Waiting On The Summer Doldrums
Although it may be the case that most market participants have left the asylum hotels protests, the Palestinian Action protests, and the shoplifters are scumbags controversy, the stock market and the financial markets have been as busy as ever. This was helped along by the Bank of England lowering interest rates to 4%, even though there is practically no reason for it to do so. This is if you believe its main remit to keep inflation at 2% or below. It is way above this. The excuse is that it is looking to boost growth. However, given the lay of the land, and all the directors and entrepreneurs leaving the country, one would imagine that even if interest rates were at 0%, the economy would still be sluggish. All the headwinds of tax and red tape remain, indeed, they are worse than ever, and the latest data showing that benefits claims among the over 50s are at a record high, suggest that middle aged people have decided to do the right thing and live off the state. They know that this is the best thing to do, even though they will have to wait longer than ever to get their state pension. The message remains, if you can possibly survive through not working you should, and if you are rich enough to leave, head for the exit.
All of this makes one wonder why the rest of us bother? Perhaps, it is just to get out of the house? Or force of habit. Rachel Reeves’s cure for the alleged £22bn black hole she inherited is to turn it into a £50bn one, for which painful tax rises are due in the autumn. This is something that reminds us that if things are bad under the Conservatives, they are alas likely to be even worse under Labour.
Bitcoin Treasury Strategy Stocks 2.0
The squeeze higher for the London market after the April tariffs shock has taken it to new highs. There was a fantastic bubble in the small caps off the back of the Bitcoin Treasury Strategy boom, and it will be interesting to see who the long term winners and losers will be. But in the meantime, we should be grateful that for a couple of months the junior end of the market was boosted by genuine enthusiasm, and genuine money. Hopefully this will remain in the market.
Stocks Rising On News
Given that we are supposed to be in the dog days of summer, and are due yet another few days of summer weather, one might have thought that the newsflow would have rather dried up. It has not. Indeed, the ratio of good to bad news seems to have improved. This may be because some of the worst companies have delisted, but there does appear to have been a change in fortunes. It could be explained by the arrival of Trump in the White House, although fortunately his influence is rather limited at the small cap end. Maybe we are just experiencing the benefits of companies with CEOs who have been tough enough to survive one of the worst stock market downturns in the space over the past few years, and now they are finally prevailing?
For instance, Technology Minerals (TM1) who own Recyclus, a lithium-ion battery recycling service, announced a £1.1m debt financing from Close Brothers. The goal includes plans to develop multiple facilities to meet the growing demand for lithium-ion battery recycling. It was not long ago that the company was described as being a zero, although they seem to have gone quiet now, funny that.
I have to admit that I was flagged in terms of the excellent prospects of Simec Atlantis (SAE) over a year ago. Like many things on the market, they tend to take much longer than expected to be delivered. SAE announced the entry into supply and construction contracts for its AW1 battery storage project at the Uskmouth Sustainable Energy Park. The AW1 project is a 240MWh battery storage project with the ability to increase to 480MWh.
I have stated previous that it is utter madness for a company to have to release a RNS explaining why its shares have gone up, given that the purpose of being on the stock market is for one’s shares to go up. This kind of Alice In Wonderland nonsense has to end. For Westmount Energy (WTE), the RNS was delivered on Tuesday. Fortunately, even so the stock was still up 129% on the week. Presumably, someone in the market still thinks that 1+1=3 in terms of what may happen at WTE.
It would appear that everyone and their mother anticipated, or was told from 7p, that Fusion Antibodies (FAB), specialists in pre-clinical antibody discovery, were going to announce that the Company’s patent application no. 17/287,441 has been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The grant of the Patent follows the receipt of a notice of allowance in respect of the Patent from the U.S. Patent Office, details of which were announced by the Company on 22 May 2025. Presumably, the notice of allowance in May was a decent clue. Shares of FAB were up another 27% to end the week at 14p.
Another situation which has perhaps taken a little longer than expected has been Helix Exploration (HEX). The impression I had is the one could have woken up and tried to smell the helium a year ago. That said, the company appears to be on track nevertheless, after the progress announced at Rudyard Field at the end of last month. But the shares closed up a tad under 20% this week to a record high, something coinciding with the departure of David “Mr Helium” Minchin. He was famously at Helium One (HE1), which has gone on to nearly find helium so far, but thus far raised more cash than a Bitcoin Treasury company in order to find it.
There was a decent teaser RNS from Mosman Oil and Gas (MSMN), the helium, hydrogen and hydrocarbon exploration, development and production company. It said that key permitting approvals are Imminent for its Sagebrush and Coyote Wash Helium Projects. The shares were up 24%, and should have been up rather more given that it is difficult to get this type of RNS past the Nomad.
