Small caps news round-up

Petroleum resource developer Oilex announced the appointment of Mark Bolton as its chief financial officer and company secretary on Friday, with immediate effect. The AIM and ASX-traded firm said Bolton has worked as a CFO and secretary for a number of resource companies since 2003.

Oil and gas exploration company Petrel Resources announced on Friday that it has formally accepted two new Licensing Options in the Porcupine Basin, offshore Ireland, as part of phase two of the 2015 Atlantic Ireland licensing round. The AIM-traded firm confirmed it is the 100% operator, and said the licences have two year terms with agreed work programmed, following which Petrel has the option to convert to Frontier Exploration Licences.

Women's value retailer Bonmarché has turned in a lower annual pre-tax profit but bumped its total divided higher in a year that saw difficult trading conditions across the retail sector. The results showed like-for-like store sales up 0.7% and online sales up 3.6%. Revenue was £187.96m, from £178.58m, and pre-tax profit was £9.56m, from a profit of £12.4m.

Shares in SThree flopped almost 10% after a first half trading update revealed Britain's in-out European Union referendum on 23 June had caused a slowdown in its UK business, while weak Energy and Banking & Finance markets had dented its US growth rate. The specialist staffing company saw first-half gross profit rise to £119.7m, up from £110.5m a year earlier, amid mixed trading conditions.

Dee Valley Group, a water company supplying north east Wales and parts of north west England, reported a slight drop in annual profit compared to the previous year on a fall in revenue. The company reported profit before tax of £4.2m for the year to 31 March 2016, down from £4.5m the previous year.

Shares in Anglo Pacific Group were down almost 7% as the company warned the royalty from its Kestrel underground mine in Australia will be lower than expected. Anglo owns a slice in certain of the Kestrel project's land areas. The project is operated by mining titan Rio Tinto, which means the company only receives royalties when mining is being undertaken on those specific areas.

Shares in WANdisco muscled ahead more than 11% as finCap placed its 'hold' rating on the provider of non-stop big data under review, as well as the company's 200p-a-share target price. The company has today announced a proposed $15m fundraising at 160p a share and a potential expansion of its existing debt facilities.