Wednesday has been another rangebound day for London’s junior market with the very modest gains accrued just after lunch being wiped out mid-afternoon. The AIM index has closed less than half a point lower at 1211.5
- SDI Group up 32%
- Directa Plus up 25%
- AEX Gold down 45%
- 88 Energy down 17%
- Tasty up 17%
A trading update from digital imaging and sensing play SDI Group LON:SDI was well received this morning, leaving the shares to add 33% in response. Sales for the full year – which runs until the end of April – are now set to beat expectations, with the chairman noting exceptional prospective outcomes in unprecedented times.
Directa Plus LON:DCTA – a leading producer and supplier of grapheme nanoplatelets updated the market this morning in a move that (eventually) saw the share price jump 25%. The company was promoting the fact that research had shown the fire retardant properties of Directa’s G+ materials and that its potential applications were significant. The news left the shares at a four and a half year high by the closing bell.
A notable mention for Tasty LON:TAST, who we mentioned yesterday and added a further 17% during Wednesday’s session. The company has advised they have no news to explain the gains and the tone from Westminster was hardly encouraging when it came to how the summer may look, but with the vaccine plan rolling out and an understanding that the economy will have to start opening up as the PM declared there would be no further extension to furlough, the company’s low debt profile could make this a good pick.
At the other end of the board, AEX Gold [LON:AEXG] slipped 45% following an update on its Nalunaq development in Greenland. National travel restrictions with no clear end date have made it difficult for the company to justify committing the necessary resources to a project with no defined timescale. That capital can now be deployed elsewhere but those who were expecting to see the first gold poured by the end of this year have been left disappointed.
Shares in 88 Energy [LON:88E] were rattled today off the back of news of a discounted placing of new equity, along with a trading suspension of its Australian shares. The note included a trading update and there were no alarm bells in terms of the planned use of funds, but the company also advised that the CEO would be standing down in May. Arguably there’s nothing of real concern here, but shares dipped 17% to trade at 0.465p, just above that new issue price of 0.45p.
