A reasonably positive week was had in the financial markets, with the FTSE closing some 100 points higher at 5,730 and the AIM All Share some 20 points higher at 755 points. An increase in UK unemployment to 8.4 per cent and worry around UK GDP did not explain this positive week, though retail sales in December were announced to have risen (2.6 per cent higher than in December 2010) as shops pushed through with heavy price cutting. UK debt surpassed £1 trillion for the first time this week and talks concerning Greece’s debt continue to face difficulties with Eurozone banks pushing for a lower interest burden. The week ahead sees an EU finance ministers meeting, IMF updated forecasts, Q4 GDP estimates, and the World Economic Forum in Davos taking place.

Accumuli (LON:ACM 12.12p/£17.13m)

Accumuli the provider of advanced IT security services; this week announced that it had won contracts with two separate, major service providers worth over £1m in revenues. The first is to provide DDI equipment for use in the public sector for an initial period of two years, highlighting the importance of security of the network when dealing with the public sector, and the second contract is with an existing customer to provide content catching and acceleration in North Africa. 

Angle (LON:AGL 83p/£29.97m)

Angle yesterday announced that Parsortix Inc, its 90 per cent owned Portfolio Company which specialises in medical diagnostics, has achieved a major milestone by using its cell separation device to successfully capture circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in cancer patient blood. Angle has previously established that its Parsortix separation technology can capture cultured breast cancer cells, prostate cancer cells and lung cancer cells added to blood (spiked blood). However until now, the Parsortix separation technology had not been proven to capture CTCs in actual cancer patient blood. This is significant as actual cancer patient blood would be expected to contain only a very small number of CTCs in the sample (if any), as well as potential issues due to patient disease factors adversely affecting the performance of the separation technology. The experimental findings to date are encouraging and support the potential to develop a successful research and clinical cancer diagnostic product.

Biome Technologies (LON:BIOM 0.14p/£8.53m)

Biome Technologies, the bioplastics and…

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