PureCircle, the producer of a new zero-calorie sweetener, left a sour taste for investors when it revealed that debt had risen above expectations and that it was in talks to raise new bank loans.

Reb-A, extracted from leaves of the Stevia plant, has been hailed as a potential rival to Tate & Lyle’s Sucralose. PureCircle’s shares soared as high as 286p after it completed a factory in China on schedule and on budget, but they fell 34p to 162½p when it unveiled sales and profit that were lower than expectations. Debt for the year would be as high as $49 million, it said.

Iain Staples, an analyst at Noble who said a month ago that production forecasts looked optimistic, given problems with leaf quality and poor harvests in China, said that a dilutive share issue looked like a possibility. “This is not good coming before there is a proven appetite for the product from consumers,” he said.

The company admitted that it had no new customers but said that this was because approval from the US Food and Drug Administration last December had come too late to plan product launches this year.

Synchronica, which makes e-mail software for mobile phones, rose ¼p to 3p after it won another contract in Latin America. A £4.7 million share placing would provide enough capital to see the company through to profitability, Finncap, its broker, said.

Ramco Energy fell 19½p to 47½p as Iraq served notice that it would scrap an exploration joint venture because Ramco’s associate had not raised the necessary cash in time. Quorum Oil and Gas Technology has risen 8.2p to 8.9p this week amid talk it is close to striking a joint venture with a Saudi group to provide technology for the oil services industry.

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