Hounded By The Press
It is interesting that the description of the presumed suicide of former Professor Jason Arday has been that he was “found” unresponsive. As if his death was nothing to do with being hounded, vilified and dragged through the dirt on a national scale. One might have thought that in the wake of Princess Diana, the Leveson Inquiry et al, that this kind of 20th century tabloid style activity would have ended. Clearly not. Of course, nothing of the sort would never happen anywhere near the area of the London stock market, or the small cap area, with CEOs being insulted, hounded and ultimately brought down by persistent negative coverage, would it? Oh, hang on, it still does and no one does anything about it. One wonders when the first Arday like casualty might occur?
Clem Chambers / aNewFN.com
After being in the business since almost exactly 2000, in terms of writing about the stock market and knowing the runners and riders, time is very good at sorting out the wheat from the chaff. This is especially the case in terms of those who wish you well, and those who you wish well. We’ll forget about the others for now. In terms of being a well wisher, with a good heart I would say that Clem Chambers of aNewFN.com is always enthusiastic, helpful and above all wants people to make money in the markets. Given how increasingly difficult this is to do in the real world, his advice in yesterday’s videocast was uplifting. One should always give it a go, whether in shares or gold, bitcoin, whatever. Try a micro spreadbet, demo account, whatever it takes to get started. Or of course an ISA, SIPP. Unlike the USA we still do not have the all pervading stock market culture that led to the announcement yesterday by Elon Musk that he has 48% of SpaceX (SPCX), worth nearly $1tln. Well done that man. We discussed the ins and outs of the company as well.
This Week’s Risers
It was a rather dull week for the FTSE 100, with the blue chips drifting. One would presume that many of the great and the good have decided that it may be best to head off to the beach, and return in mid September. Nevertheless, some of the small caps did catch the eye. After being something of a car crash in many ways, it was the case that Phoenix Copper (PXC) lived up to its name (rising from the ashes), helped along by the way that our friends at RAB Capital who revealed that they are in at 8.9%. Given how hot copper is currently, and the way that the company is sitting on a significant US asset, one would assume that something good could finally happen at PXC. The shares were up 40% on the week to stand at 0.67p, It would not take much to get them on the right side of 1p in coming weeks.
Moving from copper to tungsten, a war metal, and Strategic Minerals (SML) was also up 40% this week as it announced a Redmoor Programme Update and “the commencement of the largest, continuous, 22,500m Diamond Drilling Programme Undertaken from Surface in Cornwall, and GB this Century”. Well, you can’t argue with that.
Thruvision (THRU) was up more than 100% this week off the back of a £3m contract win for the provider of walk-through security technology. What helped the rise being maintained was the backing of well known private investors getting on board the stock off the back of the news.
After a long time in the wilderness it was the turn of Sunda Energy Plc (SNDA) to shoot up over 60% on the week. The AIM-quoted exploration and appraisal company focused on gas assets in the Asia-Pacific region, noted that regulator New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals has granted Matahio NZ Onshore Limited a 10-year petroleum mining permit in the onshore Taranaki region.
There were 30% share price rises for both Bezant (BZT) and Harena (HREE). The former began blasting at its flagship Hope and Gorob project, whereas the latter was basking in the glory of a $5m grant from the US Government.
London BTC (BTC)
It is rare that I interview a company twice in the space of just a few days, but in the case of London BTC, having been insulted after the first one, I thought the company was deserving of a second bite at the cherry. The first interview was to highlight gold assays returning up to 143.1 g/t in Nevada USA. The second interview was regarding the revelation of antimony targets. I believe that small cap companies should be encouraged, not be insulted and undermined.
Ethtry (AQSE:ETHY)
Speaking of small companies being encourages and not undermined, it was good to hear from Jamie Chisholm at Ethtry. He told us about the compan’s foray into data centres, which are of course the backbone of AI, which is increasingly becoming a part of our lives. The deal the company has announced looks significant / transformational, especially given that it is in the US.
