SMALL CAP MOVERS: Biotech firm Aptamer

Spotting Alzheimer’s early is vital in ensuring medication can have the utmost effect, and Aptamer Group’s groundbreaking development may help the millions of people that will suffer from this undiscriminating illness.

Aptamer, alongside Oxford-based biotech Neuro-bio, said it reached a breakthrough that could help diagnose Alzheimer’s up to 20 years before symptoms emerge.

Shares in the London-listed biotech rose 23 per cent over the week to 11.5p on the back of the discovery.

Across the broader market, the AIM-All Share index experienced a flat week, adding 0.02 per cent to 794 points, underperforming its benchmark, the FTSE 100, which was up 1.4 per cent at 7,670.

Sticking on the risers, AIM’s junior oil and gas players finally enjoyed some upbeat news.

A reader has been left without vital cash for her disabled daughter’s social care budget (picture posed by model) 

IOG, which has recently been dogged by issues at its Blythe well, including a mechanical blockage, jumped 8 per cent to 4.3p.

The group confirmed on Tuesday that the first gas had been ‘safely delivered’ from the well in the North Sea.

Better-than-expected drilling results from Predator Oil & Gas helped its stock burst 29 per cent higher to 7.8p.

In the mining sector, the importance and significance of battery metals in driving the green transition was highlighted by Red Rock Resources, which surged 65 per cent to 0.2p.

The miner said it has been awarded an environmental certificate for its lithium project in Zimbabwe.

‘Now that we have our environmental clearance, mining can begin on site,’ said chairman Andrew Bell and can now ‘start shipping product immediately.’

Power generation capacity firm Rurelec’s shares were electric, adding 36 per cent to 0.74p after confirming the disposal of its Argentinean interest had been completed this week.

Shares in Eden Research certainly blossomed, flourishing 62 per cent and reaching an 18-month high of 8.84p before retreating to 8.09p.

The sustainable biopesticides group said Anasac will be the exclusive distributor of its Mevalone biopesticide in Colombia, the world’s second-largest exporter of cut flowers.

Onto some of London’s fallers, and AMTE Power rang the alarm bells, which caused a flurry of investors to exit the stock.

The maker of lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries warned the market that it needs to raise new funds within the next four weeks. The stock tanked 74 per cent.

GCM Resources, the London-based exploration and development company, had no problems raising cash, albeit at a big discount to the group’s closing price ahead of the cash call.

The company raise £500,000 at 2.5p per share. No surprises then that stock lost around 38 per cent of its value to trade just 0.05p above the offer price.

San Leon Energy fell 38 per cent to 15.1p, again on the back of cash woes which have hampered the oil and gas production company since last July.

Specifically, a proposed refinancing to secure a US$50million loan facility towards the transactions with Midwestern Oil & Gas ‘have not progressed as fast as the board expected’. That said, San Leone said it remains confident a deal will be brokered.

This week saw WE Soda, the soda ash manufacturer, ditch plans to list in London after what it described as an ‘unrealistically low’ valuation.

Its plight is symptomatic of a malaise that is being felt particularly at the lower echelons of the market.

Analysts at Peel Hunt, one of a handful of corporate brokers that raise money for small- and mid-cap listed companies, noted that the continued drought means London’s IPO market is ‘effectively closed’.

A dearth of fresh activity played a big part in the Peel swinging to a loss, with the number of equity capital market transactions it worked on tumbling to 27 compared to 46.

However, while the market for primary offerings is dead, there are some improvements in mergers and acquisitions, with activity in this area picking up towards the end of the fourth quarter.

Finally, in a period when natural resources companies have been living a hand-to-mouth existence, one well-funded junior has been quietly adding value.

Amaroq Minerals (up 4 per cent at 44p) has a 7,866.85-square kilometre land package in southern Greenland prospective for gold and strategic minerals.

Exploration work is helping build the resource of its lead asset, Nalunaq Gold Mine, ahead of trial mining next year.

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