Elephants cannot gallop but that does not mean larger cap shares are uninteresting, because institutional investor types can get overly excited (or rudely underwhelmed) about shares almost just as easy as bulletin board types can do crazy things around smaller cap shares. With large caps it is about spotting big themes, looking carefully at the numbers and setting your levels. With this mindset you can find plenty of double digit plus total return opportunities – which is way better than money in the bank earning you the square root of nothing. Three cases in point today…

Yesterday the FTSE All-Share (Neil Woodford’s benchmark for his Equity Income and Income Focus funds) was again almost flat – a performance matched by the unit NAV of Income Focus. But the Equity Income Fund unit NAV dropped 0.41% to bring the total fund size down to £3.11 billion. Oops….

Hello, Share munchers. There are firms which do IT. There are companies that offer their services to them as IT consultants. And then there’s at least one promising outfit which trains graduates and others to be consultants who then support the IT function of other companies. FDM Group (FDM) is such an outfit. And, as we all know that IT is a minefield of complexities, that has to be a useful service. The corporate world seems to think so as FDM has a few thousand experts placed with companies around the world...

Zoo Digital (ZOO) has updated including arguing “good progress” towards being “a leading next-generation media localisation business that offers a unique combination of software and customer service to the film and TV industry's leading players”. With a current market cap of sub £60 million, sounds good…

Last week I wrote to AIM listed insolvency practitioners - Begbies Traynor Group (BTG) about serious concerns and need for answers to questions on the lack of full and complete disclosure on Related Party Transactions.  It answered but as I revealed today Ric now has another real question to answer ahead of the AGM tomorrow. While he po0nders that one...it gets worse.

I urge you to listen to today's free podcast with Lucian. The sound quality is good and the content excellent. It can be found HERE. In the bearcast I discuss my old pals at Eden Research (EDEN),  Yu Group (YU.),Cenkos (CNKS) and FinnCap (FCAP).

Self-styled “premier technology solutions provider to leisure, entertainment and cultural markets” accesso Technology (ACSO) has announced results for the first half of 2019 emphasising “a solid performance” and “important progress on its long-term strategy to integrate its offerings to uniquely position itself to take advantage of a $3.4bn addressable market, driven by a market shift toward the integrated guest experience and leveraging data to improve business outcomes for customers”. The shares have currently responded towards 800p – er, that’s approaching 12% lower!…

AIM-listed Yu Group (YU.) released its interims this morning. For all the hope and bluster, as predicted, the balance sheet says it all for me and the shares are currently down 17% to 122.5p.

An AGM statement from Yourgene Health (YGEN) includes that it “is delivering rapid growth in line with our expectations” and “confident of the growth strategy we have set ourselves to deliver enhanced shareholder value”…

Last week I asked a few questions of Begbies Traynor (BEG) about its office space and dealings wiuth the pension fund of boss Ric Traynor. It answered via RNS but I scored that response at 5/10. Someone has availled themselves of the Winnileaks service and as you can see below, the company now has a big question to ansswer ahead of its AGM tomorrow at 340 Deansgate Manchester.

Petropavlovsk (POG) has announced results for the first half of 2019 including that it “remains on track to meet its full-year target of c.450koz - 500koz of gold sales (including the processing of 2018 Malomir stockpiles but excluding upside from third-party concentrate purchases)”, with also “the confidence to decrease total cash cost guidance for the full year to US$750 - US$850/oz”…

You all know that I think that Kingfisher (KGF) is cheap and actually, as noted here, a stock with takeover potential. It has also been a stock that has frustrated over the last year. As I noted back in July, the company de facto rejected my suggestion to break itself up and appointed a new CEO – as it happens another French national (who today's first half numbers confirmed will start next week)…

Yesterday the FTSE All-Share, Neil Woodford’s benchmark for his Equity Income and Income Focus funds, was more or less flat but, according to Morningstar, the NAV per unit of those funds fell by 0.51% and 0.43% respectively. Normal service resumed, then...

Hello Share Squabblers. Of the two great British giants in the pharmaceutical sector, I long ago chose to invest in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). But perhaps I should have opted for AstraZeneca (AZN) instead...

On 23rd July it was “Quixant (AIM: QXT), a leading provider of innovative, highly engineered technology products principally for the global gaming industry, is pleased to provide an update on trading for the six months ended 30 June 2019... H1 2019 was completed as we expected and reported in March, with the lower than anticipated consumption of some major customers improving as we enter the second half… a growing order book during H1 positions us well to deliver a strong second half to the year… The company's interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2019 are expected to be announced on 24 September 2019”. Now, 17th September, “Interim Results”. Hmmm…

I am grateful to Reg Hoare for prompting Begbies Traynor (BEG) to answer my questions and so save me from having to go to Manchester. But its response gets only 5 out of 10 and leaves me unconvinced. I look at Sirius Minerals (SXX) where things will only get more grim up North. I cover St James House (SJH) and also Watchstone (WTG), where I give credit where credit is due.

On 26th June “Trackwise Designs Plc (TWD), a leading provider of specialist products using printed circuit technology” updated including it “is currently trading in line with market expectations” and emphasising “operational progress and continued growth in customer numbers”. Its today-announced results for the first half of 2019 should be decent enough then – and indeed the company “is pleased to announce” them, with the statement including “Trackwise has made solid progress against its strategic objectives in the first half of the year” and “we continue to manage the resources of the business prudently”…

Yesterday the FTSE All-Share (Neil Woodford’s benchmark for his Equity Income and Income Focus funds) dropped by 0.63% but the funds’ NAV per unit only dropped by 0.4% and 0.48% respectively. On the face of it another day beating the benchmark, but one should note that with AIM-listed Eddie Stobart (ESL) currently suspended those figures don’t take account of yesterday’s calamitous news from that investment.

For Northern Nimbies ,like my first cousin once removed, who do not want a Potash Mine on the North York Moors  this is great news. For shareholders in Sirius Minerals (SXX) it is a disaster. This company is in real trouble and may not be able to open its act of environmental vandalism after all.

Once known as the journal of record, the Financial Times has seen its readership tumble for many years following a litany of editorial misjudgments. Today it plunges to a new low of crass stupidity.