Skinbiotherapeutics (SBTX) boss Stuart Ashman until today held zero shares in the company. And he told us all that it had enough cash to last it until the end of next year at least.  And so now there is a £4 million placing and £500,000 open offer at 16p.  Mr Ashman can you see why I might be annoyed?

JD Wetherspoon’s (JDW) results today were, predictably, impacted by the insane lockdown. No doubt middle class and affluent #FBPE morons on twitter who have been calling for a boycott of JD Wetherspoon in retaliation for Mr Martin’s pro Brexit stance will today be cheering. After all, if any of his staff do lose their jobs they will only be poor people whose lives don’t really matter.  Naturally, Mr Martin has lashed out at the Government’s insane policies and his dissection is clinical and ruthless. The great man opines:

This morning AIM-listed Catenae Innovation plc (CTEA) has issued two RNSs covering a new joint venture with BHA Medical – to which is it issuing 10 million warrants at 2.5p, and a further 2 million warrants at 2.5p to “other parties”….whoever that may be. Catenae’s shares are up to 2.8p on the news, so BHA and person or persons unknown are already in the money.

Okay, I know that Neill Ricketts thinks that rules are for little people and since his Nomad is the disgraced SP Angel, which is quite happy to act for proven frauds, it probably does not care either. Maybe the Oxymorons at AIM Regulation need to whir into action?

Back in the day (and I mean a decade plus ago) Serco (SRP) was riding a wave of outsourcing expansion, as governments and large corporations alike looked to find ways to save money. Today, Serco describes itself as an ‘international provider of services to governments’, which sounds suitably dull. However, there is never anything dull about a double-digit percentage share price rise as seen today…

Hello, Share Scrapers. Biotech is a hot field at the moment, what with the pandemic and the consequent sharper focus on medical opportunities in the stock market. So allow me to commend International Biotechnology Trust (IBT)…

Franco Manca and The Real Greek restaurants company Fulham Shore (FUL) has announced full-year results, with Chairman David Page stating “I am pleased to report that the company has emerged in robust shape from this critical period”…

In this podcast I discuss my father’s funeral, changing patterns of consumer behaviour and the delusional world of TrakM8 (TRAK) and its creaking balance sheet.

Currently you could easily argue that there is a longer term investment case for numerous oil and gas producers, based on the assumption that commodity prices will improve over the next few years, and could even spike in the same way that we’ve seen in the past after prolonged periods of low demand.

So I was bang on the money – or lack of it. Nine days ago Finablr plc (FIN) announced it had received an offer for Finablr Ltd and its subsidiaries and reading between the lines my view was that shareholders in the plc would’t see a penny, not that it was made explicitly clear by the RNS. Today we have had an update…….

Previously writing on UK engineering and construction company NMCN plc (NMCN), last month I noted an update attempted no-one watching o’clock? – with clearly a far from planned CEO ‘step down’ and a trading warning following recent CFO resignation and with the shares around 250p to avoid / sell. Now a further “Trading Update”…

Previously on hostel-focused online booking group Hostelworld (HSW), in August I wrote “pleased to announce” half-year results… it sure? – concluding at a current 62p share price, a still more than £70 million market cap, I currently avoid. The shares last closed at 54.1p, and today a “Trading update”…

As investors, we are told to embrace structural shifts and regime changes because if you are early spotting something, then let the good times roll in terms of share price valuation and associated portfolio prowess. In this most strange of years, we clearly have had five years of e-commerce shifts (as the comedy rent collection numbers from Hammerson (HMSO) for the last few quarters show). So for two businesses that are currently c. 95% and 100% online sales-centred, everything should be great, right? Well if you look at the share price movements of Domino’s Pizza (DOM) and AO World (AO.) today, you would be excused for asking what on earth was going on, with shares in the former down over 10% and shares in the latter up over 10%, supplementing a massive year-to-date performance (particularly focused in the last five months). Let’s start with Domino’s…

Rick Rule of Sprott is, perhaps, the world’s best known investor in precious metals. So maybe he is talking his own book.

Without question the 2020 investment world will be noted for a big market crash and regain in Q1/Q2, and Covid19 related stock gains. I’m sure a few millionaires have been created, and few will lose much of the gain in months to come- such is the investment world. I have commented on Synairgen (SNG) previously as the single case in the Covid19 investment space I was comfortable with. I was waiting for yesterday’s placing news.

I just love reading UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) RNS statements. It always lightens up my mood – almost as fast as it lightens shareholders share accounts. These statements come in two forms: a) dilution today or b) dilution very soon. If AIM had a water sector classification this company would be a cornerstone member. Yesterday the company advised the magic Turkish carpet is in gear, on the starting line and ready to whisk us off to the world of “Steve’s Hydrocarbon Infiltration of Turkey”(epic:SHIT).

Hello, Share Grafters. A trading report just in from Barratt Developments (BDEV) helps to bear out what I’ve been saying about house builders and the virus – that it currently makes little difference to them. In the last three and a half months, the company put the last brick into 4,032 homes. That’s 780 up on the same period of 2019. The sales rate was better, too…

I am back here at last and allow a bit of time for personal matters. Then it is on to Optibiotix (OPTI), Skinbiotherapeutics (SBTX), Verditek (VDTK) and G3 Exploration (G3E)

Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean restaurants group Comptoir (COM) has announced results for the first half of 2020 including noting “challenging” market conditions but “greatly encouraged by the strength of the Comptoir brand… confident that we will emerge all the stronger out of this crisis, working in collaboration with all of our partners, as consumer confidence lifts”. Hmmm…

Well what is not to like? Having tried to find a buyer for this loss-making POS since February 19, the process has now been terminated and the adviser fired. But Audioboom (BOOM) would not wish you to think badly of it as a result.