There was a distinct rug pull feel in terms of the share prices of Barryroe duo Lansdowne Oil & Gas (LOGP), and Providence Resources (PVR). A combination of a late session RNS, aspects of the farm-out not fully addressed / understood, and an already heavy amount of long position taking in both stocks, meant that both shares sank towards the close after rallying earlier in the session.
Lansdowne was off 44% and Providence down 34%, although it remains to be seen whether this was an over-reaction due to the lateness of the announcement and a sense of anti-climax. Perhaps surprising in the wake of the RNS was the market not appreciating that the Barryroe Development Consortium has deep pockets, containing a host of players such as Schlumberger, Maersk, Aker Solutions, Keppel Fels, AGR, and Aibel. Therefore, funding should be a foregone conclusion for one of Europe’s largest undeveloped offshore oil and gas fields, especially with the availability of Norwegian export credit, and bank finance reportedly to add to the mix.
While there was a pie in the face for the Barryroe fan club, as far as LoopUp Group (LOOP), the cloud platform for premium external communications, the shares were attempting to regroup after nearly halving the previous session in the wake of a “modest” trading miss for 2020, but more gloomy outlook off the back of this for next year. That said, the stock attracted bargain hunters above Friday’s 74p low, and closed with an 8% rebound.
Serving up almost exactly the opposite type of price action was Palladium play Eurasia Mining (EUA), where the shares not only close up 22%, to return to the £1bn market cap zone, but also gave the impression that news regarding its long-awaited takeover process may finally be nigh. At least, any follow through strength in the following day’s session would most likely force the company to update the market on its M&A story.
There were also a couple of mining companies rather earlier in their story with news, both reporting on events in Australia. In the case of Wishbone Gold (WSBN), it was able to unveil “excellent” results from its White Mountains Project in Queensland. Here a 10% rise in the stock, building on last week’s recovery, was Wishbone saying that these were only the initial results from the Terra Search programme at White Mountains and from the assay laboratory. The company was looking forward to reporting further significant results over the coming weeks in the run up to its drilling programme at White Mountains.
There was progress at Oracle Power (ORCP), as the international natural resources and power project developer announced that it has started it has commenced field-based exploration work at the Northern Zone Gold Project near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. The Northern Zone Prospect is located near to the Super Pit, the second largest gold mine in Australia. Oracle said that multiple significant drill intercepts for gold have been reported across Northern Zone from historical drill programmes conducted by Northern Mining Limited, with fresh drilling for gold and nickel due for the first half of 2021.
Stocks that remain above their placing price in the initial days after they are unveiled are regarded as strong, and indeed, this can be a buy signal in its own right. In the case of Rainbow Rare Earths (RBW) the 28% share price rally the day after the 6p / £2.56m placing, suggests that the share breakout seen at the end of October has resumed in earnest. Bulls of the stock have been licking their lips at the prospect of Rainbow being one of the few significant non Chinese rare earth sources, in this case focused on the Gakara Rare Earth Project in Burundi, East Africa.
Having finished the week flat, anti-viral face mask group Remote Monitored Systems (RMS) looked as though it may have been under threat again from a second negative article in The Times in as many weeks. However, just as a stock rising after a placing can be a bull signal, so can a rally after taking a bashing in the press. This proved to be the case to start the week, and RMS shares squeezed the shorters by 23% to close at 2.55p, with some traders feeling that recent declines were overdone.
