This week was notable for the number of companies that traded at their 52-week highs, including the majority of those making today’s Bulls N’ Bears Runners of the Week podium – could this be a sign that small caps are back baby ?
But how long will it last ? Will it survive the festive season ? The US Presidential election ?
Well who knows ? What we do know however is that there were plenty of runners to choose from this week including Green Critical Minerals (ASX: GCM) which raised more than a few eyebrows with its acquisition of what it claims is groundbreaking new graphite technology. The company says the new tech can potentially produce the highest thermal conductivity ever recorded for any bulk material, which it believes could turn the graphite market on its head.
The news certainly got market punters hot and bothered in the rush to grab some Green Critical stock .
The shares flew out of the gate Wednesday morning and reached a high of 0.9c from a previous close of 0.25c, making for a 260 per cent rapid rise on the day. Huge volumes of 235 million changed hands on Wednesday, followed by a still-impressive 35.1 million on Thursday.
However the run didn’t end there, with the stock rallying again on Friday to touch 1c on huge volumes, making for a weekly gain of 300 per cent and a line honours finish in the Bulls N Bears Runners of the Week.
Management says the technology converts graphite powder into very-high-density or “VHD graphite” blocks in a mere 24 – 36 hours, light years ahead of normal graphite processing times. The material can be used in a myriad of applications within the defence, nuclear and aerospace industries.
Green Critical Minerals plans to focus on several industrial uses it believes the high-tech material may be able to transform, including semiconductors, heat management, energy storage and lithium-ion battery electrodes and fuel cells.
The company says the VHD graphite blocks produced using the technology also recorded the lowest electrical resistivity value ever for any bulk graphite produced, positioning it as an ideal material for battery electrodes and fuel cells.
The proprietary technology, which has been invented by renowned material scientist Professor Charles Sorrell and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) was purchased with for upfront consideration and deferred payments based on achieving revenue milestones.
Grabbing second place this week is Li-S Energy (ASX: LIS), which revealed substantial improvements to the performance of its lithium-sulfur battery technology.
The company says it has manufactured full-sized semi-solid-state cells delivering a whopping energy density of 498 watt-hours per kilogram on first discharge, followed by an industry-leading 456 watt-hours per kg after formation cycling, with ongoing testing showing the cells continuing to cycle.
Traders were energised by the news and drove Li-S Energy’s stock on Tuesday to a high of 37c from an 18.5c close on Monday. Interestingly, the shares had rallied the day before on Monday, rising from last Friday’s 12c close to touch 21c before settling at 18.5c.
The rise from 12c to the company’s 52-week share price high of 37c provided a return for the week of more than 208 per cent and second spot on the podium.
Volumes only exceeded 2 million shares traded in a single day once during the past year when 2.16 million changed hands in mid-April.
Monday saw volumes of near 8 million shares traded before Tuesday’s big reveal resulted in a surge to 17.2 million shares traded on the day.
Management says the higher energy density provides for an even lighter battery and it plans to target the growing and very lucrative drone, defence and electric aviation markets where weight is critical with potential improvements to the range, payload and operating times.
Meanwhile Asian Battery Metals (ASX: AZ9) put its red hot poker into the market this week with news of a stellar high-grade copper-nickel-PGE hit at its 100 per cent owned Oval prospect in Mongolia.
Punters scrambled to get a piece of the company, driving its stock hard to an 11c high on Monday from last week’s closing price of 4.3c, returning an impressive 155.8 per cent - not too shabby for a one-day market gain.
Volumes jumped accordingly in unison with the price hike, with a stunning 94.8 million traded on Monday, followed by days of 16.1 million, 11.7 million and 16.7 million to keep the price elevated in the 8.5c – 9c range.
Previously known as Doriemus, the former oil and gas junior has not seen that level of interest in its shares since re-listing on the ASX back in June under its new moniker.
The company says recent drilling revealed a thick high-grade slice of 8.8m grading 6.08 per cent copper, 3.19 per cent nickel, 0.11 per cent cobalt and 1.63 grams per tonne combined platinum group elements (PGE), comprising platinum-palladium-gold from 107.2m depth.
Notably, the high-grade hit was discovered between disseminated intervals of 7.85m at 0.75 per cent copper, 0.78 per cent nickel and 0.15g/t PGE’s from 99.35m and 15.8m going 1.36 per cent copper, 1 per cent nickel and 0.44g/t PGE’s.
Missing out on a podium finish this week but still managing an honourable mention was Red Mountain Mining (ASX: RMX) which conducted a detailed desktop review of historical exploration at its Flicka Lake prospect, part of its wider 100 per cent owned Fry Lake gold project in Canada.
The company said the review pointed to historical gold bearing channel samples which piqued punters interest, causing them to pile into the stock with 17 million changing hands on Monda. Red Mountain’s shares were propelled to a 52-week high of 1.6c.
That returned a gain of 100 per cent compared to Friday’s 0.8c closing price.
The desktop study identified three parallel quartz veins which the company targeted by grabbing 11 rock chip samples and 11 soil samples with the results expected shortly.
Management said previous channel samples at the site assayed 17.88g/t gold, 7.38g/t and a solid 20.07g/t gold.
It has been said many times that we love a late runner here at Bulls N’ Bears and on absolutely no news whatsoever by lunchtime Friday, Black Dragon Gold had surged more than 93 per cent and 136 per cent for the week.
On solid volumes of greater than 4 million shares traded today, the price leapt to…you guessed it...a 52-week high of 8.5c.
The company did announce on Wednesday that a placement was made to a group of high-net-worth Spanish investors, priced at 2.5, raising about $700,000 albeit there was no other news in the market.
We love a good runner with no news in the market – oh the intrigue!
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: office@bullsnbears.com.au