A Blue Chip 2025
While one might be fretting regarding all part of the UK stock market, it is difficult to get out the violins when look at the FTSE 100 statistic of it being up 20.8% since the start of the year. Yes, up by a fifth. This is the kind of performance one would expect from the US market, not here in Blighty. It is all the more amazing given the alleged horrors of the political and economic environment, plus the promise of even more anti-business initiatives / tax hikes kicking in for 2026, in the wake of the Budget last month.
We are familiar with markets climbing a wall of worry. But perhaps the FTSE 100’s rise has been one of the better examples. It has been helped over tariff uncertainties, the rocketing price of commodities to which it is well exposed, plus the boost in defence spending. But even so, being up 20% is a big deal. Indeed, it is such a big deal that Sir Keir Starmer has claimed the credit for the record high on the stock market. One wonders where the index would be if we had been treated to a pro-business government over the past year?
That said, the rise in the FTSE 100 has reminded me a little of what happened during the pandemic, in that when the going gets tough enough in the real world, people do gravitate towards the stock market. One would imagine that some of the burnt fingers in the housing market have also decided to up sticks and invest in stocks. This is over and above a quick punt, or a slow investment via the tax free wrapper that is the ISA. For instance, rather than struggling away running a pub or a retail outlet, just buying a reliable blue chip that pays a 5% plus dividend seems like a good idea.
Alas, the glory that has been visited upon the stock market has not been translated to the small cap space. True, the FTSE Small Cap Index did manage a 9% rise. But the painful laggard, AIM, only made a 6% rise. In fact, given the ongoing stampede of companies leaving this section of the market, to have been up at all was something of an achievement. It should be noted that despite initiatives such as a stamp duty holiday for IPOs, so far we have seen a too much, too little, too late story here. The main block remains that service providers would simply lose money if proper, positive changes to AIM were made. Instead, if you are crazy enough to list, or are loaded, you would currently gravitate for the peace and tranquillity of Aquis, or simply head for the main board. Either way, it is not, and will not be for quite some time, a party.
This Year’s Winners: Large Caps
Although Zakstraderscafe tends to focus on the small caps, it is worth going for a broader sweep this year, given how well the blue chips performed. Really observant people during the year managed to read the numbers on their screen and tell us when Gold, Silver, Copper et al, hit new highs. We even had that with Bitcoin in October, before its painful decline from being the new store of value. On this basis it was hardly surprising that among the large caps Fresnillo (FRES) lead the way with a 4x rally. Now at £32, the rising trend channel it currently occupies, since September, is promising up to £36 while we hold the £30 zone. Greatland Gold (GGP), with its £3.5bn market, was only trading near the £1.20 level at the start of the year. It is now soaring at £5.25, one of the most amazing transformations in recent years. I remember Aussie billionaire Andrew Forrest being involved with the company as long ago as 2022, making the company a no-brainer from that time. It has continue to be one, and unlike many other grand prospects, managed to deliver on its timelines / milestones.
Pan African (PAF) managed a 2.5x rise this year, underlining the feeding frenzy in resources, triggered by the deliberate weakening of the dollar, as well as the tariff wars started in the spring. Last month PAF said it planned a 600,000 tonnes per month expansion circuit to be added to the existing Mogale tailings retreatment complex. Edison Research have upped their target on the shares to 124p from 109p. The shares are currently at 122p, and the rising trend channel from November last year suggests a 150p target for Q1 2026, providing the shares hold the 110p zone.
Of course, timing is everything in the stock market, and November, as gold was surging past $4,000 was obviously a rather good time for Resolute Mining (RSG) to reveal that it had found 60% more gold than previous estimates at La Debo, Côte d’Ivoire. Shares of RSG are up 2.5x this year, although it could very well be the case that the full impact of the resource upgrade will still be having an effect early in 2026. Above the upper 50p’s the shares still have scope to hit the top of a rising trend channel from October as high as 80p for Q1 2026.
Away from the resources space one of the highlights was Zegona (ZEG). The telecoms and media giant was already having a bumper year, but it topped it off with the announcement of a €1.4bn special dividend last week. Sticking with telecoms, and Airtel Africa (AAF) was a 2x for 2025, something which is all the more of a win given the way that Africa has been a Cinderella geography for so long. Here the telecoms and money services group showed off a bumper half year in October and announced a boost to capex to keep the growth going. The proposed listing of Airtel Money next year is an extra kicker for shareholders in terms of extracting value.
Over 50’s financial services provider Saga (SAGA) was a highlight too, as it was perhaps enjoying the rush of that demographic to cash in their pensions before Rachel Reeves gets it and wastes it on Labour voting delinquents / ne’er do wells. The company whose Chairman has over 27% of the shares was able to celebrate strong demand for cruises and insurance services, as well as a 2x rise for the shares over the year.
