Having started the week with a stock doubling in a day in the form of Xtract Resources (XTR), it would have been churlish for the small cap bull market not to offer up the next candidate. Green SPAC Pineapple Power (PNPL) was up 99%. It was riding high off the back of the company’s “aggressive investor relations”, and the market anticipating newsflow. The situation was exacerbated by a relative lack of shares in issue, well under 100m. Given how hot the renewable / clean energy space is at the moment, it is likely that the squeeze higher could still have legs, especially as the market cap is still only £7.64m.
Given that we have had Xtract and Pineapple Power both bag in a day, some traders were wondering which stock may be the one to deliver a hattrick for the week amongst the small caps. High on the list was said to be Critical Metals (CRTM), up 30% to 8.5p in the wake of a CEO newsletter earlier in January at the natural resources and “critical” metals company. Apparently, as many as 16 potential acquisitions are currently having the rule slid over them.
Less enigmatic fayre arrived for IronRidge Resources (IRR) also an African focused company – with the minerals exploration company announcing multiple high-grade drill intersections and the confirmation of new gold targets at the Zaranou Project in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. The stock peaked at 24p before settling at 19p.
One of the general rules of the stock market is to back stocks that rally from their placing price. One of the current rules of the 2021 bull market is that the more you raise, the more your shares rise. This somewhat flippant comment was illustrated as far as the share price of tech group Microsaic (MSYS) with the shares up 95% in the wake of a £5m placing. The mass spectrometer group said the proceeds from the raise will fund its commercialisation and allow it to develop its product and service portfolio. Particularly relevant in the wake of the pandemic is the ability of Microsaic’s technology in terms of the detection and real-time identification of viruses, bacteria and toxins.
Another successful newcomer to the stock market revealed its latest newsflow, in the form of cybersecurity specialist Brandshield Systems (BRSD). Here the company which specialises in neutralizing online threats unveiled its new technology to be deployed for new and existing clients – including the recently announced Bristol Meyers Squibb. Brandshield’s offering will now include image recognition and optical character recognition. This is particularly relevant to the copyright and e-commerce issues, as well as fraud.
A company which seems to be in focus almost every day at the moment is tech investor Pires (PIRI). The latest here is that 4% shareholder and technology / media company specialist, John Mahtani, has raised his stake to just over 5%. He joins serial entrepreneur Chris Akers, and Riverfort (RGO) as one of the bigwigs on the Pires shareholder register. The shares added another 15%, basking in the afterglow of its recent well received investment in decentralised finance.
Another stock where Chris Akers is disclosable is investment group Gunsynd (GUN), a couple which had three liquidity events last month, including the Rincon IPO. Last month Gunsynd paid £200,000 for Low6 – a pooled betting platform. Coincidentally, £200,000 was exactly the amount received on the latest announcement of a warrant exercise following the latest sharp share price rise. Gunsynd shares pushed 3% higher.
Sticking with the mining sector and there was a decent 15% push north for the exploration and development mining company Galileo Resources (GLR), after it announced its audited results for the year ended 31 March 2020 at the end of last month. Investors will be waiting on fresh updates from the company’s sprawling array of assets, with perhaps the greatest anticipation surrounding Galileo’s Africibum asset, and its interest in five prospecting licences and two prospecting licence applications in the Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana.
Given the ongoing pain in the wake of the pandemic, there has been not only interest in the COVID-19 vaccines, but also the need for treatments for those affected. Okyo Pharma (OKYO), the life sciences and biotechnology company announced that it had submitted a patent application for the potential use of chemerin and chemerin analogues for prophylaxis against and treatment of COVID-19, and to alleviate the effects of the cytokine storm and acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by the disease.
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