Local Elections / Renters Rights Act / The US Royal Visit
Once again we have the media and politicians going big on how important the Local Government Elections are, especially this year. The truth of the matter is that they are not, never were and never will be. This should be illustrated in the wake of the results when absolutely nothing will happen. Sir Keir Starmer will still be Prime Minister, and Angela Rayner, Wes Streeting, Andy Burnham will be put back in their box. And even if the last three sentences do not age well, it will still be the case that no one cares about local government, and the result of May 7 will not have been the decisive factor of any change.
This week saw the arrival of the Renters Rights Act. This is obviously great as no one wants to see vulnerable people ripped off, or kicked out for no reason. Of course, in the interest of fairness should there not be a Landlords Rights Act? Could they not decide not to let out their tax paid properties for say a year or two, and just see what happens to make a point? Like industrial action? Of course not. As unionised people go on strike, private people / entrepreneurs do not. However, given how one sided the Renters Rights Act is perhaps they should, and if they did we would see how necessary the rented sector is, and how disastrous any further tinkering with it would be.
It is probably the case that even if the Royal Visit to the US to celebrate 250 years of this country’s biggest error was not a success, it would have had to have been pretty bad not to be judged as one. If nothing else King Charles seemed to be on a level as far as his health is concerned, and his speech writer on fire. Rather like the one in 1814 at the White House. His Majesty / speechwriter were great on the “you would all be speaking French” and whoever dug up HMS Trump knew how to suck up to suck up to someone with an ego.
Hydrogen Utopia / Jet Fuel
One of the many mysteries of the stock market is how some companies just cannot go down in terms of their share price or market sentiment, say Guardian Metal (GMET) or Delta Gold (DGQ), both have had the helping hand of investor Purebond. In both cases the shares just seem to be going up and up. However, in most cases, and particular some special situations, one feels that cards are marked from the start. I certainly feel that from my own experience. What can be said in the case of Hydrogen Utopia (HUI) is that it beggars belief that there has not been a surge in the share price in that it has had almost perfect timing head of the Iran conflict and the block on the Strait of Hormuz, to be one of the biggest London stock market winners. The company has the technology to build waste plastic to jet fuel units, and so far the shares are actually down 25% year to date.
This is in the run up to a situation where jet fuel prices are rocketing, we have the prospect of cancelled flights this summer, and presumably going to places from which they cannot easily return. It will be interesting to see whether today’s decent mention in the Mail On Sunday moves the dial for the stock.
The market cap is currently only £12m, which even if one contract / offtake gets over the line will look like peanuts. We can compare this to the likes of ITM Power (ITM) or Ceres Power (CWR) who have raised millions and have market caps of hundreds of millions off the back of hype, old technology, or simply not having proved their business models. But as I have said, the market is an unfair place, like the world in general.
But it has to be said that there are some situations where one takes the view that there are some individuals and some companies who will never be allowed to achieve their correct stock market glories. Of course, by definition, if there is a conspiracy going on, those involved are far too proficient to be caught out. I have to say that as a NUJ journalist, the stock market mafia in London is real, it works well, and you would not want to get on the wrong side of it. We are in 2026, it may as well be 1976.
Halo Minerals
Given that I scour the London stock market for good looking charts, and for the best of the news stories via the RNS Hotlist on a daily basis, it takes a lot for me to miss the name of an interesting IPO. Perhaps I was busy at the time. But I did miss Halo Minerals (HALO) and its first day of dealings on Monday. and it would appear that the copper development company focused on extracting critical minerals from legacy mining waste is a company to follow. The Group’s principal asset is the Playa Verde Project, comprising six mining concessions over an area of approximately 13.57km2 of copper-bearing tailings located in the coastal town of Chañaral in the Atacama Region of northern Chile. Of course, copper is currently hotter than July. However, the standouts at Halo are the scale of what it is sitting on. As the RNS this week told us: The Project has a JORC compliant mineral resource of 53Mt at 0.24% Cu including Ore Reserves of 32.2 Mt with an average grade of 0.25% Cu which contain an in situ fine copper content of 79,359 tonnes. Based solely on the Ore Reserves set out in the Competent Person’s Report, and based on a copper price of $5.30/lb and gold price of $4,300/oz, the Ore Reserves have an estimated net present value (NPV10) of US$154.1 million and IRR of 50.9% after tax. What is always good about tailings is that they are by definition far quick to access than a virgin project, with far less hoops to jump through. HALO’s market cap is currently £13m and seem to be just the kind of company that professional / seasoned London investors would go for.
