Results Round-up

The company, listed among the small caps on London's main market, produced 69,000 barrels of oil per day in 2014, the upper end of the company's guidance but in line with market expectations.

A non-cash exploration write-off of $477m from drilling offshore Malta, Angola and Morocco, reversed the previous year's profits to a $314m net loss, which was higher than analyst forecasts.

But Hayward said the delayed payments from the autonomous Kurdish regional government (KRG) were expected to resume "as we move through 2015" after the Iraqi budget was passed into law in February, which gave a strong boost to the shares on Thursday.

Results showed trade receivables at the year end of $232.9m.

Cash balances at the year end stood at roghly $490m, down from $660m three months before, and capital expenditure for 2015 was reiterated at $200m-$250m, a 70% reduction from 2014.

Despite the announcement of a major new contract and strong underlying progress, marketing communication services Communisis saw its shares decline on Thursday as it slipped into full year losses.

Despite revenues rising 27% to £343m, profits before tax of £6.27m in 2013 turned into losses of £13.26m in 2014 due to an exceptional goodwill impairment of £21m.

Overseas revenues grew 36% to £66.5m driven by its Deploy segment.

Showing confidence in the business, Communisis hoisted its dividend by 11% to 2p per share for the year.