The seasons may have evolved a little but the message from FTSE-100 clothing behemoth Next (NXT) is basically unchanged. Life is still tough in a market where, in its words, ‘the UK consumer environment remains challenging’...

Wow, Diane Abbott must be one popular politician. What other reason could there be that this caption contest garner so many funny entries? But the winner is...

Nigel Somerville commented earlier on how for those suckered in by the Photonstar LED (PSL) ramparoonie, it’s now mega-dilution ahoy (monster-discount placing shares representing a 19.8% increase in the issued share capital). I thank Nigel for the kind words – and make a further few points…

Most of us probably did not know or had forgotten that Kefi Minerals (KEFI) had a $12 million contingent legacy liability. Well that has now been 96% disappeared.

I recently wrote a piece HERE expressing my surprise that the share price of Ariana Resources (AAU) had failed to react positively to good news, so it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that a decent update on its resource actually resulted in the share price closing slightly lower.

AIM-listed Photonstar LED (PSL) was the subject last week, in the wake of a rampfest RNS, of a Steve Moore conclusion of no financials, no cash, avoid. How bang-on-the-(lack of)-money, for last night the company – well after-hours at 5.24pm – announced a massively discounted keep-the-lights-on placing for a paltry £465,000 at an even more paltry 1.25p – vs a 2nd May closing price of 2.85p and yesterday of over 3p. Nice work. Now take a peek at the share price and volume chart of yesterday, courtesy of ADVFN. Surely it could not be that there was mass forward-selling of placing shares between 8am and 3pm?

Hello Share Grapplers. It seems that two of the most popular shares being bought and sold by we great band of punters at the mo are Lloyds Group (LLOY) and Tesco (TSCO). I looked at Lloyds yesterday, reckoning it has the making of a good buy because of slow, if unspectacular, progress revealed in its last quarterly figures. I’ll turn to another well-traded share, Tesco, today.

A “Restructuring and New Investment” announcement from Rex Bionics (RXB) sees Chief Executive Crispin Simon “delighted that the alternative options we have been pursuing have borne fruit” and Chairman David Macfarlane “warmly thank our shareholders, who have made this possible. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our nominated adviser, Stifel, for its unstinting support over the past three years”. Sounds a good outcome then, strange though as I previously noted the company approaching a transaction from the perspective of going-concern desperation. Hmmm…

Look at the daily chart below. Tell me there was no insider dealing or market abuse going on here. It is that of Inspirit Energy (INSP). And then at 2.10 PM we finally had two announcements.

Oh dear. Oh dearie me. AIM-listed Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) has released a TR-1 from institutional investor Aviva showing that it has been dumping shares and went below the disclosable threshold to 2.44% last Friday in terms of its directly held interests. It had a further 0.66% interest via loaned out shares. Meanwhile Advanced Onco shares today fell below the 25p nominal price of its confetti, leaving death-spiral funder Bracknor in a bit of a pickle just five days after ponying up tranche 2 of convertible loans which it can’t convert for less than 25p. Ouch.

Shares in Mitie Group (MTO) currently trade circa 4% higher on the day, at around 220p, on the back of a “Trading update” announcement. Good news from this “facilities management, connected workspace and professional services business” then. Er…

I may hold my nose and tonight go into one of Tim Martin's horrible pubs for a small glass of the less than impressive wines he has on offer to show my support after the UK's greatest businessman launched a blistering attack on the Brexit remoaners and notably the ghastly creature, Carolyn Fairbairn of the CBI. Overall it is a pretty upbeat trading statement from Wetherspoon (JDW) and the shares are up 3.5% on the day. Or as the BBC would report it "Despite Brexit, it is a pretty upbeat trading statement." Tim's prose is golden. Over to the great man...

Dreary remoaners such as Pizza Hardman Darren Atwater and the rest of the liberal media elite keep on saying that Brexit has cased the pound to tank against the Euro. After another taunt from Darren yesterday I bring you the chart below, just to help him move out of the post fact era.

Spoken word audio on-demand platform company, Audioboom (BOOM) has announced results for its year ended 30th November 2016. Hmmm – more than five months after the year-end then, rarely a good sign…

Morning Tom, people on the BB speculating you have sold your OPTI holding, can you confirm please?Thank you. That was one of the emails that I received this morning. The short answer is "its bollocks" but perhaps this merits a longer answer.

A £2 million placing by Ortac Resources (OTC) clearly shows a return to a more positive attitude by investors to fund exploration risk. Having said that, developments do see investors follow more than $30 million of investment risk capital already sunk into Casa Mining’s, DRC-located, Misisi gold project.

Caption this photo of Labour star Diane Abbott on Countdown . The deadline for entries, in the comments section below, is midnight tonight.

Hello Share Planters. Here I am again, risking a commendation to look at the shares of one of the major British banks. This time Lloyds (LLOY) seems to me a worthwhile proposition. I am heavily over-exposed to this lot, so I personally hope so.

Tom recently published an article about Golden Saint Resources (GSR) reaching 8,822,256,582 shares in issue after a latest bailout placing, asking what is the AIM shares in issue record? Well, as at the end of March, some data from the LSE showed;

Digital Barriers (DGB) has announced a framework contract and a trading update emphasising sales growth and “EBITDA is expected to be in line with market expectations”, BUT…