Local Elections
While local elections normally do not mean that much in the scheme of things, they do certainly provide great political copy at the time. We have Sadiq Khan equalling Dick Whittington’s three times as Mayor of London, largely due to an unelectable Conservative candidate. But even has been Labour getting in a twist over Gaza, a topic which to be fair it could never influence even if it wanted to. The alleged lay of the land is that last week though, was not bad enough for Sunak to be deposed.
Kazakhstan
In the real world, the London stock market, those negative press articles just kept on coming as we were reminded that there have been fewer IPOs here of late than Kazakhstan. At the same time, the FTSE 100 kept on reaching new highs. Even the bête noire of the moment, the AIM market rose 2%, reaching the peak of last July. Our journalist friends stuck the knife into stock picking fund managers, Coutts moving £2bn out of UK shares. Dominic O’Connell of Times Radio suggested that AIM needs to sharpen up its act. Luckily, such news / articles are a sign of the bottom of the market, not the top, something which Richard Power of Octopus Investments underlined in O’Connell’s article. Ironically, we need more of these negative pieces to keep driving the market higher.
Pound Shop Private Eye
That said, there are people who enjoy the stock market being in the bin, not only the shorters. It is usually the case that just as bad news sells, so invariably does knocking small cap companies and their management. But it does take a special kind of warped mindset to gloat in the demise of minnows and those who lose money when they fail. Alas, front running negative news, or defaming small caps is easy, as they simply do not have the legal clout to fight back, and the regulator has no apparent interest. It is funny how the blue chips (with strong lawyers and institutional backing) do not get the pound shop Private Eye treatment.
£85bn
In fact, the real horror of the week was that the Bank of England’s QE scheme has so far cost the taxpayer £85bn. Quite why these clowns are still “independent” remains a mystery. Or maybe it does not. Blowing such a quantum of cash would not be allowed if the BoE were accountable. But then again the Government lost how much via PPE during the pandemic?
Electric Guitar
As far as the real action during the week, I attended an event for Electric Guitar (ELEG), which actually willingly listed on AIM. Through its 3radical Voco software, it enables organisations to engage individuals and request their data directly using progressive and interactive digital experiences, at scale. While it may take some time for the market to realise who profitable this could be for ELEG, the company does stand a decent chance at being an important UK tech play, as the lay of the land as far as the use of data on the internet changes.
Helix Exploration
And to remind us how much of a counter indicator the newspapers are currently, one of last month’s IPOs, Helix Exploration (HEX) was up to 15.5p, having listed at 10p. The 50% rise was clearly the result of the market realising that this is a serious helium play, and perhaps a few are aware that last August’s listing of Pulsar Helium (PLSR) in Canada, was a 5x by February. Given that the HEX IPO was scaled back by two thirds, one would imagine that there is still some decent pent-up demand waiting in the wings.
Asiamet
A situation which was called up on a charting basis, as well as bumper copper results last month, has been Asiamet (ARS). Here the stock which has been a painful laggard, looks as though it is finally responding to the looming deficit in the green metal, which according to the latest Goldman Sachs view will be the “new oil.” Also helping out as far as the stock rising another third this week was comment that the company could be a M&A target.
CleanTech Lithium
It was also pleasing to see CleanTech Lithium (CTL) rise rebound nearly 30%, as the company regroups after the departure of the former CEO. The Chairman Steve Kessler is a blue chip mining sector player, with the market clearly taking the view that he is a safe pair of hands in terms of getting CTL’s projects in Chile over the line.
Ondine
Ondine Biomedical (OBI) was a sharp riser at the end of the week, something which was even more notably given that it was Friday that the antimicrobial therapy group announced a fundraise at a 40% premium. This rise was overdue given that the company is now in the box seat as far as its space is concerned, ahead of phase 3 clinical trial preparations commercialisation of its flagship Steriwave® system. The fact that the fundraise had several institutional supporters added extra zing to the fundraise.
Angle
Angle (AGL) was also up nearly 30% to end the week, and it has to be said, it was surprising that it was not up much more. Announcing an assay development deal with AstraZeneca (AZN) is noteworthy, and for a minnow such as AGL, transformational. But of course, we are talking a company that is the London stock market, not the NASDAQ.
Wildcat
The perennial wild card stock Wildcat Petroleum (WCAT) saw its share price rebound 10% at the end of the week, off the main 0,15p support zone from which they tripled in the autumn. Last month the stock fell on Sudan disappointment, but the market may have missed the way that the company passed its due diligence in South Sudan, leaving the door open for positive developments there.
Interviews Of The Week
Finally, the interviews of the week apart from Electric Guitar (ELEG), were at least to my mind, noteworthy. In the case of LifeSafe (LIFS), the fire safety group is making decent inroads in the industrial part of its business, something which I discussed with CEO Neil Smith.
As far as One Media IP (OMIP), the digital media content provider is focused on an area of personal interest, vintage music. Recent acquisitions include Mungo Jerry and James Brown. Such evergreen IP in an ever growing space thanks to streaming and new technology, means that this is an under-rated company to watch.
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