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This week: An energy company that’s a gas, the charmed Life of Ambrian, and an outfit that knows its Ukrainian tractors.

Alkane Energy plc (ALK 19.5 p / £18.1m)

The owner and operator of "Gas to Power" plants in the UK yesterday announced that it is trading in line with management expectations and has made good progress in the installation of new capacity. Alkane has a strong pipeline of new projects which are progressing well and the new site at Bilsthorpe has commenced production ahead of plan. Alkane jumped up 1 p on the news.

Ambrian Capital plc (AMBR 26.5p/£28.62m)

Many small cap stockbrokers have been hit hard with falling secondary trading revenues and corporate finance fees. Ambrian however seems to have bucked the trend with its eclectic mix of equities, futures and physical commodities trading businesses. This week Ambrian released a trading update uttering those immortal words that trading was “materially ahead of market expectations” but surprisingly the share price remained flat. Nevertheless, the shares have had a good run this year, up 100per cent from their lows in March so a period of Ambrianing along is excusable.

Ark Therapeutics Group plc (AKT 44.5 p / £90.6m)

The specialist healthcare group announced the UK launch of Kerraglove, a mitten- shaped dressing device for hand injuries, particularly burns. Kerraglove will be sold initially to UK specialist burns units and accident and emergency centres by Ark's current wound care sales force. This is another product developed and patented by Ark, which has undergone clinical trials and which adds to the other products in its wound care division. These products continue to maintain the 2008 reported growth trends; perhaps this new device will give a hand to accelerating these trends!

Bglobal plc (BGBL 21.3 p / £15.8m)

Last week we reported that this market-leading provider of smart metering services to the UK energy market had secured a new source of meter asset funding from Barclays and launched its new Energy Counts campaign for business customers. £3m was added to its market cap in the last week, with its share price having risen more than 30 per cent. This week Bglobal announced that NPower now plans to aggressively increase the rate of roll out. Great news for Bglobal, who also announced preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2009. Bglobal has installed 60,000 meters in…

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