LONDON (ShareCast) - Scottish pharma group ProStrakan led the risers after it narrowed first-half losses by 43% helped by new product launches and said it plans to enter the US market.

The loss for the period fell to £8.6m for the six month to 30 June compared to a loss of £14.9m last time on revenues up 28% to £20.9m.

“So far this year we have launched two new products across Europe, filed one product for approval in both the US and Europe, forged a number of important commercial partnerships and secured the finances of the group through to profitability,” said chief executive Wilson Totten.

Printer group Xaar was lower after it reported a drop in first half profit and decided not to pay a dividend

Profit before tax for the six months to 30 June fell to £3.1m from £4.8m a year earlier on revenue up 5% to £23.4m thanks to progress in Asia and the Americas and complete recovery in the Chinese market.

It said the figures reflect the costs of the new Huntingdon production facility which is now fully operational following commencement of production in January.


FTSE TechMARK - Risers
ProStrakan (PSK) 63.00p +14.55%
XTL Biopharmaceuticals (XTL) 11.25p +4.65%
Dialight (DIA) 168.75p +4.33%
Sinclair Pharma (SPH) 82.00p +3.80%
Filtronic (FTC) 174.25p +3.72%
Parity Group (PTY) 86.50p +3.59%
Dicom Group (DCM) 202.00p +3.46%
Computacenter (CCC) 207.00p +3.37%
Alphameric (ALM) 32.00p +3.23%
Domino Printing (DNO) 318.00p +2.17%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Puricore (PURI) 41.00p -8.89%
Bionostics (BIO) 23.50p -6.00%
Inion (IIN) 43.00p -4.97%
Emblaze (BLZ) 68.00p -4.90%
ClinPhone (CNP) 59.00p -4.45%
BTG (BGC) 100.75p -3.82%
Vega Group (VEG) 217.00p -3.77%
Vislink (VLK) 72.00p -3.68%
Elan (ELA) € 14.00 -3.38%
Xaar (XAR) 213.00p -2.96%

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