GoIndustry-Dovebid, an online industrial auction business, made ground yesterday after it announced a joint venture to sell off repossessed and unsold homes in the United States.

The company, which essentially operates an eBay for industry, has teamed up with the Los Angeles Times Media Group, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and CataList Homes, a property group in Southern California, to form Zetabid, which will auction bank-owned and builder-owned properties.

Five American lenders and loan servicers are providing properties for the auction. The company hopes to attract, through the newspaper, a range of first-time buyers as well as general property investors to the live online auctions, the first of which is scheduled for September 27. GoIndustry’s shares, which were hammered in late August after it issued a profit warning, came back 0.13p to 6¾p.

Oxford BioMedica closed up ¼p at 10¾p despite GeneThera, the American veterinary diagnostics company, deciding not to proceed with an offer for the business. Oxford spurned a 35p all-share takeover bid last month, claiming that it was not credible.

Renewable Energy Holdings rose 3½p to 50p after the green energy group moved into a first-half profit and increased its banking facilities to fund the expansion of its wind farm portfolio.

IS Pharma closed up 8½p at 71½p after it said that a new contract would push its annual results ahead of expectations.

Brinkley Mining fell 0.62p to 1.63p after terminating its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad with immediate effect after a strategic review of assets. The group does not expect the process to encounter any problems or material costs.

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