoor Climate - designs, manufactures and supplies indoor climate control systems 4) Beverage Dispense - designs, manufactures and supplies still and carbonated beverage dispenser systems, and associated merchandising equipment for brand owners and retailers 5) Merchandising Systems - designs, manufactures and supplies point-of-purchase display systems for brand owners and retailers. IMI's shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange and it is a member of the FTSE100 Index.

The company said in its full-year results this morning: "BHP Billiton has an unrivalled portfolio of development options beyond those projects in execution and a significant number of these are embedded within our existing footprint. As our current expenditure commitments decline, future capital will be allocated to those options that maximise shareholder value, while also considering the balance between short and long-term returns."

Attributable profit plunged by 34.8% to $15,417m from $24,648m the previous year, leading to a fall in basic earnings per share (EPS) to 289.6 cents from 429.1 cents a year earlier. Excluding the exceptional items, EPS still fell 18.3% to 321.6 cents from 393.5 cents the year before. Meanwhile, revenue in the year to the end of June edged up to $72,226m from $71,739m the year before. The company currently has 20 large projects in execution with a combined budget of $22.8bn, the majority of which are expected to deliver first production before the end of the 2015 financial year. These low-risk, largely brownfield projects will be the driver of near-term momentum and create value for shareholders, the group said. However, while the company reassured that it was "largely committed for the 2013 financial year", it revealed that no major project approvals are expected over this timeframe. The approval of the Olympic Dam, in addition to an iron ore port expansion in Australia and a Canadian potash project, were estimated to cost the miner a total of $68bn, according to Deutsche Bank earlier this year.

Mining titan BHP Billiton has said that it will not approve any major projects in the current financial year, as it revealed that the 30bn-dollar expansion of a uranium and copper mine in South Australia has been delayed in order to 'improve the economics of the project'. The company blamed current market conditions, including lower commodity prices and rising capital costs, for the revision of the Olympic Dam open-pit expansion. "As we finalised all the details of the project in the context of current market conditions, our strategy and capital management priorities, it became clear that the right decision for the company and its shareholders was to continue studies to develop a less capital intensive option to replace the underground mine at Olympic Dam," said BHP's Chief Executive Officer Marius Kloppers. "Value is always our primary consideration. We believe today's decision reflects an appropriate, prudent and disciplined course of action," he said. BHP said that it won't be ready to approve the project expansion by the December 15th deadline agreed with the South Australian Government and, as such, it incurred charges and impairments totalling $346m, recognised as exceptional items in last year's results (for the 12 months to June 30th). These were part of the $1.7bn total exceptional charges that the company realised last year, which took a large bite out of its bottom line.

Metal basher IMI said in April it had made a positive start to the year and its interim results should see the firm reporting year-on-year improvements in turnover, operating profit and earnings per share. Market consensus is for turnover of £1,095m, operating profit of £185.6m and earnings per share share 38.8p. Nomura recently started covering the stock with a 'reduce' recommendation and a 750p price target. It is below consensus with its full year earnings forecasts owing to: "1) weakening European industrial indicators; 2) North American trucks inventory build leading to a manufacturing decline in 2H12 [second half of 2012]; and 3) European construction weakening." The broker is especially concerned at expectations for IMI's Fluid Power division, noting that "in the past 10 years, there has not been a time when Fluid Power (FP) grew organically when our EU leading indicator was as weak as now." Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of equity research at Charles Stanley, said he will be looking "for continued margin improvement particularly in the Fluid Power and Beverage businesses - Severe Service margins are expected to be similar to those in H2'2011 (15.2%) reflecting the increased lower margin valve shipments from Brno. Improvement should be seen in the H2. In Fluid Power we will also be looking for any further deterioration in the European outlook - in Q1 [first quarter] weaker European sales off-set good growth in the US and Asia."

Shareholders in Diageo should be in good spirits when the drinks brands owner reports full year results on Thursday. Charles Stanley is expecting the firm to deliver a good set of full year results. "Asia, Africa and Latin America are expected to have been the drivers of growth, with more subdued performances in North America and Europe," notes Charles Stanley analyst Sam Hart. Charles Stanley has pencilled in £10,750m for full year revenue, up from £9,936m the year before. "We forecast group sales to be up by 6.5% on an organic basis, driven by a mixture of volume growth and improved mix," Hart revealed. The broker is tipping earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) of £3,185m and profit before tax of £2,925m. On a regional basis, the broker predicts 7% organic growth in North American EBIT and just 1% organic growth in European EBIT. Africa's EBIT is forecast to grow by 19% on an organic basis, while Latin America is tipped to grow faster still, with growth of 23%. Asia Pacific is seen weighing in with organic EBIT growth of 16%.