The start of the year could best be described as volatile for investors in InfraStrata (LON:INFA), which is developing a gas storage facility in Northern Ireland.
However, they came out at the other end of the tunnel slightly ahead.
Strong stomachs were required on this roller coaster ride on Wednesday when the company warned there was no certainty its rescue financing would succeed – wiping 43% off the value of the business.
A deal was brokered, on fairly decent financial terms, that provides breathing space so it can go out and secure the fund required to start the development of Islandmagee storage plant in County Antrim.
The shares, which closed last week at 0.74p, were changing hands for 0.77p. Those who bailed out at around 0.44p are now probably wishing they hadn’t.
The wider junior market was a lot more subdued than this particular micro-cap component as the AIM All Share edged up 1.8% in the first week back to school. That was a marginal outperformance versus the FTSE 100, which rose 1.1%.
A stock possibly overlooked by investors was Scancell Holdings Plc (LON:SCCP), a drug developer that is at the forefront of a new strand of medical research called immunotherapy.
It and the early pioneers are developing drugs that re-programme the body’s immune system to combat disease.
Scancell’s specialism is melanoma (cancerous moles) and its success to date has been pretty impressive – although one should say it is still early days.
This week it provided a full overview of the results treating patients – yet the response was rather lukewarm. There are funding worries niggling some would-be investors.
That said, the company’s broker Panmure Gordon, thinks the current share price of 14.4p underplays the potential of its drug candidate SCIB1. Its price target is 68p.
The revival of the natural resources sector has been felt with some significant movement on AIM with Zanaga Iron Ore Ltd (LON:ZIOC) in demand and up 74%, Uranium Resources plc (LON:URA) up 33% and Amur Minerals Corp (LON:AMC) up 33%.
Sirius Petroleum PLC (LON:SRSP), which has assets in Nigeria, has been on something of a tear of late and ahead of a multi-well campaign starting in the first half.
Up 68% this week, the stock has more than doubled since November when it signed a well management contract with Add Energy.
Sticking with the oil and gas sector, Nighthawk’s (LON:HAWK) trading update on Tuesday was the cue for a bout of profit-taking.
Around 12% was taken off the value of the stock, which has advanced over 40% in the last six months.
Swapping direction, and a notable faller this week was Johnson Service Group (LON:JSG), which sold its retail dry cleaning business to shoe and key group Timpson for £8.25mln.
Shares in the Cheshire based Johnson Group lost 4.79% on the week.
Initial proceeds, net of transaction costs, will be around £6.25mln, with up to a further £1mln of deferred consideration potentially receivable within 12 months.
Funds will help to expand its textile rental arm, which provides linen for hotels and restaurants, and reduce debts.
Included in the group is Jeeves of Belgravia - dry cleaners to the Royal Family.
Johnson now expects full year results from the continuing textile rental business to be slightly ahead of current market forecasts.
Elsewhere, Christmas trading came into focus with an update from butchery and food-to-go retailer Crawshaw Group Plc (LON:CRAW), which unveiled sales growth over the festive period on Friday.
But the market was not so keen and shares fell almost 7% on the day.
Sales in the five weeks to the beginning of January grew 13% year-on-year, the firm revealed, while customer numbers also grew, but like-for-like sales were down 3.8%, although this was an improvement on the 8.1% drop seen in the four weeks to November 27
Finally it was a big week for SigmaRoc PLC (LON:SRC) which made its first acquisition in the aggregates sector.
Raising £50mln from investors, it splashed £45mln of that on Jersey and Guernsey-based quarry firm Ronez, which it’s buying from the cement giant LafargeHolcim.