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Among the wells to watch will be one on the Clapton prospect, in which the £368 million cap has a 40% interest, offshore Norway. The group's first operated well in the country, drilling operations are expected to get underway in the near term with results expected in the first half. A December year-end cash position of £127.5 million, an uncommitted NOK500 million exploration facility and 2012 cashflow from operations of £78 million forecast by house broker Panmure Gordon, means this year's spending is amply covered.

Oil explorer Faroe Petroleum (FPM) is focused on opportunities in the Atlantic Margin, the North Sea and Norway. Investors should buy the company despite the disappointing results last month (13 Feb) from the Kalvklumpen well. Catalysts abound: a fully-funded £150 million work programme is targeting up to 140 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) through 2012 and next month's finals, a date for which is yet to be set, should reveal the benefits of an asset-swap deal struck last year with Norwegian state oil firm Petoro. The deal added more than 7,000 BOE to the group's daily output.

Full-year forecasts from broker Shore Capital point to the delivery of £81.5 million profits and earnings of 4.2p, placing the shares on a punchy-looking prospective price/earnings multiple of 19.4. The strongly cash-generative company, with nearly £59 million net cash in the coffers at last count, has real momentum behind it and a track record of beating forecasts, so this premium rating is more than merited

Under Chief Executive Officer Charles Wilson, Booker continues to broaden its business. The company, whose expansion in India should excite long-term, will accelerate growth with June's forthcoming launch of 'Chef Direct'. This new food-service offering combines the company's logistics capabilities with the catering expertise of Ritter-Courivaud, a supplier of fine foods to restaurants, hotels and contract caterers which Booker acquired two years ago.

Continue to buy cash and carry and delivered wholesale star Booker (BOK) with the £1.3 billion cap set fair to generate profitable growth and increasingly plump dividend payouts for years to come. Next week's (5 April) fourth-quarter trading update should highlight further positive momentum.

A price/earnings (PE) multiple of 10.3 for the current financial year, according to broker consensus, looks cheap when compared to both the rest of the sector and forecasts for earnings per share growth of 26% in 2012 and 10% in 2013 to 23.6p and 25.9p respectively.

At last month's full-year results (14 March) Yule Catto revealed it had upgraded its synergy target from the PolymerLatex acquisition by £5 million to £25 million by the time full run rate is achieved in March 2013.

Yule Catto is set to complete expansion plans at its Pasir Gudang factory in Malaysia in the fourth quarter, which will see it expand nitrile latex capacity by 70,000 tonnes and boost its activities in the rapidly-growing synthetic gloves sector. This follows the acquisition of Malaysian polymer manufacturer Quality Polymer last year (17 October 2011) for £10 million.

yule is set to thrive, owing to its strength in the red-hot polymers space and planned operational increases in Asia. The £849 million cap has undergone significant restructuring in an effort to realign itself as a pure polymers business, incorporating the acquisition of PolymerLatex in March 2011 to essentially double its size. The company has also sold its Uquifa pharmaceuticals division (1 December 2011)

Consensus estimates are looking for a 7% advance in earnings per share to 23.8p this year, followed by a further 12% increase to 26.8p in 2013. This leaves the stock on a tempting price/earnings ratio (PE) of 12.5 times for 2012, falling to 11.1

Numis attributes this drop-off to normalisation in chipmakers' wafer production rather a sea-change in industrial off-take. Rocketing demand for mobile phones and tablet PCs should see wafer volumes pick up again, while a recovery in television sales following a tough 2011 should boost Optroni

he firm's finals (28 February) showed a 16% year-on-year gain in sales and earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). Removing currency fluctuations, sales across its IC Materials arm rose 15% although its Optronics division saw revenues increase just 1% as flat panel television demand wavered. Performance in its Niche IC product range slowed in the second half, with revenues rising just 3% compared to a 25% rise for the full-year.

Numis estimates the purchase of healthcare specialist WEBTEC in December means the medical sector now generates almost a quarter of sales. A juicy earnings per share (EPS) increase of 36% to 4.9p is expected for the year ending March 2013, according to consensus, while a further 15% jump to 5.6p is predicted for 2014. This leaves the stock on just 11.2 times earnings for 2013 and 9.7 the following year.

Scapa, has made excellent progress in boosting margins. Return on sales advanced from 3.7% to 5.1% from the first half of fiscal 2011 to the equivalent period in 2012. The Manchester firm is expected to slash its 14,000-strong supplier list by half within three years through consolidated outlay and product redesign filtering out single sources. Costs dropped 38% in the first half of 2012 versus the corresponding 2011 period as efforts to improve planning, labour efficiency and overheads clicked in to a gear, according to research house Charles Stanley.

Tape and adhesives manufacturer Scapa (SCPA) looks a worthy pick as its three-year 'self help' drive should take profits higher. The turnaround programme is designed to cut costs and shift the product mix towards the high-margin medical and electronics industries.

The Chief Executive, Russell Clements said while the energy sector remained strong in "overall terms the market is becoming more challenging".

During the half year SThree opened offices in Oslo, San Diego, Rio de Janeiro and Brisbane, taking the total to 64 offices in 18 countries.

Permanent placements were 14% up year-on-year, while contract jobs gained 10%, although SThree argues, as the economy worsens, its contracts (temp) business is likely to prove more resilient. Average placement fees for the half year grew strongly, despite "continuing weakness" in the banking and finance market. Energy, pharmaceuticals & biotechnology all performed well.

SThree, the specialist recruitment firm, has reported slowing growth in profits in its second quarter as the macro environment begins to make placing people in jobs more difficult. In the six months to May 27th gross profit was £99.9m, up 12% on the prior year but growth slowed noticeably in the second three months of the period, which was only 9% ahead of the previous year.

Since the end of the financial year the group, which owns the Cosmopolitan in Leeds and the King Malcolm Hotel in Dunfermline, says sales have grown 5.1% but inflationary pressures remain.