Argo Blockchain (ARB) has only recently seemed to be the walk on water / poster child of the digital space, as the crypto miner saw its share price hit 339p in February. Now just three months later and the shares are down two thirds from their peak. While Bitcoin did recover after the stock market close, from below $30,000 to $40,000 plus, it is difficult to imagine that Argo shares will not need to retest their 200 day moving average now at 87p before any sustained new rally may be seen. Not surprisingly, shares of Bitcoin app Mode Global (MODE) fell 10%, matching the decline on the crypto miner for the day.
It was a good day to be a business operating in the “real world” and of course, it does not get more real than metal basher Chamberlain (CMH). It unveiled an operational update, which set the seal on the company not only being an anti-dote to the digital indigestion in the financial market, but also that this is a bona fide recovery situation. Chamberlain said it has won a 3-year contract to supply components for diesel engine generators commencing in July 2021 and is involved in a new low volume, high value 5-year programme to manufacture turbocharger bearing housings for a leading luxury sports car manufacturer, with supply commencing early 2022. And just to remind us that we are in the 21st century, Chamberlain has launched an eCommerce operation to design and develop consumer products to be sold via the internet. Those interested in snapping up kettle bells were even directed to www.ironfoundryweights.co.uk in the latest RNS. Chamberlain shares jumped 11%.
One of the more notable stock market successes of the recent past continues to be sprawling pharma services group Open Orphan (ORPH). This point was highlighted yet again in the aftermath of news from the company of court approval for a reduction of capital. This is part of the process which will give the Company the ability to not only effect the Distribution in Specie, as part of the proposed spin-out of certain non-core Development IP Assets. It will also allow Open Orphan to make other distributions to Shareholders and/or buy back its own Open Orphan Ordinary Shares. All of this backs up previously announced plans for a spin-out and admission to AIM of wholly owned Development IP Assets, including HVO-001, an orally available, small molecule immunomodulator drug with potential as a treatment for severe influenza.
Shares of Plant Health Care (PHC) remained resilient in a weak stock market, and were among the most followed stocks of the day. PHC has been a popular play since last month’s results for the year ending December 2020. The provider of novel patent-protected biological products to the global agriculture markets, said that its Commercial Business was EBITDA and cash positive for the first time, while in-market sales in the US and Brazil doubled in 2020. The company said that product adoption points to strong revenue growth ex PHC.
It was also a steady day for integrated resource group Tharissa (THS), in the wake of its H1 FY 2021 trading statement. The highlights here were that Tharisa's basic earnings per share and headline earnings per share for the six months ended 31 March 2021 are expected to be between US$ 21 and US$ 22 cents per share, relative to the EPS and HEPS of US$ 3.6 cents and US$ 3.7 cents per share for the six months ended 31 March 2020.
There was another solid update from investing group Gunsynd (GUN) as it said it continues to be impressed by the exploration and resource delineation being delivered by the team at Eagle Mountain. The latest report regarding the resource highlighted the strong potential for further high grade potential beneath the existing resource, the southern extension to the existing resource and a 750m magnetic anomaly coinciding with the historical exploration success. Gunsynd also noted the ongoing backdrop of strong copper prices that have seen the commodity rallying to the highest levels since the last super cycle a decade ago.
Following the recent trend among certain UK listed stocks, Tirupati Graphite (TGR), the fully integrated, revenue generative, specialist graphite producer and graphene and advanced materials developer with operations in Madagascar and India, said that it has filed an application to the OTC Markets Group for the Company's shares to be cross traded publicly on the OTCQX Market. The idea here is that which would make Tirupati's shares more widely available to North American investors and hence increased liquidity.