It’s been a rollercoaster ride for shareholders in Ark Therapeutics, with shares falling from a high of 149½p to only 44p in just over a year – but they were on the up again yesterday, with a 69 per cent rise to 80¼p.

The company was one of the few British biotechs to announce some good news in recent months, as late-stage clinical trials showed that Cerepro, a gene therapy treatment for brain cancer that is the company’s lead product, prolonged patients’ lives for an average of 42 days, with 53 patients still alive. This makes it more likely that the drug will be approved by European authorities.

However, some analysts were suspicious of the significance of the data as the drug has not been directly compared with Temodar, the main treatment for the disease. It is also not yet known if governments will pay for a treatment that prolongs life for months rather than years. Details of the trial will not be available until September.

It has hardly been calm sailing for Cadogan Petroleum, either, with the validity of its exploration licences being called into question. But there was welcome relief for its shareholders yesterday in the form of an upbeat initiation by UBS. The investment bank has put a “buy” recommendation on the stock, with a target price of 200p, noting that key wells expected to reach target depths this year could more than double its present reserve base. Cadogan’s shares rallied 9½p to 107½p.

The credit crunch appears to have caught up with Prime People, the recruitment specialist, which fell 9p to 44½p after it said that net fee income in the first three months of the year was static, adding that there would be a softening of demand for professionals operating in the “transactional and investment” parts of its sector.

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