(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)On what was a moderately quiet corporate news day and as London shares eased lower clothing retailers BT (LON:BT.A) and Greece were topics trending on the net. Shares in fashion house Ted Baker (LON:TED) went over 1% higher as it saw sales surge ahead in its latest quarter as US customers lapped up its new ranges. 'We are pleased with the performance of our Spring/Summer collections both in the UK and internationally" Ray Kelvin chief executive told investors. Revenues overall rose by 24.2% in the 18 weeks to June 6 comprising underlying sales growth of 18.9% allied to a 6.6% increase in new space. In addition today women's outfitters Bonmarché (LON:BON) also saw its shares gain as it told investors it was confident of its growth strategy and reported a 55% increase in pre-tax profits in the year just gone. The figure for the year to March 28 stood at £12.4mln compared to £8mln in 2014 on revenues which were up 8.7% at £178.6mln compared to £164.3mln previously. Like-for-like sales growth was 4% - 6% including online. According to Kantar the group increased its share of the UK women's value clothing market by 12.8% to 4.4%. BT's telecom lines which it leases to broadband operators and schools were under the spotlight from regulator Ofcom which reckons the coms giant holds too much market power. The regulator is proposing cutting charges which could see price falls for consumers. But BT said more regulation could damage investment in infrastructure. Despite the news BT shares went 1.33% higher. You may not want to hear it but Greece was also in the news again as the week ended after the shock (ish) news last night that an IMF team had walked out of negotations in Brussels. The debt laden country needs to pay the IMF €1.6bn by the end of the month otherwise it risks default or having capital controls imposed or even an exit from the Eurozone. Meanwhile in small caps a big riser in early deals was Forte Energy (LON:FTE)l whose shares boomed 18.75% higher to 0.0905p in early deals as it updated on the situation with its Kuriskova uranium deposit in Slovakia. As revealed in April the firm along with its 50%-owned joint venture had applied for a new exploration licence overprinting the area as the current 10-year licence was running out but the authorities indicated they would deny it. Horse Hill near Gatwick airport was back in the limelight with investors backing the project for the second time this week. Alba Minerals (LON:ALBA) an indirect 6.5% stakeholder in the so-called 'Gatwick Gusher' has today raised £355000 through the issue of new shares. Around 71mln new shares are being sold to investors at a price of 0.5p a discount of about 16% from Thursday's closing price. Proceeds from the share sale will pay for ongoing commitments to existing projects namely Horse Hill as well as the evaluation of new project opportunities Alba said in a statement. It comes after the largest AIM listed Horse Hill stakeholder David Lenigas's UK Oil & Gas Investments (LON:UKOG) raised £6mln on Wednesday. Speaking of which Investment specialist Octagonal (LON:OCT) shot up 65% as a concert party involving David Lenigas took control.
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