This Year’s Winners: Small Caps
Although Rolls Royce (RR.) was up 100% on the year, and BAE Systems (BA.) up 50%, it could be argued that the real, geared, sizzle witnessed this year was lower down the food chain, with Defence Holdings (ALRT). While the bears may have been caught out by how the company caught the imagination of the market, and are still trying to sabotage it through their usual defamation, scare tactics and even personal abuse, the shares are still well up at the end of 2025. ALRT focuses on defence technology, essentially the picks and shovels of the sector gold rush we are seeing at the moment. A new CEO announced on Christmas Eve, as well as the great and the good of the military advising the company suggests that it will be able to stick two fingers up at the doubters in 2026. At least, it would be great if it did.
The missing link for plugin overdraft group Fiinu (BANK) was always a company chasing a banking license, until this year when it found a winning workaround. This came in the form of Conister Bank, which alleviated the issue of having to apply for and win a new banking license of its own. I interviewed the CEO, Dr. Marko Sjoblom in the autumn, and obviously struggled with pronouncing his surname. That said, he struck me as a very smart cookie, something which not only explains why the company’s shares soared during the year. But smart enough to suggest that in 2026 the shares will rally yet further as the launch date of the plugin overdraft approaches.
I have mentioned Guardian Metal (GMET) regularly during the year, as have many others. But of course, the difference here at Zakstraderscafe has been that all the way up technical share price targets were hit, as the shares soared within a rising February trend channel. The Druckenmiller buy in the summer saw the shares double, and they have hit new highs through 140p. Above the 130p zone one would expect the shares to head towards 190p, particularly with speculation that someone will inevitably be looking at the assets of the company in terms of M&A in 2026.
Having been something of a plodder in recent years, albeit a marginally profitable one, 2025 was the year that transformed Strategic Minerals (SML). The breakthrough announcement came in October when the company revealed multiple mineralised intervals identified reinforcing Redmoor’s status as one of the highest-grade undeveloped tungsten deposits globally. Interestingly enough, shares of SML doubled in the weeks before the announcement, suggesting that a few people had been digging around Redmoor with a pickaxe before the RNS on October 13.
Although some of the gloss was taken off the share price towards the end of the year, it was the merry month of May that delivered the big spike for shares of Mila (MILA). This centred around highly positive results from the first batch of assay results from its maiden drilling programme at the Yarrol Gold Project in Queensland, Australia. If the company can prove scale and grade in 2026, one would imagine that the 4.5x rise this year on a £13m market cap could be built on relatively easily.
Roadside (ROAD) managed a 1.5x rise this year to add to the 3x jump in 2024, and hence became one of the 2025 risers that was not a one year wonder. The strategy, the management, the cap table, and the rollout in the out of town retail convenience space have all been first class. This suggests that the still only £100m market cap leaves the company at only the foothills of what we shall be treated to in 2026 and beyond.
The share price transformed at KEFI (KEFI) on the prospect of the big funding news being confirmed this autumn. On December 23 the company raised just under £7m in equity and paid off just under £9m in liabilities. All this as it secured the long awaited $340m for its flagship project, Tulu Kapi, in Ethiopia. While all the way to this event the company had stones thrown at it by crackpot, malevolent commentators, Harry Anagnostaras-Adams has delivered against the odds. One wonders why the shares are not higher than a 177% rise on the year to date. But perhaps all this means is that there is more upside left for 2026.
ACG Metals (ACG) was practically unknown at the beginning of the year, but a combination of soaring metals prices, great assets, and the mooted takeover of Anglo Asian Mining (AAZ) in the autumn, put the company firmly on the map. Indeed, even more on the map when it stepped away from the takeover. The obvious reason for this is that it would have been buying a company on a higher rating than itself. Better to allow its rating to go up instead, something which seems on the cards given the way that its multi-asset copper production mix, including gold/silver is certainly on the zeitgeist. Copper/zinc should be in the ascendancy by the middle of next year, while AAZ notwithstanding, the company remains loyal to a buy and build strategy.
After years waiting in the wings, the great resources rally that veteran mining sector operator Colin Bird has been calling has worked its magic on Bezant Resources (BZT). The shares managed a near 3x rise for 2025, and not only helped by the rising tide in its sector for explorers / developers. In the recent past it was the month of October which turned things around for the company, with investee Blackstone Minerals advancing in the Philippines. Adding to BZT’s double barrelled fundamentals was the ongoing Hope & Gorob project in Namibia. The end of the month saw a $7m prepayment facility, and an offtake agreement to support its copper project there. With the shares currently at 0.08p, we are looking for a retest of 2025 highs in Q1 2026, and a charting target as high as 0.12p during that timeframe.
