Skip to content

Omega Diagnostics Shares Climb As UK Gov Contract Published

Sam Boughedda trader
Updated 24 Mar 2021

Practice Stock Trading Your capital is at risk
LON: ODX Omega

Shares of Omega Diagnostics (LON: ODX) spiked in both directions on Monday after a UK Public Sector contract disclosure was published yesterday concerning Omega's contract with the Department of Health and Social Care to provide manufacturing capacity for COVID-19 lateral flow antigen test.

Omega's shares are currently trading at 100.5p, up 1.88% after touching highs of 110p and lows of 92p earlier in the session.

In the public government disclosure, the contract is stated to have an estimated total value of £374 million. However, Omega made it clear that under UK Government Public Sector contract disclosure rules, this number represents a maximum potential value of the contract.

“Care should be taken not to use this number as an estimate or forecast of the actual likely value of purchase orders to be received by the Company for the production of COVID-19 lateral flow antigen tests,” Omega said.

The company is also awaiting confirmation that the Covid-19 lateral flow antigen test has passed a necessary performance evaluation, meaning they cannot manufacture any tests at this time.

When the test is ready for production, Omega expects to receive purchase orders from the DHSC.

“Although the disclosed contract value for our agreement with the UK Government is only an estimate of what the total value could be worth, it is very encouraging, and is an indication of the substantial impact on Omega's future performance that such a level of utilisation of our lateral flow test production capacity might have,” commented Colin King, Chief Executive Officer of Omega.

Should you invest in Omega Diagnostics shares? Omega Diagnostics shares are traded on the AIM market of the London stock exchange (the alternative investment market) which is the submarket specifically for smaller companies. AIM stocks are attractive to investors as they have tax advantages and smaller companies have the potential to benefit from rapid growth. But are Omega shares the best buy? Our stock market analysts regularly review the market and share their picks for high growth companies

Sam is a trader and lead stock market writer at AskTraders. After starting his career in the forex market, Sam now focuses on stocks, specifically consumer staples.Â