Small caps round-up: Bglobal, HMV, Psion

Smart metering firm Bglobal rocketed 31 per cent in morning trading on Thursday after signing a joint venture agreement with South Korean electronics giant Samsung. Bglobal says the agreement will only come into effect after it receives a firm order from a UK energy supplier for its 'smart energy' solution. There are also regulatory hurdles to overcome. Nevertheless the market clearly suspects Samsung would not have entered into such a deal without a clear idea of its probable outcome. Happy days at Bglobal.

The travails of entertainment retailer HMV are well documented, it's fallen 96.5% in the last five years as it sought to do battle with the rise of online shopping. Today it announced full year like-for-like sales down 12.1%. The total sales figure came in at £923.2m against £1.149bn last year. The loss before tax was £16.2m. Under most measures this is not a success but because of the very low expectations for HMV, the stock actually gained 7.8% in morning trading.

Psion, the handheld computer firm, has certainly had an interesting history. You may remember its handheld organisers. They made the firm a lot of money from the mid-eighties onwards, leading to it becoming a major 'dot com' stock. Since 2000, the shares have fallen 97%. But Psion hasn't given up. It now makes rugged, mobile computers for applications like gas metering.

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Revenues in the half year to end of June were £80.2m, slightly down on the £81.4m seen in the prior year. It also turned in a loss before tax of £8.7m, against a loss of £5.3m last year. It has also decided against a dividend payment. The market was broadly supportive, with the stock up very slightly in morning trading.

BS