Let’s Look Back At 2024
I was going to leave a review of 2024 until next week, However, having read the 2024 wrap up from the London Stock Exchange, the temptation to at least mention what has happened via the good people of the LSE was just too hard to resist. Indeed, as a tribute to the article published on December 20th I have nicked the title of that piece. And what a collection of words it is, highlights include: 274 companies raising £25bn or equity through 344 transactions, the launch of the new London Stock Exchange Main Market, Raspberry Pi (enjoying a new stakebuilder of 3.59% this week), Applied Nutrition, Air Astana, CKI Infrastructure, AOTI, Winking Studios, MicroSalt and Canal + IPOs, as well as record trading days on LSE and Turquoise. Sounds great, really good. In fact, the only thing not mentioned in the wrap up was the companies de-listing. But perhaps all the aforementioned plus points mean that this is irrelevant.
Diversity & Inclusion
Of course, success in the City is a magnet for cost and taxation, as its existence is a denial of the supremacy of socialism and the State. Of course, socialism believes quite rightly that everyone should have equal opportunity, regardless of work or talent, something which we are reminded of in terms of the latest mooted regulations to force financial firms to collect and report diversity and inclusion data. Given that The Telegraph has reported that Tory front benchers have written to the Chancellor objecting to these regulations, one can be sure that Rachel Reeves will bring them into practice. This government is like that, especially as before the election it said it would move to cut red tape. The sad truth of the City is that it is still an old boys network and a closed shop, if you are of the wrong background. You can penetrate the inner circle with talent and money, but nothing that can be legislated can change this. It is a bit like forcing people to be friends. We all know of “go woke, go broke”, and know how forcing people into places and jobs where they have not naturally arrived simply does not work. Even if it does, being a square peg in a round hole is not necessarily very enjoyable, something I have found over the years, and am continuing to do so.
This Week’s Risers On News
It was a sickly week for the blue chips, down 2.6%. The situation was not helped by the predictable lack of an interest rate cut in the UK, as well as the lowering of expectations of more aggressive cutting in the US next year. This was perhaps made worse by markets perhaps being overcooked in the immediate aftermath of the Trump victory, and underlined by the way that so far we have not been treated to year end stock market window dressing. That said, at the small cap end there were winners, largely off the back of pulling rabbits out of hats news. Given how sad and cynical the market is here these days, companies really have to deliver to get those share prices up. For instance, Active Energy (AEG) led the pack with a 300% rise, off the back of a helpful loan from Zen Ventures. Technology Minerals (TMI1) ended the week up 80% as it announced an offtake deal with Glencore. Zenith Energy (ZEN) soared 52%, but arguably should have risen more. This was not only off the back of swinging to a pretax profit of £3.1m, but rather more importantly, winning a $9.7m arbitration tribunal against our friends in Tunisia. Tiger Royalties (TIR) rose 50% on Friday as it unveiled a constructive new technology investment angle, via the acquisition of Bixby Technology. This along with a £3m raise and backers such as Premier Miton mean that it is a deal with legs, especially in the current stock market environment, where in many cases one cannot even pay people to get involved.
One of the characteristics of 2024 has been the enthusiasm for helium, a point underlined by news from Ascent Resources (AST) who revealed that it had made a $2m foray in this direction in buying assets in Utah and Colorado. Given that the company has not exactly covered itself in glory over recent years, this news was greeted with enthusiasm by traders, and the shares managed a 12% gain.
This Week’s Risers On No News
Perhaps my favourite re-discovery of the year has been to acquaint myself with the week’s risers on no fresh news. The importance of this is that in such poor stock market conditions, for anyone to wake up at the crack of dawn, pay the spread and the stamp duty and look forward to paying CGT and IHT, requires some will power. It is also something they would not do unless they were very keen. Therefore, for a small cap to rise on new news is significant. Leading the pack this week was i-nexus Global (INX) up 80%, Bay Capital (BAY) up 34% and Genip (GNIP) up 23%. The last we heard from INX it was intending to leave AIM- so presumably the rise is off the back of the shorters covering their positions, and proving the damage they have done to the company. One presumes that BAY is rising ahead of its imminent results ending 30 September, and we may guess that there is more stakebuilding going on at GNIP to add to that seen at the beginning of December.
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