Sydney, Oct 3, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - Shares in Sundance Energy (SEA) rose by as much as 24% on Tuesday after the energy explorer sold its minority interests in two U.S. oil and gas prospects to pay off debt and fund other developments.

Antero Resources Corp, a Denver-based petroleum explorer and developer, has agreed to pay Sundance US$46.35 million ($52 million) for its average 10% working interest in the Ashland prospect in Oklahoma and its 6.25% interest in the MB prospect in Montana.

The deal is subject to Antero completing due diligence.

"It has always been the company's stated purpose to identify and develop oil and gas prospects to a point where they can be positively monetised to our shareholders' maximum benefit," Sundance Managing Director Jayme McCoy said.
"This transaction clearly achieves that goal."

The company said it still had bigger ownership interests in five other U.S. oil and gas prospects.

Sundance also has Australian oil and gas operations in the Cooper/Eromanga Basin, where it is holds the seventh largest acreage position among explorers.

The stock rose as high as 69 cents before easing in late afternoon trade to be up 17% at 65 cents.

About 2.8 million shares had changed hands, more than 12 times its average daily volume.

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China Century Capital (CCY), which invests in China, fell as much as 34% on its debut on the Australian Stock Exchange after the float was postponed for a month due to the subprime turmoil.

"We are very pleased with the strong investor support for CCY, especially as our IPO coincided with a period of significant market turmoil in global markets," Managing Director Vic Alexander said.

"The ASX listing will provide CCY with ongoing access to capital to fund a range of attractive future investment opportunities in the Chinese economy."

Shares in the private equity investment company traded as high of 32 cents and as low of 23 cents on its first day, compared with an issue price of 35 cents an ordinary share.

By late afternoon CCY was at trading at 28 cents a share, down 12.5%.

More than 900,000 shares changed hands.

CCY raised a total of about $6.6 million in its initial public offer. That included an issue of $3 million in convertible notes which were offered at $1 apiece and mature in September 2010.

The company has three investments so far in China, including a telecommunications carrier, a quarry and an energy renewable company.

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Metminco (MNC), an Australian gold and uranium explorer, soared as much as 50% over its offer price on the first day of trading, although only about 412,000 shares changed hands.

The company had issued 6.7 million shares at 20 cents each to raise $1.35 million.

In its prospectus, Metminco said the capital raised would be used to fund exploration in its project areas and seek further projects to build a "substantial exploration asset base".

It has 13 tenements at six sites in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Metminco has two ready-to-drill gold prospects in Angelo and Grants Creek in Western Australia, "where initial exploration work has outlined targets that warrant significant exploration programs."

Metminco said its uranium, copper and gold prospect at West Lake Eyre in South Australia showed a strong gravity anomaly. "This untested target zone is a priority for further exploration," it said.

Its shares ranged from 28 cents when trading opened to a high of 30 cents.

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Agenix Ltd (AGX) said on Tuesday its new anti-hepatitis B virus drug had been given regulatory approval in China, propelling the volume of shares traded in the company to nearly 8 million.

The share price closed unchanged at 25 cents, after moving in a tight range.

The company said it has recruited staff to sell YouHeDing (adefovir dipivoxil) in key areas in China.

"The patient population for hepatitis B virus (HBV) in China is staggering," said Jonathan Zhang, the senior executive at the Agenix wholly owned subsidiary Agenix Bio-Pharmaceutical (Shanghai).

"Of the total population in China of 1.3 billion people, 10% or 130 million are HBV carriers.

"At least 30 million and possibly as many as 40 million are chronic HBV patients.

"China is believed to account for at least 34% of global chronic HBV patients."

Agenix Ltd, a biotechnology company, is based in Brisbane and its chief executive.



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