Results of five-year study are sweet music for Symphony Environmental

Five years is an age to wait for the results of a study but Symphony Environmental Technologies probably thinks the wait was worth it.

A study into Symphony’s d2w oxo-biodegradable plastic technology sponsored by the French Agence National de Recherche proved ‘beyond doubt’ that d2w is biodegradable in the marine environment.

Symphony added that there was a direct correlation between lab results and real-world conditions, which it said was ‘hugely positive’ as until now it had been alleged that lab results could not demonstrate performance in real-life marine conditions.

‘No government can now be in any doubt that oxo-biodegradable plastic (as distinct from oxo-degradable plastic) does properly biodegrade in the open environment, and is not toxic. This is not, therefore, the type of material that the EU intended to prohibit and I trust that this and other scientific evidence will now dispel the confusion in the marketplace’, Symphony’s chief executive Michael Laurier said in a statement.

The shares rose 35 per cent on the week.

Mediazest soared 68 per cent on the back of news of business wins.

The creative audio-visual company said that more than £250,000 of confirmed additional written orders have been received and roughly the same amount of further orders on top of these are currently at the final stage of negotiation. 

Several additional other projects are at an advanced stage of discussion with both new and existing clients.

In 1984, the easiest way to secure a number one hit single in the UK was to release a song entitled ‘The Power of Love’; three songs with that title hit the top spot. This week, the easiest way to make it into the top risers list was to have the word ‘energy’ in the company name,

Echo Energy, 88 Energy, Aura Energy, Kibo Energy and AFC Energy all racked up gains of more than 33 per cent.

Echo Energy and 88 Energy both doubled in price, the former on debt restructuring news and the latter on the hotly-anticipated results of wireline logging operations for the Merlin-1 well in Alaska.

88 Energy told investors on Monday that logging-whilst-drilling data indicated multiple zones in the Merlin-1 well that were potentially hydrocarbon-bearing zones.

Wireline logging to confirm whether mobile hydrocarbons are present is underway and the results are expected this weekend.

Aura Energy rocketed 58 per cent after it revealed in its interim results it seeking compensation from Sweden for the alleged expropriation of its rights to mine and produce uranium concentrate from the tenements held by its subsidiary, Vanadis Battery Metals.

Kibo Energy, up 34 per cent, was wanted after it confirmed it would spin out its MAST Energy Developments subsidiary via a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange on April 14.

AFC Energy, the hydrogen power generation technology outfit, was on a charge on Thursday after announcing a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the Zahid Group to establish an exclusive dealership for the distribution of the company’s fuel cell systems in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East & North Africa regions via a strategic partnership.

AFC shares were up 53 per cent on the week.

Going the other way was Yü Group, which ran into serious profit-taking as its full-year results failed to justify the stratospheric rise in the share price in the run-up to the release of the figures.

Investors had chased the shares up from 120p at the tail-end of January to 380p last week but the shares now languish at 285p, despite the gas and electricity supplier reporting its loss before tax narrowed to £1.54million from £5.98million.