London-listed oil explorers in the Falkland Islands have been soaring on hopes that they are about to find partners with the cash to provide drilling rigs.

Rockhopper Exploration, which is accelerating talks about finding a rig partner, eased 14p to 101p from record highs. Desire Petroleum, up ¾p to 91p, has tripled in price since it said an agreement for obtaining a rig was pending. But it is rumoured to be with private Norwegian group Arcadia which has little track record. Borders & Southern Petroleum rose ¾p to 70½p, double its price since unveiling good seismic data. But only Falkland Oil and Gas, up another 7½p at 144p, has a firm deal, with BHP Billiton, and broker Daniel Stewart believes that it has the best prospects.

Shares in Redstone, the IT firm, rose 4½p to 55½p after Cycladic placed its 10 per cent stake with existing and new shareholders. SVG is thought to have raised its stake from 18 to more than 20 per cent. Vague bid rumours last summer before the credit crunch helped the shares breach 100p.

Empyrean Energy added another 5½p to 41¼p after it said it was pumping a mixture of oil and gas from its well at its Sugarloaf prospect at strong flow rates. It is its first big strike since flotation in 2005.

Caledon Resources, the Australian coal miner, rose another 4¾p to 65p after rival group Polo Resources revealed that it had raised its stake to 7.8 per cent. As reported here yesterday, Polo chairman, Stephen Dattels, is thought to be attempting to seize control of the miner that he once chaired.

Styles & Wood, the shopfitter, gained 33½p to 113p after a bid approach from its chairman and chief executive on Wednesday night at 125p. Panmure Gordon set a target price of 150p and Shore Capital said others were likely to be circling.

TripleArc, the printing firm, gained 0.975p to 5.65p after it agreed a 6p bid from 0ffice20ffice.

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