Doubts about Ceramic Fuel Cells, the maker of a prototype combined heat and power boiler, refused to die after last week’s development deal with Paloma, a Japanese boiler maker.

KBC Peel Hunt advised clients to “sell” and the shares fell ¾p to 20½p. It said that there were no details of firm orders or cash payments from Paloma in the announcement. “At this stage in its life, Ceramic should be moving beyond such development agreements.” It said that Ceres Power’s deal with British Gas had more substance, but Ceres, a rival, closed down 6p at 284p.

ZincOx Resources rose 4p to 267p after raising £20 million in a placing of new shares to fund its project to recycle toxic waste from galvanised steel to produce zinc and pig iron.

Entelos, an American life sciences company that uses computer models to predict drug efficacy, rose 1½p to 22½p after agreeing to supply UCB Pharma, a Brussels-based biotech, with its platform to help it to research rheumatoid arthritis.

Sovereign Reversions, the equity release specialist, was unchanged at 265p after Milton Homes raised its stake from 1.5 per cent to 4.1 per cent.

Humberts, the estate agent, fell 11¼p to 15¼p after it said that sales volumes in January had fallen so far that it would wipe out all profit in the six months to the end of March. It said that it had started talks to find new cash to cover recent acquisitions and that Max Ziff, its chief executive, and Tim James, its chairman, were leaving immediately.

Hat Pin, the headhunter, fell 33p to 46p after saying that a dire performance at The Talent Business, its British unit, would hurt profits.

Antonov, the developer of automatic car transmissions, lost 5p to close at 25p after it diluted its equity by issuing three million new shares to Quivest, its Dutch financier. The shares, worth €0.50, will be listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange.

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