Former stock market favourite, Ascent Resources (AST) seemed ready for rehabilitation with its shares closing up 15% after the announcement of a new 3% stakeholder’s TR1 hit the newswires yesterday. Given the positive reaction to Mike Staten outing his position to start the week, it was suggested in the market that more stakebuilding was occurring, and with just 75m shares in issue, the small free float meant that any buyer would certainly get a decent bang for their buck. In June the natural resources company reported a beefed up board and a new special situations strategy.
It seemed that with its latest RNS, Oracle Power (ORCP), the Thar Desert Coal project developer was that much closer to a denouement of its multi year saga. The company said it will be meeting with the Pakistan Government, in the form of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board on September 11. The subject of discussion is the now famed Letter of Intent, essentially the green light on the multi billion dollar project in which the China National Coal Development Company is part of Oracle’s consortium. Speculation is that the waiting game could now be over in as soon as “weeks.” Shares of Oracle Power closed up 3%.
Scancell Holdings (SCLP) added to its recent bull run with another 21% on the market cap. The company, which is currently working on developing a COVID-19 vaccine, as well as the ongoing cancer vaccine programme, SCIB1. Some investors are chasing the shares on the basis that it could be the next pharma minnow to follow in the footsteps of this years big winners in the space such as Novocyte (NCYT), Midatech Pharma (MTPH) and Synairgen (SNG).
Shares of Equatorial Palm Oil (PAL), the Liberia focused palm oil development and production company, managed to put on another 4.65%, adding to their recent sharp rally. This was despite yesterday’s “speeding ticket” RNS – typically designed to cool off the share price of a strong AIM stock. The rise today was delivered in the wake of the latest announcement from the company regarding a capital reorganisation of the shares due to be delivered on September 9.
Shares of technology investor Asimilar (ASLR) edged up just under 2% as it noted press speculation regarding its investee company Magic Works, and its strategic partnership with Sky, via Magic’s investment in music experience group ROXi. The breakthrough with Sky means that ROXi will have access to Sky’s 24 million strong platform across 7 countries, with ROXi’s subscribers paying £6.99 a month to listen to a 55 million song library.
Asimilar was also busy in terms of its move on educational technology group Dev Clever (DEV). Here the tech investor was active in terms of buying a disclosable 4% stake in the company, via Intrinsic Capital Jersey. Given the way that a recent subscription in Dev Clever was at 10p, and at a premium to the prevailing market price, it was apparent that Asimilar was looking to buy into Dev at a relatively cheap price. Shares in Dev Clever were up just under 2% to close at 8.9p.
Shares of MetalNRG (MNRG) continued to enjoy a positive reappraisal of last week’s interim results, closing up 10.7%. In them the natural resources investment and exploration group boasted of the merits of its gold asset in Goldridge Arizona. As well as developing Goldridge, MetalNRG promised to close a UK portfolio of oil & gas assets by the end of September.
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