UK shale gas stocks IGas Energy PLC and Egdon Resources PLC saw their prices rise this week as the government rethinks its position on fracking, which could see domestic gas resources unlocked to ease dependence on Russian imports.
Cuadrilla, a privately held company, has led the UK shale gas sector which had largely stalled in recent years as projects failed to secure planning and regulatory approval.
The projects, located mostly in the Northwest of England, advanced sufficiently for the company and the British Geological Society to envisage decades’ worth of supply but did not advance enough for the gas to be tested commercially.
While Cuadrilla had the most advanced projects London Stock Exchange-listed IGas and Egdon amassed material prospective acreage across Cheshire, Lancashire and Lincolnshire.
Igas was up 47 per cent on the week and Egdon 36 per cent.
Shale issues: Cuadrilla has led the UK shale gas sector which had largely stalled in recent years as projects failed to secure planning and regulatory approval (Pictured: Two Cuadrilla workers)
Meanwhile, investors also showed renewed interest in tidal power company SIMEC Atlantis Energy, the company behind the MeyGen free-stream tidal power project.
The company’s shares climbed by more than a third this week.
As investors looked to unearth stocks that might benefit from the UK’s attempts to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies, there was also some bargain hunting going on among those Russia-focused stocks that got hammered in the backlash to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Among those on the rebound is Amur Minerals Corporation, which is focused on base metal projects in the far east of Russia.
The company’s shares rallied by 34 per cent this week. The company has previously indicated that sanctions against Russia will not have any effect on its business. Before hostilities started in Ukraine, the shares were riding high on expectations that the company would sell its Irosta Trading subsidiary, which owns the company’s principal asset, the Kun-Manie nickel-copper sulphide project in far-east Russia.
PetroNeft Resources PLC, up by a third this week, was another stock with interests in Russia on the comeback trail.
Quantum Blockchain Technologies PLC’s shares ballooned as it returned strong results from its mining and artificial intelligence (AI) operations.
Shares were up 60 per cent this week as the group filed a patent application for a new qubit-based algorithm for Bitcoin mining.
In combination with the ASIC miner, the technology is expected to increase the hashing speed compared to other ASIC miners announced by competitors.
Harvest Minerals Ltd told investors that accumulated sales orders in 2022 to date totalled 30,161 tonnes, which marks a 1,070 pc increase over the fertiliser producer’s internal forecasts.
It represents a 35 per cent increase compared to the whole of 2021, and is 20 per cent of the overall sales target for 2022, which was set at 150,000 tonnes.
Drop: Parsley Box shares shares were trading at 21p on Friday, down 21 per cent on the week and a far cry from the 200p at which the company’s shares floated less than a year ago
Now, the company said it is advancing plans to increase its capacity to 200,000 tonnes.
Harvest’s shares rose 30 per cent this week.
A contract win for one of its subsidiaries sent shares in PipeHawk PLC 28 per cent higher.
The contract was awarded by Ventive Limited for the second phase of the project to manufacture a groundbreaking ‘green energy’ product to provide domestic heating and hot water.
The product builds on air source heat pump and heat recovery technology in conjunction with a thermal battery to provide an efficient solution that can be considered a direct replacement for a conventional gas or oil-fired heating system, which are planned to be phased out as the UK moves towards ‘Net Zero’.
It was a bad week for Gfinity, which lost 45 per cent of its value after a profit warning.
Its half-year results showed the e-sports company making progress on its path towards profitability but the company revealed that there has been a slower than anticipated return to live e-sports events which has had an impact on short term revenue and profits.
Meanwhile, ongoing discussions around a material partnership in the betting sector, which the directors still expect to complete, is now unlikely to deliver the impact on current fiscal year revenues that originally been anticipated.
As a result, the company now expects full-year revenue will be below market expectations but the directors remain confident the long-term prospects and the future pathway to profitability in 2023 and beyond remain unchanged.
SRT Marine Systems PLC slumped by 20 per cent to 32.75p after it raised £4.9million through a placing of shares at 30p a pop.
The provider of integrated maritime surveillance systems and digital navigation safety transceivers wants the money to boost working capital to accelerate multiple multiple system project implementations.
Also lower after raising funds was Parsley Box Group PLC, the meal deliveries group. It raised £5.9million through the issue of shares at 20p.
The shares were trading at 21p on Friday, down 21 per cent on the week and a far cry from the 200p at which the company’s shares floated less than a year ago.
The funds raised will be used to target new customers, develop an ‘online customer journey’ tailored to its demographic (that probably just means very large fonts on the website) and develop a membership programme to start a customer community.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk