You have to wonder how and why shares in Avanti Communications Group Plc (LON:AVN) are continuing to defy gravity.
They were top of the leader board Friday with a 50% rise and have almost doubled in value over the last five trading days.
Yet the movement appears at odds with the news flow of late.
Less than a month ago the satellite communications firm said it would need to raise around US$50mln as part of a broader refinancing of the business.
Four days later it effectively hoisted the ‘for sale’ sign.
Then on Monday Inmarsat, a potential buyer of the business, ruled itself out of the running to purchase the company, which is currently valued at £73mln.
Yet the traders are nibbling away with volumes increasing significantly towards the end of Thursday’s session, picking up again at the open today.
Does this suggest there is another potential bidder waiting in the wings? Time will tell.
There was a report on the FT’s Alphaville market blog that perhaps provides a clue to what might be driving the share buying flurry.
It suggests that before withdrawing from the Avanti auction, Inmarsat had, after making a low ball offer, wanted to table a bid of 140p a share for the business.
At that point the stock was trading below 30p. Today it is changing hands for 48p.
A spokesman for Avanti said he had no comment on the price movement, adding there was "no announcement due".
Inmarsat added: “We have nothing to add to the statement we put out to the market on Monday.”
Turning to the broader market, the FTSE AIM All Share had a solid, if unspectacular week as it posted a 1.5% gain. It did, however, outperform the FTSE 100, which was more or less flat.
Another notable small-cap riser was Zambeef Products Plc (LON:ZAM), which is one of Zambia’s largest agri-businesses.
The shares advanced 37% this week after it emerged that it had secured a US$65mln bail-out from CDC Group, a development finance house owned by the UK government.
Ecuador mining exploration firm SolGold’s Plc (LON:SOLG) fortunes were similarly transformed with the promise of a US$36.5mln funding package.
The cash from Maxit Capital will allow SolGold to continue with the development of the potentially world-class Cascabel copper-gold project. The shares are up 32%.
Turning to the oil sector where stock in Petro Matad Limited (LON:MATD) gushed 86% higher on Friday.
The movement was prompted by news that an affiliate of Shell has agreed to pay Petro Matad $10mln to exit production sharing contracts in west and central Mongolia.
Also on the up was TechFinancials Inc (LON:TECH), which makes the software that drives trading platforms.
The 32% rise followed an update on Wednesday that revealed the promised turnaround (after a difficult start to life on AIM) was well and truly underway. Currently changing hands for 10.3p, the shares are worth 27p, according to broker Northland.
Shares in ECR Minerals PLC (LON:ECR) haven’t enjoyed the best of weeks following the announcement that chief executive Stephen Clayson is headed for the exit at the end of the month.
Under new management, ECR will continue to focus on extracting the best value from its Australia assets, while it has also taken steps to conserve cash until such times as it is able to raise additional working capital.
It’s been another ropey week for NetDimensions (holdings) Limited (LON:NETD), the software company. It follows a less than stellar trading update on July 25 which has seen the stock almost halve in value since.
Shares in the listed drone company Strat Aero Plc (LON:AERO) continued to lose altitude this week as they fell a further 11%. They are down 90% in the year to date.
The market is yet to warm to the latest transaction (completed last month), which was the acquisition of Geocurve, the specialist surveying business.
The shares are now changing hands for 0.54p (last October they were above 9p) and the business is valued at a micro, micro £1.5mln.
Investors have had a bumpy ride in the last year as the good news (March’s US$375,000 software contract) have been outweighed by the bad (the acquisition of Aero-Kinetics and subsequent litigation).
Perhaps next week we will see Strat Aero fly.