As an investor who has always been a big fan of oil and gas plays in general it is difficult not to focus on that particular sector at the moment, given the recovery that we have been seeing there. Some people may argue that the move has already happened and that oil prices might not go much above the $64 level that we have hit this week, and could well finish the year a fair bit lower – certainly somewhere in the high 50s wouldn’t surprise me, although a lot will revolve around the outcome of the OPEC meeting at the end of the month. Whilst that may be the case with the commodity itself, when it comes to equities many have lagged this commodity correction, and given the share price action of some of them, you could be forgiven for thinking that oil was still down in the doldrums and completely unloved.

The last time I wrote about Imperial Brands (IMB) HERE, there were a few overly excitable comments made. As noted last time, I have never smoked but have no moral hang-up to investing in the sector. If you do...then I guess you have stopped reading or I look forward to your comments. Anyhow, since my original piece the stock is slightly down but only by a percent or two and full year preliminary numbers highlight an improving second half of the year showing a touch of revenue and EPS growth.

Plastered all over the telly for the past couple of days have been revelations from the Paradise Papers, the stack of documents reviewed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists as a major follow-on to the Panama Papers.

A “Trading Update” announcement yesterday from attractions design, production and fit-out company Paragon Entertainment (PEL) included news of project delays and increased costs – and house broker finnCap (them again) has downgraded forecasts…

Hello, Share Throwers. They tell me that shopping centres are not in favour as much as they used to be. Perhaps it’s because we’re beginning to adopt the irritating American habit of calling them malls. But it’s more likely to be the advance of internet selling. However, the public will never abandon the strong British pastime of real shopping. And so I believe the present level of popularity will hold fast and may even improve. And it will if we ever, as a society, find ourselves with more leisure time. Technology hasn’t done the trick so far, but it might do.

Of course when I was a crony capitalist I spent a couple of years in the Isle of Man with its progressive tax system.  That was all legit, it is called tax avoidance (legal) not tax evasion (illegal) but it is clear that the IOM facilitates a stack of illegal tax evasion. I am not shocked by the Paradise Papers revelations on this and explain why. Elsewhere there is follow on work on Totally (TLY) looking at more red flags and the vanity of sales, then coverage of Red Emperor (RMP) and P:aragon Entertainment (PEL)

Still no statement from AIM-listed Rurelec (RUR) with regard to the potential offer from a consortium led by former boss Peter Earl which may or may not involve IEH Limited. Or was it InterEnergy Holdings. But just as my last piece went out, we got this….

I have been greatly puzzled by the slide in the share price of Totally (TLY). The shares are now 36p valuing this enterprise at c £22 million. Something's not right. Time to crunch a few numbers...

On 11 October AIM-listed Rurelec (RUR) put out an announcement regarding a possible offer led by former head honcho Peter Earl and involving a company which was named as IEH Limited which may or may fund the deal. Yesterday a company called InterEnergy Holdings said that it thinks it was the company referred to as IEH Limited, and that it has no intention of making as offer – and there is no comment at all from Rurelec. 

Cynical Bear suggested last week that all was not well with the attempted fundraising by Tern plc (TERN) principal investment Device Authority. Not surprising really, since the funding round is being conducted at a whopping premium to the value of Tern’s holding implied by its share price - investors who were convinced would be better off simply buying Tern stock. He also wondered what has happened to Tern’s investment in new portfolio member InVMA, into which Tern was supposed to be pumping a further £250,000 by 31 October. It is now November 7^th and there has been no update. Why?

Nighthawk (HAWK) is out of cash, drowning in debt, burning cash and its production is falling month on month and that trend is not changing. In plain English it is 100% fecked. Today we have news of a massive boardroom resignation. We offer up a ShareProphets translation service

Rick Rule of Sprott argues that there is capital misallocation on locating and extracting gold from the ground. Precious metals historically have been the most volatile part of the resource market. Reasons for this include the narrative around gold and silver being more interesting than say that of copper and coal. There is an allure to it. Thus there is a flaw in the way investors think. Investors that focus on precious metals likely do themselves a disservice.

Strat Aero (AERO) is quite clearly insolvent. That its shares have not been suspended pending clarification is just another badge of shame for the world's most successful growth market, that is to say the AIM Casino. Today sees another pathetic attempt to sucker in mug punters to try to pump this worthless stock ahead of another bailout placing. 

Beaufort Securities is house broker to AIM-listed Concepta (CPT) so you may prefer to take what follows with a pinch of salt. Also worthy of note is that it is owned by FIML (which is owned by a trust for Tom Winnifrith’s dependents) and just to keep Tom Winnifrith happy, here is what Beaufort has to say on yesterday’s disappointing Trading and Order update which he covered in yesterday’s Bearcast when he suggested waiting for the placing expected to follow before piling in.

Though down from more than 15p in Summer 2016, shares in Grafenia (GRA) have recently risen from 7p in July to more than 10p. However, they are currently heading back towards the latter following the company’s half-year report for the period ended 30th September 2017…

Even large, FTSE-100 shares can go through periods where seemingly every piece of news brings about a decline in the share price, and the company seems to be hit by one negative revelation after another. But as long as there isn’t anything wrong with the underlying business, then often these are just temporary blips and can offer the sort of recovery opportunities, and potential returns, that you don’t see often with outfits of this size.

Hello, Share Peekers. Like some of mine, your shares are probably making some real money in this continuing bull market. But will it keep going? My own view is that it will, bolstered by the fabled Santa Rally. But watch out for the New Year Party hang-over. And even then, selected penny shares will keep on rising, as they often do when the Footsie carnival falters. Here then are some of my favourite small cap jewels, one of which has already boosted my bank balance big time. And I believe that it, and the other two selections, have further value waiting in the wings.

On 25 October the fraud African Potash (AFPO), now listed on the NEX lobster pot having been slung off AIM, managed to raise £60,000 gross (call it £45,00 net) at just 0.06p to keep the lights on. It is still drowning in liabilities and clearly insolvent. Hey ho, wind forward 12 days to today....

I start with the latest offshore revelations from the Paradise Papers. Tune into BBC 1 tonight at 9 for more fun. I delight in Margaret Hodge the Labour MP being exposed as an A grade hypocrite on this matter and then point out how it is impossible to stop folks going offshore - the answer is not to deter them with punitive UK tax. I look at Concepta (CPT) - which we own - after today's statement, Purplebricks (PURP)  and shamed FinnCap's latest tech disaster Intercede (IGP) where its certainly placing ahoy. Then I cover the issues of ramping, de-ramping and stock promotion.

A 5th October trading statement saw Intercede Group (IGP) Chairman & CEO Richard Parris conclude with “confidence that we will experience a strong second half to the financial year, notwithstanding likely budget difficulties in our traditionally large US government customer base”. Now another “Trading Update”?...