Corac shares were indicated 10.5 percent lower at 30 penceat 0655 GMT. The company, which reported research and development (R&D)costs of 2.5 million pounds ($3.7 million) in 2008, up from 1.6million pounds a year ago, said its R&D costs are in line withits expectations For the year ended Dec. 31, Corac posted a pretax loss of3.5 million pounds compared with 2.3 million pounds a year ago.Revenue fell to 661,704 pounds from 1.4 million pounds earlier. “The increased loss was largely due to the delay associatedwith our field trial with Eni SpA (ENI.MI), a Joint IndustryProgramme (JIP) partner,” the company said in a statement. However, the company said the 1 million pound it raisedthrough an equity issue during February together with its cashreserves of 2.6 million pounds at Dec. 31 would reduce the riskarising from the delay in the deployment of the DGC to fieldtrial. Corac has been working with joint industry programmepartners Eni SpA, British unit of ConocoPhillips (COP.N) andSpain’s Repsol YPF (REP.MC) for the past three years to developits DGC technology.

($1=.6844 Pound) (Reporting by Ramkumar in Bangalore; Editing by Tresa Sherin). * Says deal to enhance business with local authorities * J4B’s MD to join the executive team of Idox April 23 (Reuters) – British Software firm Idox Plc(IDOX.L) said it agreed to buy web-based content provider J4BSoftware and Publishing Ltd for 0.8 million pounds ($1.17million) in cash to boost its business with local authorities. The acquisition will be funded from existing resources andJ4B’s Managing Director Jeremy Philips will join the executiveteam of Idox, the company said in a statement. J4B, which has its main operations in the UK and theNetherlands, provides databases of government through websites.J4B had a revenue of 2 million pounds for 2008 and an operatingprofit of 0.3 million pounds and net assets of 0.2 millionpounds on March 31. Idox shares were up 2.4 percent at 10.75 pence in premarkettrade on Thursday. ($1=.6844 Pound) (Reporting by Purwa Naveen Raman in Bangalore; Editing byGopakumar Warrier). First, peep the ?Orioles Magic 2008? video (courtesy of Big League Stew) that?s been playing at Camden Yards following victories and stars Kevin Millar, Adam Jones, Jeremy Guthrie, George Sherrill, what appears to be Dennis Sarfate, some other dude Adam Loewen and a whole lotta awesome.Moving on, a softball teammate of mine and Red Sox fan was lamenting Boston?s loss to Baltimore yesterday and how bad the Red Sox have been lately, which is laughable considering they?re the defending champs and off to a 24-19 start.

Meanwhile, it?s series like this one with Boston that are the playoff equivalent for O?s fans. And a two-game sweep, sad as it may be, is cause for excessive celebration.That?s the way it is for Baltimorons every spring. The team ? usually a cobbled-together mix of promising youngsters (Nick Markakis, Jones, etc.), mid-priced veterans (Millar, Aubrey Huff, etc.) and shoe-string starters (Guthrie, Daniel Cabrera, etc.) ? competes with the Yankees and Red Sox for a couple of months before complete implosion come summertime.And this isn?t just me talking out of my ass, it?s math. Baltimore is 21-19, and all is right in Birdland, but check out the records for this team through 40 games (and then through May) over the past five seasons*: (more?). * Rand firmer after peaceful S.Africa election Japan * Stock futures signal bourse starting higher JOHANNESBURG, April 23 (Reuters) – South Africa’s randfirmed against the dollar on Thursday after the country’s smoothelection while stock futures indicated that the local boursewould open higher.

In global markets, Japanese shares fell as worries about thehealth of the global financial sector flared again following alarger-than-expected loss from Morgan Stanley and a report thattop Japanese broker Nomura had fallen deeply into the red. Government bonds, gold and the yen all firmed as investorsshied from risk amid a weakening outlook for the global economy. South Africa’s rand was 0.36 percent firmer at 8.88 to thedollar by 0646 GMT. “The rand is strengthening on the back of a relativelypeaceful election process that went down well, and also then onthe slightly firming euro,” one trader said. The ruling ANC headed for election victory on Thursdaydespite a reinvigorated opposition challenge and party leaderJacob Zuma was easily on course to become president weeks afterbeating graft charges.

Early results showed the African National Congress with over62 percent, battering the hopes of the Congress of the People(COPE) party, formed by ANC dissidents, that it might pose thefirst real challenge since the end of apartheid in 1994 “It is lifting its head a bit. We’ve had generally speakingsmooth elections yesterday, it’s definitely looking in therand’s favour in terms of those kinds of things. The speedier weget a result from the elections the more positive it willprobably be for the rand,” another trader said South Africa’s equities were expected to gain. The blue chipTop-40 June futures contract ALSIc1 was 0.76 percent higherahead of the market open at 0700 GMT. South Africa’s government bonds were also firmer with theyield on the 2015 bond ZAR157= down 4 basis points to 7.925percent and that on the 2036 issue ZAR209= also down 4 basispoints to 8.045 percent.