Bezant Resources (BZT) “is pleased to announce the conditional acquisition of 100% of Virgo Resources Ltd and its interests in the Hope Copper-Gold Project in Namibia, a £350,000 fundraising and the appointment of Beaumont Cornish Limited as its Nominated Adviser”…

Well the day has almost arrived. Two-and-a-half years ago I wrote here that 'Bizarre news of the day among the larger cap stocks on Wednesday was undoubtedly the announcement that property behemoth Hammerson (HMSO) was buying shopping centre peer Intu (INTU) with a £3 billion+ all share (naturally) offer'. I called this deal 'madness' at the time and fortunately (for Hammerson) it walked away due to the clearly fast-deteriorating structural fundamentals around shopping centres. And now, around thirty months later, Intu notes 'insufficient' talks with creditors so far, so 'the Board is therefore considering the position...this is likely to involve the appointment of administrators'...

Hello, Share Followers. Not only do I feel a bit uncomfortable about recommending virus-led shares, but I also sense many of you are a bit tired of companies with various claims to tackle the crisis. However, one outfit, which is already improving the situation, seems to have dropped out of the news recently. And as usual, when that happens the share price has fallen away slightly...

Shares in Maestrano Group (MNO) have recently risen from below 2p to above 3.5p and are currently further higher on an “Innovate UK Network Rail Competition Win” announcement...

I suppose that 56% would probably go down as a success in normal times for an open offer from Stobart Group (STOB), but given that it was fully underwritten by placees and at 40p as opposed to the previous closing price of 69.2p, 56% looks pretty poor. Thanks gto the underwriters £100 million was raised but it gets worse….

I speak as a now ex customer but also as a journalist. My issue has been resilved and I'd like to thank the Dart Group's (DTG) FD & PR team for assisting. But broader questions about cancellations and refunds remain unanswered. I discuss this and then a chat with Lucian Miers which covered the markets, Wizz Air (WIZZ) and Carnival (CCL). I look at Trafalgar (TRAF), Katoro Gold (KAT), Victoria (VCP) and Elecosoft (ELCO).

February-announced half-year results from Transense Technologies (TRT) included “there has been a transformational change in the scope and commercial reach of the iTrack system, and the business has the potential to deliver a significant breakthrough in market penetration”. Now the company “is pleased to announce… in order to capitalise fully on the market potential of the use of the technology, the operational business and trading assets relating to the iTrack system have been transferred to ATMS”. For a high price then surely, given the noted scope and commercial reach...

Technically insolvent AIM-listed POS Trafalgar Property (TRAF) has announced a bailout placing/subscription, courtesy of a Peterhouse special, to raise £750,000 at just 0.08p. Alongside that, there is a corporate loan restructuring which will see £600,000 of intercompany debt morphed into convertible loan notes issued to a director but still leave behind a further £1.4 million debt to said director. Well, you can’t say you were not warned…….

Previously writing on Velocys (VLS), last week I noted a “Trading Statement” speeding ticket with the shares falling towards 13p though still concluding since the share price compares to below 3p little more than a month ago – was the company forced to make the statement? Still however ‘opportunity’ for a necessary fundraising? – at a discount (natch) with a currently still more than £84 million market cap. Bargepole / sell. Now this ‘sustainable fuels’ technology company “is pleased to announce that… it has raised gross proceeds of £20 million… accelerates our ability to provide commercial scale turn-key solutions”...

Royal Mail (RMG) really should be renamed Royal Wail by long-suffering shareholders. Today's full year to the end of March numbers are unsurprisingly in two parts, although the gap between pre-Covid lockdown and the last few months is not as wide as seen by other corporate names. If only this could solely reflect a necessity, utility-style, business at the heart of our national life...

No prize here just a chance to display your intellectual genius.  Ideally the answers will be stockmarket related. I suggested to Andrew Bell that if he was a real stockmarket spiv he’d spin off the Aussie gold tenements of Red Rock Resources (RRR) via an IPO as the market is red hot. He thinks it’s a good idea but asked if that made me a spiv too for suggesting it? I replied by explaining the irregular inflection of the word stockmarket spiv:

A new research house specialising in AIM stocks launches today with a damning 100+ page report on Elecosoft (ELCO), a darling of the Casino. Shares in this company are rated highly by Stockopedia (always a red flag), and are being pushed aggressively to retail investors via outfits such as Vox. But the report from Ciphersense Research is damning. Related party deals, uber aggressive accounting, shocking corporate gvernance, executive greed, a rotating door of FDs, pointless acquisitions, failure to file subsidiary accounts. All is exposed.

Hello, Share Diggers. Like most companies in the financial world, my choice for your further investigations today has had a scary ride over the last four months. Perhaps more than most. AFH Financial Group (AFHP) has a nationwide network of more than 200 independent financial advisers whom it helps to plan financial goals for clients. It has 12 offices nationwide and £6 billion in funds under management...

Previously writing on Itaconix (ITX), last month I noted with the shares at 1.55p Woodford dog updates including “increasing demand”, BUT... noting the context of “revenues for the first four months of 2020… an increase of 42% over the same period in 2019”, to… $0.6 million! and funding still only possibly until the end of August and concluding avoid / sell. Now…

The lower reaches of the AIM market seem to throw-up, on a daily basis, some sub-standard sub-scale company that sees its share price rocket for no good reason, only to fall back as reality kicks in. So far this week it appears to be UK Oil &Gas’s (UKOG) turn. With ramping on Twitter and the LSE bullet board asylum in full flow, all it needed was a few tweets from Dave Lenigas to get things rocketing to the moon. Of course gravity will reassert control on the share price in due course.

I look like a genius right now! Having told readers a week and a half ago to load up on gold stocks and just wait, the gold spot price has surged to a shade over $1777 per ounce, with futures now at $1795 and gold stocks have shaken off some of the correction. So is it time for yet more Ouzo? (perhaps the best hangover cure for Monday’s excesses!)

The latest tweet from my local Tories just pushes me too far. These folks live on another planet. I start by discussing the tweet below and why it makes me so angry. The bosses at Escape Hunt (ESC) should be, like Sarah Atherton MP (Con), be sent to the gulags of Merthyr Tydfil and I explain why. I look at UK Oil & Gas (UKOG), Red Rock Resources (RRR), Power Metal Resources (POW) and Versarien (VRS) ahead of next Tuesday.

There are some good jokes in the latest spoof version of Monopoly. It is not as good as Wokeopoly and the references to ShareProphets and the Greek Hovel I do not quite understand, but it is very well presented. Enjoy.

LoopUp Group (LOOP) has updated including that it “has continued to trade materially above pre Covid-19 levels… expect to exceed revised market expectations in terms of revenue, EBITDA and cash generation for the current financial year”. Sounds good...

I had been wondering when further news would come from i3 Energy (I3E) and these week two significant RNSs dropped on the same morning, which ultimately led to shares being suspended for the foreseeable future.