It’s been a fairly difficult week for equity investors with the shockwaves from Wall Street being felt right across the Square Mile.
While the blue-chips were shaken, with a fall of 3.8% over the trading week, shares in the UK’s growth sector were even harder hit with the AIM All Share off 4.5%.
In times of volatility investors tend to take risk off the table – in other words they liquidate their holdings in smaller companies and stash their cash in safe haven investments.
Ironically, funds have been flowing into government bonds, the very market that sparked this bout of the collywobbles.
Holders of shares in the engineering group Gattaca (LON:GATC) endured a torrid week as the company sounded the earnings alarm and the chief executive quit. Around 30% was wiped off the value of the business as it also revealed plans to ‘reset’ (cut) the dividend to enable the company to pay down its debts.
Punters' favourite
Punters’ favourite Angus Energy (LON:ANGS) was another casualty with shares off more than 20% after it revealed it had raised £2mln via private placement of stock. The injection of new funds will give it the flexibility to acquire assets as and when they become available including 25% interest in the Balcombe Licence it is buying.
The company is one of a number of junior oilers focused on unlocking the potential of the Weald Basin, an area of south and south-east England that could be host to significant accumulations of crude. It has assets close to Horse Hill, a discovery near Gatwick that sparked a mini oil rush.
Mobile Streams (LON:MOS), the mobile content group, is now valued at cash following another slide in the share price following what looked to be a reasonably upbeat trading statement last Friday.
It has been fairly hard going for investors who have seen almost 60% wiped from the share price in the past year. Turning to the week’s winners, Scancell (LON:SCLP) headed the pack. This a company in a very sexy area of cancer research – immune-oncology.
Immuno-oncology
This is where the body’s own immune system is used to tackle cancer. The triggers seemed innocuous: its chief scientific officer is part of a team attempting to create a blue-print for cancer care that could include one of Scancell’s products.
Meanwhile, earlier on Friday it emerged the company was close to attaining European patent protection for Moditope, its cancer drug platform. Over the latest five trading days the shares have nudged up 34%.
It has been a decent week for those invested in cyber security specialist Falanx (LON:FLX). Up a third in that time, the shares have been boosted by a contract win.
Asiamet (LON:ARS) has come up on the radar screen, having notched a 129% gain since the start of the year.
Copper bottomed investment?
There is a good reason for this – the company has made significant progress unlocking the potential of two assets on the Indonesian island of Kalimantan containing copper and other valuable metals. But have investors now missed the boat with Asiamet? The short answer is ‘no’, according to Optiva Securities, which has a 19p price target for shares currently trading at 10p.
Why is Optiva so bullish? Well, the company’s house broker expects 2018 to be a ‘monumental’ year for the mine exploration and development company as it switches from an exploration-development company into a low-cost copper producer.
A feasibility study for the company’s BKM copper project is due imminently, which will be followed by the conclusion of project funding and final permitting.
Asiamet has been successful with additional drilling and a maiden resource for the newly discovered polymetallic BKZ zone is expected once the current definition drilling is finished. So plenty still to play for.