(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) Engineering company Corac () said it has signed a new defence sector contract with a shipbuilder in South East Asia to produce submarine air purification equipment.
The £3.4mln contract win is a boost to the company which will manufacture and assemble its atmosphere control systems in its Portsmouth facility.
Phil Cartmell Chief Executive Officer said: “This order significantly boosts our aerospace & defence sector order book and provides good visibility of both revenue and production activity at our Portsmouth facility.”
It is the second contract the company has signed this year for its atmospheric control arm after a £2.6mln contract with DCNS the French naval submarine builder was announced back in January.
The two new contracts are worth a combined £6mln almost a third of the £20mln in revenues Corac made last year.
Shares shot up today on the news climbing almost 23% to 5.2p.
Meanwhile in larger news the FTSE 100 made a 25 point gain today to 6995 ahead of the US open.
The big news was that UK inflation was negative for the first time since the 1960’s in part due to lower oil prices suggesting UK interest rates are unlikely to be raised for the foreseeable future.
European bourses were also boosted by the European Central Bank as officials said the ECB could increase bond purchases to increase inflation.
This was coupled with sentiment that Greece which says it is close to a deal with its creditors for further funding may have enough money to last two months.
The French CAC 40 and the German DAX were 1.7% higher to 5096 and 11796 respectively.
In the UK the FTSE 100 was led higher by Group ().
The largest real estate investment trust in the UK said full-year profit rose boosted by an increase in rental income. Shares climbed 3% to 1350p.
Meanwhile telecom giant () said tough European trading meant profits dropped 6.9%. Its share price reacted accordingly easing 3.2% to 226p.
Away from the FTSE 100 Irish group DCC () has agreed to buy Butagaz a French liquefied petroleum gas business from Shell in a 338mln deal. Shares jumped 11% to 4873p.
In small cap news () chief executive Jay Bhattacherjee said it is a very promising time for his company which is on schedule to be a new gas producer in East Africa. Shares leapt 11% to 2.35p.
Elsewhere it was the first day of trading on AIM for ().The bingo operator chaired by former Sportingbet boss Nigel Payne had a good debut rising from its placing price of 135p to 165p by lunch.
It wasn’t all good news however.
Digital marketing and online printing company () issued another profit warning today after it confirmed pre-tax profit plummeted 80% in the year ended 28 February 2015.
Tangent's Chief Executive Timothy Green warned this year’s first half performance has been worse than the same period in 2014 which at the time was also subject to a profit warning.
The company also said that pre-tax profits in 2014 fell 80% to £460000 compared to £2.35mln the year before.
Green said: “2014-15 was a challenging year for Tangent; our profits were down and performance in certain areas of our business fell short of expectations.”
He said the company which has five separate divisions including online printing firm Goodprint and property marketer Ravensworth would look to become more streamlined in an effort to cut costs.
The news is sure to frustrate patient shareholders who have seen the company’s share price fall 91% since it listed in 2000.
In the year to date shares have dropped 40% and were on the way down again today easing 9% to 3.6p.
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