AI is a great buzzword, but these days one wants to see rather more than before in terms of value and utility. In the case of capAI (CPAI) it would appear that we have substance, something that came in the form of a non-binding heads of terms with R42 Group LLC in relation to Movie42, an AI-powered book-to-film platform that converts written content into cinematic storyboards, scripts, and production-ready visual assets. If nothing else, the software sounds like it will save a great deal of time. Shares of CPAI were up 24% on the week, after trading much higher.
Alien Metals (UFO) was on the front foot to the tune of 24%, as the minerals exploration and development company said that its joint venture partner, West Coast Silver Limited has announced 12 near mine high priority targets at the Elizabeth Hill Silver Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Alien retains a 30% free-carried interest through to a decision to mine in the project.
Gelion (GELN), the global energy storage innovator, said it had achieved a major milestone in the development of its Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) battery technology, demonstrating exceptionally promising performance in initial coin cell tests. GELN added that it has now also successfully integrated MPI’s advanced materials (Gelion Sulfur Cathode) into Li-S coin cells, delivering industry-leading results. The shares were up 19% on the week, and are up 2.5x since March.
While everyone is focusing on BTC buying, there is a difference with Vault Ventures (AQSE:VULT), as it announced the purchase of not only additional BTC, but also Ethereum and Solana. It is also worth noting that the company has a mNAV of 1.04, so as compared to many of its contemporaries can be regarded as cheap as chips. That is if you are a believer in mNAV.
Stocks Rising On No New News
It has been quite a rocky ride at Trellus (TRLS), with shares of the healthcare rocketing in January on a collaboration with Johnson & Johnson, and then perhaps not surprisingly sinking like a stone in June on the warning of a potential wind up. The shares are up 69% on no recent news. One wonders if / when there will be a speeding ticket RNS?
Catenai (CTAI) has arguably now got one of the best mixes of strategy, AI and Bitcoin Treasury. Perhaps this is sinking in as far as the market is concerned, at least this would be an explanation for the 28% rise in the shares this week. Last month the company added to its investment in Alludium, the no-code AI Agent platform, and appointed Appold Associates Ltd as its professional advisor to its bitcoin treasury function.
I was pleased to see that leading resources company SolGold (SOLG) has mentioned myself / ZaksTradersCafe on its social media. It is much appreciated. Shares of the company were up nearly 20% this week, not only off the back of recent Bulletin Board Heroes charting calls (above 12p we are now looking for 19p by the end of next month), but also solid news at the end of July regarding multiple high-grade intervals at Tandayama-América as part of its Cascabel execution plan.
There has been no significant news at Critical Mineral Resources (CMRS) since it announced in May the signing of a formal agreement relating to a high-quality copper-silver project in Central Morocco. At the time CMRS said it strongly believed that the SHC deposit will develop into a significant new discovery. The shares soared 45% this week.
First Class Metals (FCM) has certainly had its ups and downs in recent months. But it looks as though the ups are now in the ascendency. This point is underlined by the way that the shares have re-rated a further 19%, weeks after last month’s update regarding Sunbeam, when the company said there was an “inference the ever-growing potential of the other two equally prospective structures, as well as a possible fourth structure, and therefore the property as a whole to produce a significant discovery.”
Market Newcomer: First Development Resources (FDR)
It is worth mentioning any company actually joining AIM these days, especially given the way that AIM and the stock market seem to have been determined that companies head for the exit, rather than the starting grid. There may have been a somewhat long gestation period for FDR to come to market, but as today’s decent mention in the Midas Column highlights, if you were intent on coming to market as a copper-gold play or indeed, rare earths. FDR has both. This is especially so given the surge in metals prices courtesy of the plunging dollar / crackpot tariff uncertainty. CEO Tristan Pottas (one of Whitby’s finest) has stated the intention to hit the ground running in Western Australia where the copper-gold is, and Northern Territory where there are not only REEs, but also uranium, lithium and gold. So it can be seen there is a decent spread of metals at the company. Drilling starting by the end of the year gives investors a relatively short initial timeframe to shoot for.
Disclaimer & Declaration of Interest:
The information, investment views, and recommendations in this Zaks Traders Cafe interview are provided for general information purposes only. Nothing in this interview should be construed as a promotion or solicitation to buy or sell any financial product relating to any companies under discussion or referred to or to engage in or refrain from doing so or engage in any other transaction. Any opinions or comments are made to the best of the knowledge and belief of the commentator but no responsibility is accepted for actions based on such opinions or comments. The commentators may or may not hold investments in the companies under discussion.