Borders (BOR) is another company in the resources space that has been with out of the limelight, to say the least, for the longest time. But the shares started to surge almost as soon as 2025 kicked off, and have settled up 3.5x up to 10p for the end of the year. I interviewed the company before the stock really hit the big time around the 5p area, but since mid-year we have really kicked off as far as all the marginal Atlantic Basin plays, of which BOR, as well as Rockhopper (RKH) are among the leading lights. I suppose as far as assets in the Falklands we are assuming the President Millei will not do a General Galtieri, should he discover that the Malvenas are indeed worth billions. That could never happen, could it?
One of the features of 2025 has been the phenomenon of “every dog having its day.” This may sound rather cruel, but it was actually great to see companies whose shares not even being able to get arrested, suddenly becoming hotter than July. Eco (Atlantic)(ECO), was rather in the place that Arrow Exploration (AXL) still is, an excellent company, but where the market just does not get it, or want to get it. However, the aforementioned Atlantic Basin margins revival, has turned the corned for ECO, as oil majors stretch their wings as far as exploring for the next billion barrels thing. Cue ECO and its September Namibia portfolio optimisation update, and this month’s strategic partnership with Navitas Petroleum LP. Navitas is an international oil and gas exploration and production partnership with a portfolio of established North American and Falkland Islands oil and gas assets. Yes, we have that Falklands connection again. Chartwise we are expecting a break of 25p for ECO leading back to 2022 highs at 45p in the first part of 2026. Ideally recent support in the upper teens is held to enable this punchy scenario.
I have stated on several occasions that 2025 was the year of the baby biotechs, something which should mean that sentiment in the market is risk on, ultra-bullish. This may or may not mean that we are looking at situation where one plus one equals three. However, it does look like factors such as AI are accelerating research, over and above the progress made in terms of diagnostics, whether fake or not, off the back of the pandemic. A company whom I interviewed a couple of times this year, and hence feel I am an expert on, is Immupharma (IMM). In September the company announced a “groundbreaking” patent for P140, its novel immunormalizer. This patent could be used to treat up to 50 autoimmune diseases, and hence can justifiably be called a game changer. There was a sting in the tail as the company extended its timeframe on a partnership regarding P140 from the end of this year, to 2026. However, one would regard this as being as much a factor of itself boxing itself into a corner in terms of time, rather than anything awry. Indeed, given that the shares are now at a third of their September peak one could say that they have over-compensated for any delay given that the patent is in the bag.
Another biotech that has had its day in the sun, and was a long time getting there was Nuformix (NFX). The 4x share price rise was diligently charted here at Zakstraderscafe, especially the jump from September. What the bulls will be looking for now with the share price at 0.25p, versus the 0.55p peak in November is a retest of that zone early in 2026. The key here has been and remains the FDA drug designation application for NXP002 which relates to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Progress on this, the EU equivalent, and news on potential licensing partners could easier get the shares back to their November peak. This is particularly the case given that the November fundraise is out of the way.
Completing a trio of consecutive biotech winners this year is Aptamer (APTA). The shares climbed nearly 5x in August, and despite a pullback are certainly on the right track. This has been helped by a series of top tier pharma contract wins, the report of revenues being up 40% at full year in October, and perhaps most importantly any fears that investors not understanding what a synthetic binder is, not being a problem. Perhaps rather cleverly the company has decided not to tempt fate by issuing formal guidance for 2026, something which either can jinx matters / make one a hostage to fortune.
There now follows two companies who although they have done well in 2025, achieving major milestones. The market seems to be behind the curve as far as East Star (EST) is concerned. This was particularly evident back in November when the Kazakhstan-focused gold and base metals explorer announced that it has entered into a binding Earn-In and Joint Venture Agreement with Endeavour Mining (EDV), a world leading gold producer. The market seemed to have missed the bit in the RNS which mentioned the $25m+ cash aspect here, and that EDV is such a major counterparty. The icing on the cake from EST came last week with results from Rulikha North and Talovskoye confirming mineralisation. The shares are 2x on the year, but should and probably will be up much more easily for the start of 2026.
Jurisdictional risks are always in investors’ minds. But it the case of Capital Metals (CMET), one could argue that with its particular bump in the road now well behind it in Sri Lanka, the mineral sands company is stronger than ever. Its costs are low, and its resource estimate high, as well as the country being impatient for things to get going at Taprobane. There is not long to wait, construction is set to start at the mine early in 2026, with production as soon as a year later. We are talking 17.2 Mt at 17.6% THM, one of the highest-grade mineral sands projects globally, consisting of Ilmenite, rutile, zircon, and garnet.
