After the excitement of Wednesday’s market moves comes Thursday…which unsurprisingly after the down and up volatility of the last few days is a bit more boring. We could all probably do with it, although a regular bout of volatility is the markets for you (and I would have it no other way). As for today’s corporate updates, two strike me as being particularly noteworthy, Capita (CPI) and DS Smith (SMDS)…

Previously writing on marine service provider James Fisher & Sons (FSJ), in October with the shares down to circa 530p I noted with it seeing it necessary to make “detailed” reviews to bargepole. The shares last closed at 499p but are currently below 390p on the back of full-year results…

Parsley Box (MEAL) has served up unaudited 2021 numbers which are mouthwateringly awful and announced a £5.9 million placing and £1.1 million open offer which is not underwritten. The price of 20p is a small premium to yesterday’s close but a big discount to when FinnCrap started scuttling around the City with the begging bowl out.

Hello Share Fanciers. It’s amazing the way some companies are now making more money than before covid first struck. One such lucky outfit is Ashtead Group (AHT), the Footsie giant that loans out building tools. This company is an irritation to me. At one stage I was so amazed at the energy of a rising share price that I thought it just couldn’t go on. And so, after holding for ten years or so, I sold the lot. You can guess what happened next…

The fallout from January’s much-delayed AGM and sack-the-board EGM still continues. Whilst the Board survived, the rebels – with ShareSoc in tow – have again cried foul and it remains to be seen how the situation can be resolved.

Mothercare plc (MTC) has made a “Statement re Russia”. As a “global specialist brand for parents and young children”, what does it have to say?…

Sam runs Finncap (FCAP) which earned vast fees floating Parsley Box (MEAL) at 200p last March. The shares are now 17.5p. As a belated celebration of International Women’s Day I have dropped Sam a note.

I start with a recovered Joshua learming a new word. Then it is onto Gfinity (GFIN) and Nigel Wray, Guild ESports (GILD), Parlsey Box (MEAL), the markets and Ukraine, Chill Brands (CHLL) – the day’s biggest gainer (pro tem), a true dead cat bounce and Cineworld (CINE).  There is also a history lesson for GCSE student, our in house Euro loon, my friend, Jonathan Price.

I am sure that almost everyone is feeling more comfortable about the stock market today…except anyone who sold all their positions a day or two ago. Of course one day of positive performance means very little, but that is the markets for you. Nearly fifty percent of days will be up…and nearly fifty percent will be down and the real key – apart from finding some innovative and sensible corporate names – is to buy when others are fearful and sell when others are greedy. So I do hope you bought some more of a share or two you like late last week or early this week. As for today, I’ve been looking at latest corporate numbers and, like the complete sad sack I am, so far have racked up three corporate conference calls…

Describing itself as “a world-leading video game media and technology business”, Gfinity (GFIN) has announced an “Update on first half performance” including emphasising “strong progress made during H1 in the areas of greatest strategic value”. So why currently a share price of 1.225p, down 49%?!…

Precious metals dealer Patrick Yip is clearly talking is own book but is, I think, correct in suggesting that everything is becoming more expensive and we see that in the one year performance of most commodities. The US Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) report of 7.5% seems to be very understated but this rate of inflation alone would remove 35% of your purchasing power in five years.

You don’t need to be Greta, the doom Goblin, Thunberg to know that in today’s environmentally friendly RNS Reach (i.e not financially significant) announcement from Versarien (VRS), the loathsome bore Neill Ricketts is talking out of his fat posterior. Here’s why.

Petropavlovsk (POG) has today issued a statement “Events in Ukraine.” After this I would feel dirty owning its shares, it shows a company that is morally bankrupt.

Hello Share Runners. One of the biggest Footsie fallers because of the war is one of my financial favourites. Legal & General (LGEN) has dropped rather a lot. Before the invasion it was not far short of 300p. As the tanks rolled it has dropped to below 250p. Yet, this could be one of the fastest shares to recover in the usual rally that seems to come a month or so after a new war breaks out.

What does your listed client have to hide? The truth I suspect. But two days of silence on this Standard listed POS really is not good.  I look at what is happening in Ukraine and what happens next and suggest that some Ukranians are now not being sensible or reasonable. I cover Omega Diagnostics (ODX), Amigo (AMGO), Guild ESports (GILD) and Predator Oil & Gas (PRD).

Previously writing on ‘Wildwood’ and ‘dim t’ casual dining restaurants company Tasty (TAST), in January with the shares at 5.25p I concluded ‘I suggest it still currently a lack-of-financial-specifics avoid and a further caution on recent hospitality sector trading’. So what of a further trading update today?…

Nigel Somerville’s hero Jordan Roy Byrne has come out with a big call: gold to $4,000, silver to $100 by 2024 with a stagflationary recession on its way.  The great man says that…

Yesterday afternoon at 3.40 PM AIM sewer dog Omega Diagnostics (ODX) stunned the market with news that shareholders had committed financial hara kiri by voting down GM Resolutions to allow the proposed £5.48 million placing and open offer. That was madness, what followed was utter madness. 

A “Directors’ Share Purchases/PDMR Shareholding”-titled announcement from marketing automation and customer engagement software group dotDigital (DOTD) and the shares currently up to 65.2p. Good news then?…

Currently the conflict in Ukraine is a huge risk for any companies operating there or in Russia, and even more so with further sanctions being put in place and proposed.