These are the most-read articles and most listened-to Bearcasts of the week. The most read non-Tom article is Always Prepare for a Good Story Going Wrong as Gear for Music Hits a Sour Note by Malcolm Stacey, leaping back in to the leaderboard after a long absence, at a fantastic Number 1 or Number 8 if you include Bearcasts.

Coral Products (CRU) has announced it has acquired Film & Foil Solutions Limited for £1.35 million and £0.75 million in shares at 15.5p each, with some further payments on settlements on a pound for pound basis, and stating that it “anticipates that the acquisition will be earnings enhancing in its first year”.

I suspect that very few investors and surprisingly few PLC directors have any idea what a recession looks like. For starters most folks in both camps are rich but in a recession, it is the poor or lower middle classes who get whacked hardest. That is especially so when it is an inflationary recession as those lower down the order tend to have the least ability to “play catch up” by forcing through pay rises. And secondly you have to be of a certain age to remember a savage inflationary recession as an adult – the last one was ended with some fairly painful medicine by the blessed Lady Thatcher forty years ago.

You will think me mad but let me explain. Before that I discuss the growing scandal at Kinovo (KINO) and who should pay. I also discuss gardening and walking. I tortured my body with a full day of the former today (and I am not done yet) but am not sure how I will torture myself tomorrow but torture myself I shall. So please if you are among the 97% of listeners yet to donate to Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks please do so HERE. Finally some thoughts c/o Peter Schiff on inflation.

On Friday, I showed how Kinovo (KINO) had misled investors about the £5 million sale of its construction business, DCB, by hiding the fact that it could – and now is – on the hook for potentially unlimited liabilities. But, as a sharp reader explains, this scandal could be far worse.  This is truly shocking, and heads at Nomad Canaccord, or Kinovo, must surely roll. must surely roll.

That was a rip-roaring week! One might be tempted to suggest that equity markets do not know what they want: they were sliding ahead of the Fed’s rate decision in fear of a rate hike. When they got it (a half point rise) they went up. And when the dust settled they went down again. Gold and Bonds did much the same.

Hello Share Fanciers. With markets closed, I venture to open a subject that might seem now't to do with shares and rather self-indulgent. But it is indirectly relevant to share shifters, so please bear with me. Brought up in a straight-laced home in the 1950's I never swear. But I don't object to it in others, like Uncle Tom, for instance.

I start with the warning of a three-day bearcast break in the summer, and explain why. And of how the cat has stolen all the Es. Then, it is onto the local elections, and a warning for complacent Tories about the thief in the night. Then, Cathie Wood and ARK, which really is going down the plughole.  I look at new Sub Standard List IPO, Kendrick Resources, and give it the Bird. I cover bitcoin; Argo Blockchain (ARB); McColls (MCLS); Kinovo (KINO) - where somebody should be sacked; Wildcat Petroleum (WCAT); and Powerhouse Energy (PHE) . I explain what Steve Moore should do on his weekend "lads break"in Skegness.  Oh to be young again.  Irony.  I forgot to say: thanks to all those who have now donated to Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks. I shall be training hard again this weekend, with a day of gardening and an 18-20 mile walk. Think of my suffering, and, if you have donated, I thank you. If you are among the 97%of listeners who have not, PLEASE DO SO HERE.

At 12.25 PM today, embattled retailer, McColls (MCLS) asked for trading to be suspended, after they gained 52% on the session, to 1.75p. Trades were going through close to that price, as “savvy” retail investors BOTFD. Crazy.  Minutes later, McColls announced it was going into administration. Only yesterday, the company warned about press speculation, noting:

After eleven weeks as the latest CEO of Powerhouse Energy (PHE) Paul Drennan-Durose felt the need to reassure the morons owning this stock. And he took as his inspiration the great Ronan Keating who, as I am sure you know, sang a song about the relationship between a penny stock promoter and his gullible investors.

Fusion Antibodies (FAB) has announced a trading update for its year ended 31st March 2022 and that “the number of customer enquiries being received for all of the company's services remains strong, and in H2 of FY2022 the company strengthened its commercial team”. So what of a current 67p share price?...

Over the last five years, £50 has been a regular share price for InterContinental Hotels Group plc (IHG).  Given the current challenges, I am surprised that the owner of Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Regent Hotels & Resorts, has seen its shares recover to their pre-Covid peak.  So, whilst they have “seen very positive trading conditions in the first quarter, with travel demand continuing to increase in almost all of our [their] key markets around the world”, they must also hope for “a return of business and group travel". 

BP (BP.) has announced a first quarter of the year $20.4 billion loss... though also reduced net debt to $27.5 billion, a maintained 5.46 cents per share dividend and a proposed further $2.5 billion share buyback. So what’s going on?

Surely, AIM Regulation must publicly censure Kinovo (KINO), and possibly its Nomad and broker, Canaccord Genuity. One - or both - of them has grotesquely misled investors to the tune of £8 million and rising, only fessing up to the scale of that deception today, which has sent the shares tumbling.

Packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) has announced year ending 30^th April “trading in line with management expectations… enter the next financial year with confidence”, helping the shares up to 325.6p.

When I suggested Shield Therapeutics (STX) was a nailed-down short, on the basis that it would face a cash crisis by May, my analysis was met with derision by Bulletin Board Morons. “He does not understand biotech, he does not understand Shield, he’s a failed fund manager, he is ALWAYS wrong, he works in a pizza store, he’s fleeing the UK to Greece to avoid jail”, were some of the more polite comments. It is now May, and the shares are just 17p to sell. So, what next?

Hello Share Dabblers. Let’s take a look at a firm that takes an interest in niche light engineering companies that may not be realising their true potential. Avingtrans (AVG) buys up such outfits and includes them in its subsidiaries. Then it turns them around, perhaps to sell on. It’s been doing that for ten years and has seen success along the way, rewarding its investors with some jolly dividends too.

Castings and engineering company Chamberlin (CMH) is “pleased to announce” it has exchanged contracts for a property sale and leaseback with £1.25 million of proceeds. What of a share price response up towards 5p?...

The reference is to the fact that there is only 1 candidate in the local elections where I live and he is a king sized dickhead. From that I move onto interest rates and why they should have been increased by more than 0.25%. Of course we should not be in this inflationary mess anyway. Then it is onto  Vast Resources (VAST), Trainline (TRN), Seraphime (BUMP),Parsley Box (MEAL) and musicMagpie (MMAG). I will try to complete my long promised share purchases tomorrow and to discuss them then.Thank you to all who have donated to Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks.  We are now at 15% of target but still 97% of Bearcast listeners have yet to chip in. Come on, just a fiver or a tenner: please do donate now HERE. PS The reference to Kirstie Allsop and a podcast is about this one HERE. 

Producer and supplier of graphene nanoplatelets-based products Directa Plus (DCTA) has announced 2021 results emphasising “revenue and profitability which have exceeded consensus market expectations” and “a number of exciting opportunities in our targeted markets”. So what of a current 121.5p share price?...