Most of the stocks I have looked at as far as being one of 2025’s greatest hits have been companies who had their big revivals during the past 12 months. However, Thor Explorations (THX) was arguably a slow burn riser from the spring of 2024 in the 10p – 20p zone. That said, it cannot be denied that the massive gold price surge combined with an expanded footprint, acquisition and low cost production, have all underpinned the 3.5x rise in the shares for 2025. The kicker for the latter part of this year has been giving the market something to look forward to in the form of the results of the Preliminary Feasibility Study for the Douta Project in Senegal on Monday 26th January 2026, effectively bookending a year when the company has knocked the ball out of the park.
The general stock market rule is that the greater the speculation surrounding a stock on the upside, the less likely it is to happen. As far as Upland Resources (UPL) has been concerned, its mission has been to prove this particular rule incorrect. To be fair, the 1.5x rise on the year occurred despite the £1.1m loss reported in October. However, this was more than smothered by an $8.6m a strategic partnership and framework agreement with Lost Soldier Oil and Gas II Master Series LLC. While the shares have fallen back from November’s Lost Soldier spike, director buying and the company’s exposure to 6Tcf of gas, along with the funding, suggest that UPL is indeed, finally on it way.
For the longest time it appeared that Cadence (KDNC) was engaging in the project development equivalent of 3 into 1 won’t go. Amapa looked to be a project which would be a mountain to climb for the company, on the basis of the work to be done, the financing, and of course the price of iron ore. But in 2025 all the stars aligned for KDNC. Indeed, one could say that almost all the factors which were negative previously seemed to turn into plus points. The good news started from August, as the company boasted mining cost reduction at Amapa. This was followed in September by the signing of terms to restart the Azteca plant, as well as funding being secured for an Azteca offtake agreement. This month delivered the execution of a binding prepayment offtake agreement, all of which means that Kiran Morzaria and the team can fairly claim to have blown the lights out in 2025. After the recent pullback from 5.5p, it would be surprising that the shares currently at 3.4p will trade on the wrong side of 3p in 2026.
It is rare that you see seasoned, successful investors gushing in public regarding small cap companies, especially given the way that should things go wrong, they would damage their reputations, as well as their wallets. In the case of Orosur Mining (OMI) the run up to a MRE for the Pepas project, part of the flagship Anza project, has become something of a spectacle. It has also been a driver for the ongoing rally in the stock. This has been covered here at Zakstraderscafe probably more than any other stock for the past year on a technical basis, but of course there are some who prefer to rely on fundamentals. The shares are in a rising trend channel in place on the daily chart since February based at 20p. At the current rate of progress, above 20p we could be looking at 40p by the end of Q1 2026.
It has been and perhaps always will be about Orom-Cross, the flagship graphite projects of Blencowe (BRES). While we have always known the project is first class, the last couple of months have if, anything taken the project and the company to another level. “Outstanding” DFS results were reported at the start of this month, while the following week witnessed the signing of an additional non-binding MOU for natural medium flake concentrate offtake from Orom-Cross with Yunasko Ltd., an advanced technology company. Since then there have been exceptional first deep hole at the newly identified Iyan deposit confirming a major mineralised zone at Orom-Cross. With all this in the bag for the end of 2026, and a £3m fundraise in the kitty, BRES caps off 2025 on the front foot and with a 90% share price gain.
One would have thought that the trajectory of a 5x winner on the year would be plain sailing. In the case of Mkango (MKA) one might be tempted to suggest that if there had been a smoother rise the rise could have been even greater. Highlights here for the rare earths recycler have obviously been the aftermath of the US tariffs, and the China export ban, something which has turned the company into being a box seat player in its space. That said, doing things like listing its rare earth unit on the Nasdaq, a deal worth $400M clearly helped the cause, if only to underline the company’s ability to execute. However, what makes the 500% share price rise all the more impressive is the way that it still occured despite having to confess in October that it knew of no reason for the share price spike. This is one of the worst aspects of the London market, companies having to issue speeding ticket RNS. But at least MKA is still on the front foot in a very favourable environment.
I have saved the most quirky winner of 2025 until last. What we do know from the markets that rather like parties, it can be just as painful to be too early as it is to be too late. In the case of the world’s first listed SpaceTech investment company, Seraphim (SSIT), it has been listed since 2021, but the party in its space has only really begun in earnest over the past couple of years. Indeed, we are reminded of this in the run up to the SpaceX IPO, something which could list at a market cap of $1.5tln. While were are not quite expecting such big numbers for SSIT, in the present environment the company’s £270m appears modest by any standards. This is even after 2025’s 100% rise following the 50% rise for the shares last year.
