The Two Tier City
As I have said here previously, I have been into the City of London / London stock market since 1973, and the oil crisis of that time. The FT 30 and its companies were an inspiration, and I hoped one day that I would have my own listed company. Obviously, these were the dreams of a then 7 year old, and not necessarily going to happen, just like being Prime Minister, or having a number one hit.
Fast forward to 2026, and while the FTSE 100 is at a record high, thanks to the great policies of the Labour government, the UK has no proper tech companies and has been chronically under-rated for decades. However, further down the market in my beloved small cap space, all is perhaps still what it should be. Most of the issues are own goals, something due to the failure of regulation, as well as the City’s own mafia like tendencies. It is still a case of the City being what we now call two tier, something Keir Starmer invented all by himself.
What I have seen is that directors of listed companies can gang up against others, after saying or doing anything they can to get on a board. They can be trojan horses for their shareholders, too diluting them to nothing, after gerrymandering the shareholder base by awarding themselves shares and collaborating with service providers, and corporate advisors who also get shares to vote with them. Indeed, once related party or concert party directors arrive on a board they can basically ride roughshod over the rules and the interests of shareholders, and even fellow directors. No doubt we shall see some more of this very soon at a listed company near you.
AI Can’t Die
As we know the stock market is a place which gets excited at the drop of a hat, but this can be everything from being a fad of the week, or a multi-year trend. Alas, last year’s Bitcoin Treasury boom turned out to be not much more than the fad of the week. Indeed, it lasted about 6 weeks at the most. What was interesting about the AI boom, if it is indeed over, is that it lasted so long. Even more so if one believes that it really was not an independent thing. It could be argued that AI is basically an evolution of tech, and it is hard to distinguish between AI and non AI. The Nasdaq has been up 40%, 30%, and 20% annually over the past three years. In this context being down 10% so far this year is a drop in the ocean.
Pinning The Tail On The Bitcoin Donkey
After the horrific buying climax of listed companies buying into Bitcoin at $100k plus going into the autumn, we have seen the digital currency halve in terms of being a store of value. If only these same companies had decided that say gold, silver, or even a cash ISA was a store of value, and they would be flying. While some of the buy and hope strategy has been finessed into achieving yield on BTC, ETH etc, or adding gold into the mix, like Hamak Strategy (HAMA), the overall experience has been the Battle of the Somme. It will take a while before rotten fruit stops being thrown at companies who are into the treasury game. That said, the charting calls here on BTC and ETH of late, especially the call down to $62,000 do seem to have triggered a few new followers on X.
This Week’s Risers
Some years ago when Supply@Me Capital (SYME) came to market, I interviewed CEO Alessandro Zamboni several times, both in podcast and video form. The lasting impression I had is that he had great hair and good teeth, as well as being very Italian. These characteristics look to have finally paid off, given that the inventory monetisation group was the top LSE riser of the week, up 92%. Last month SYME entered into non-binding heads of terms with Société Financière Européenne S.A. in relation to the proposed acquisition of SFE’s inventory ownership business which comprises independent stock companies. Perhaps after all these years SYME will finally take off? But that might be after a fundraise to take advantage of the latest share price rise.
Up by 75% this week was IMC Exploration (IMC), still feeling the benefit of the renewal of its mining licence to Assat LLC, IMC’s 100% owned subsidiary, for the Karaberd Mine, located in Lori Marz province Republic of Armenia. The licence has been renewed for a period of 9 (nine) years until 1st January 2035, which could even see me out.
I saw the news from ZOO Digital Group plc (ZOO), but did not cover the shares as normally the tech-enabled localisation and digital media services partner to the global entertainment industry, moans about market conditions or some other type of dog ate my homework issue. That said, if I had studied the RNS in detail it not only announced planned changes to the Board, but that it has seen an increase in Request for Proposal (RFP) activity, a sign of an industry returning to business-as-usual following a period of prolonged disruption. This unusually bullish state of affairs led to the share being up 67%.
I have called up Strategic Minerals (SML) perfectly since well below 0.5p, and am happy to see either investors or fellow technical analysts get on board in the wake of this, months later. Well done to them. In the meantime SML has been savouring the aftermath of the latest news. On Thursday SML said it has received assay results from drillholes CRD038 and CRD040. The results include further confirmation of high grades of tungsten and tin within the Sheeted Vein System. Final drillhole results from Pad 3 are expected to be delivered in the near term, ahead of the forthcoming MRE update. Indeed, it could be that the bulls enjoy further strengthening of the shares here, even though we closed the week hitting the second near term target after 2.5p, at 3,5p. Best case above 3.5p would be an October resistance line projection at 4.75p by the end of next month. Ideally we now stay on the right side of 3p to achieve the best case scenario.
One certainly hopes that GCM Resources (GCM) Phulbari Coal and Power Project in north-west Bangladesh does better that the one Oracle Power (ORCP) has done with so far in Pakistan. GCM has said that although this continues to remain subject to, inter alia, securing the requisite approvals from the Government of Bangladesh in order to develop the Project. Positives here include the way the company raised £1m last month at just 6p, versus 11p now. Who says you can’t make quick money in small caps. Even better, after months of waiting, the shares easily cleared our 10p target. Above 10p we have the upper parallel line of last year’s price channel as high as 15p to look forward to, perhaps now as soon as the end of this month. This week the stock was up 59%.
Up 49% this week on no news was Hemogenyx (HEMO), and although the company is now too important to talk to me anymore, I still cover the shares from a charting perspective, and did so from the middle of last month from £7.74, not 7.74p as I think I said in the first video on January 27. The initial target was £9.31, and now we are looking at as high as £13.25 by the end of this month, while above £10. It is interesting that with the latest rise on no news there has been no chatter on social media. One wonders whether this is ahead of a breakthrough, a placing (probably), or a failure? Presumably, we shall find out soon.
A scaled up placing at tungsten mine specialist Tungsten West (TUN) sent shares of the Devon basis company soaring. With over £41m in the kitty one would assume that the company could not only get Hemerdon over the line, but a share of other mines in the burgeoning SW England scene. From a charting perspective this was a win, as the shares hit our second target (31p) just before the placing. The view now is that above late January resistance at 24p the shares could go on to break 31p and even push as high at 38p by the end of next month. Of course, given that the fundraise was at 18p, this may be a challenge.
Finally, Metals One (MET1) increasing its stake in Fulcrum Metals (FMET) means that the company pioneering the application of innovative cyanide-free technologies to recover precious and critical metals from mine waste, is currently on a roll, as well as being in TR1 heaven. To celebrate this week I interviewed CEO Ryan Mee, who not surprisingly sounded as cheerful as I have ever heard him. The shares were up 34% this week.
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.
