We here at Runners never cease to be amazed at the substantial gains made on a weekly basis at the speculative end of the market. Whether it be an exploration company being run on a shoe-string budget suddenly unearthing the latest metal de jour, a research company lifting the lid on a stunning medical discovery or a couple of post-grads with a listing announcing the latest “game-changing” software, micro caps are a fantastic sport to follow.
Huge daily gains registered at the small end of town certainly command attention. There is the obvious opportunity for punters to add some “grunt” to the returns on their portfolio. For some, these market hopefuls can even spark thoughts about a new trading career away from the office and the pesky demands of a 9–5 boss.
And while dreams of a 3-hour working day armed with just laptop and a beach towel may remain an elusive fantasy, there is always the thought that maybe, just maybe punting these little puppies really could yield a sandy future for me.
On to this week’s runners and this week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is Hydration Pharmaceuticals Company, up a staggering 288.89 per cent after revealing plans to divest its non-US assets for US$9.5 million (AU$13.7 million).
The sale proceeds of US$9.5 million included US$8.3 million for all non-US territories and US$1.2 million for stock and inventory, subject to adjustments.
Management says it retains full ownership of the US-based operations, which it believes has tremendous scope to grow and provide an increase to the existing US$3.8 million (AU$5.55 million) in annual revenue.
Quite incredibly, the sale price in local currency terms of $13.7 million is a magnitude of four-times greater than the company’s market capitalisation, that had stood at about $2.7 million on the morning the sale was announced.
It was no surprise therefore to see punters, who might be familiar with the company’s flagship product “Hydralyte” that is used to rehydrate, often after a bout of the “runs”, run its share price back towards full health.
The stock hit a near-12 month high to touch 3.5c on Thursday morning turning over more than 10 times the average daily volumes traded in the past year.
The company’s shares opened at 1.5c on Wednesday after last trading at 0.9c on September 10, closing on its high point of the day at 2.3c.
On Thursday morning shortly after the market opened, the shares bolted at top speed to touch its 3.5c high for the tremendous weekly gain, taking the top spot for the week.
Odessa Minerals took out second place in this week’s Runners with a carbon-free rise to its share price and a tidy cash boost to its bank account. Underpinning the uplift, the company revealed an oversubscribed placement raising $1.1 million to bolster exploration and upcoming drill plans at its Lyndon uranium project, particularly its key targets of Relief Well and Baltic Bore.
The two-tranche placement to professional and sophisticated types, raised the funds by offering shares at an issue price of 0.2c, which came with a heavy-discount of ZERO to the last closing price of 0.2c.
Subscribers to the placement seemed to share management’s enthusiasm for the project, that sits in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region and within 200km of a plethora of rare earths and lithium projects, including Hastings Technology Metals Yangibana rare earths project and Delta Lithium’s Yinnetharra lithium play.
Market players also caught the same wave of enthusiasm, punting the shares to 0.5c on whopping volume of 37.26 million, its biggest trading day since February, for a stellar 150 per cent gain.
Encouragingly for Odessa, the share price has been hovering near that level since the initial surge.
In a further strong show of support for the company, non-executive chairman Zane Lewis is stumping-up $100,000 in the second-tranche of the placement, subject to shareholder approval at the November annual general meeting (AGM).
Medical drug development firm Nyrada also excited the market when it disclosed that its preclinical study to assess the company’s lead drug NYR-BI03 produced a positive outcome in effectively limiting heart muscle damage after injury.
The study conducted on rats showed strong efficacy of its drug, providing 86 per cent cardio-protection following myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury, which develops when blood flow to the heart is reduced.
Management says it broadens the therapeutic application of its new drug to include coronary heart disease and demonstrated superior efficacy to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved therapy, Captopril.
Any market punters sitting on their hands waiting to buy the shares, may have needed the potential new drug, after seeing the share price explode higher from a close last Friday at 6.9c (and trading as low as 5.9c earlier that day), to hit a high of 14.5c on the day of its reveal. The surging price provided a solid return of 110 per cent for the week and placed the company third for the week.
Volume on the day touched eight-digits for the first time since April, with a prodigious 17.4 million swapping hands on Tuesday, followed by a solid 4.5 million on Wednesday.
The company could be onto a serious winner if future clinical studies prove successful, as the market for myocardial infarction, better known as a heart attack, is estimated to reach US$3.7 billion (AU$5.4 billion) by 2032.
Nyrada will be eager for a repeat of success at its upcoming phase-one clinical trial, scheduled for later next year.
Coming in fourth, Australian Rare Earths has traded solidly all week, with volumes between 1.4 million–2 million every day after unveiling a significant resource expansion for its Koppamurra rare earths project that sits in south-eastern South Australia.
The company grabbed the market’s attention when it advised of an increase to both the resource and its grade. Its mineral resource estimate now stands at an impressive 236 million tonnes grading 748 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO).
Encouragingly, the higher-grade portion containing more than 1000ppm TREO increased 70 per cent to 68 million tonnes, due to recent infill drilling that defined thicker, north-west trending sections of the higher-grade mineralisation.
Management says there is huge potential to grow the resource further with only 2 per cent of its extensive 7400 square kilometre ground included in the expanded figure. It noted that the recent program added 25 million tonnes to the site’s northern area, extending the project geographically.
Market punters seemed to embrace the positive vibes from the announcement with their own “upgrade”, sending the price of the critical mineral explorer from 9.4c at Friday’s close to a Thursday high of 19.5c. The price spike represented what is a fairly “rare” 107 per cent weekly gain for a rare earths explorer in recent times.
There have been notable improvements in recent times to some small junior mining shares and medical-health related stocks, two of the market sectors that have been hammered during the past two years.
We at Bulls N’ Bears will be keeping a close watch for continued improvements to the speculative end of the market, for it can provide real “spice” to those with an appetite for some risk with their market holdings.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Craig Nolan
