There was clearly an Achilles Heel in the Lockdown Bull Run, provided by the IG Rug Pull and the run up to the latest from Fed Chief Powell. While it may be the case that the worse of the recent pullback is over, individual stocks / special punter plays looked to be under pressure. There was the combination of being long and having to stump up margin on a losing position, as well as traders selling the best of their recent gainers to cover IG’s goalpost moving shenanigans. A good example of the debacle was testing group Novacyte (NCYT). Here the shares were already on the back foot in the wake of the vaccine roll out, but the bulls will be hoping that the retest of the November support zone below 650p will be the end of the recent retreat.
While many stocks in many sectors were nursing hangovers, the sector which has been somewhat out of sorts looked to be back in form. This was certainly the case as far as i3 Energy (I3E), where the company could boast regarding the performance of its Canadian assets, which it said were producing better than both internal and independent third-party technical evaluator estimates. It added that its Canadian and UK teams continue to pursue synergistic opportunities to grow their platform through accretive M&A. Organic opportunities have been underlined by the Noel property in British Columbia – where there is fresh production of 500boe/d on tap for Q2 2021. All of this allowed i3 Energy to promise its maiden dividend in Q1 2021 of up to 30% of free cash flow as a dividend to shareholders. Not surprisingly, the shares jumped 14%.
Sticking with oil and gas, and another stock where investors have been playing the waiting game. Traders seemed to be impressed by news that HSBC (HSBC) had checked issued a TR1 with a 4% purchase at Canadian Overseas Petroleum (COPL). While there was some head scratching as to who was buying what for whom, or not, the event was being generally being regarded as a positive in any case.
Aquis listed base and precious metals producer NQ Minerals (AQSE: NQMI) said that it is expected to qualify for London Stock Exchange’s Green Economy Mark at Admission, which recognises companies that derive 50% or more of their total annual revenues from products and services that contribute to the global green economy. This was seen as being a boost to NQ’s prospects for its stated intent to transfer to a Tier 1 stock exchange.
February 23 made it officially eleven days since the last Bushranger Project Drilling Programme Update, with some investors in Xtract Resources (XTR) clearly anxious to know the latest. This was finally delivered 15 minutes after the stock market close. The result was information on the completion of the third hole of the Phase One diamond drilling programme at the Racecourse Mineral Resource on the Bushranger porphyry copper-gold exploration project located in the Lachlan Fold Belt, New South Wales, Australia. The company said that the copper-bearing interval in this hole was considerably longer than anticipated, suggesting the possibility that the deposit may be significantly larger than first thought. While assay results are awaited, Xtract said the drill rig will be moved to drill the fourth hole of the programme to the west and down-plunge of the previous holes.
Perhaps not surprisingly, after throwing mud at the company for the past year and more, there was a deafening silence from critics of digital passport play Catenae Innovation (CTEA), whom the UK Government has asked to participate in its digital identity policy. A further 22% rise in the shares was the result.
There were further TR1s as far as the shell situation of the moment, Ridgecrest (RDGC) as investors continue to gush over the prospect of what may happen next in terms of any deal-making at the James Normand vehicle. In the meantime TR1 releases revealed tech investor John Mahtani pushed up to 4% on the share register, while Richard / Charlotte Edwards climbed to 8%. Shares of Ridgecrest added another 12%.
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