Market Direction: With a positive lead from Wall Street overnight following a pledge by the Fed Reserve Chairman to keep interest rates low, I expect a more optimistic days trading on the ASX today. The economic news continues to be of concern with the new home sales coming in well below expectations at 309K versus 354K expected, showing that the economic recovery is still relatively weak. More important data comes out over coming days so I expect volatility to increase.
BCN/BCNOA: The company announced yesterday that drilling was underway at the Barlee gold project so I expect BCN to be on traders radars over coming weeks. The stochastic crossed yesterday and the RSI is rising however the MACD is yet to cross however this was on light volume. The Bollinger bands are still very tight indicating an explosive move is possible. News Due: Drilling results from the Barlee gold project. Disclosure: Holding BCNOA
SSN/SSNO: I suspect SSN might be susceptible to some short term weakness due to the pause in activity on the Gene#1-22H well however further news on plans to drill Bakken could see momentum return quickly. Technically the stochastic is rising, the RSI is flat but the MACD is looking set to cross down. I am watching SSN closely for trading opportunities at the moment. News Due: Commencement of fracturing operations at the Gene#1-22H well in mid-late March. Details of the upcoming drilling program at Bakken. Disclosure: No Stock Held
STI: The soft market killed off momentum yesterday however the announcement after the market closed that the company has received ethics approval for the flu trial might be enough to reignite interest today. Clearly the company has a busy development schedule in the near term, including a potential acquisition. This will require substantial capital. I will be contacting the company about how they intend to fund their programs over coming days. News Due: Launch of the company's pharmaceutical arm in Australia. Results from trials of ImmunoXel on Aids patients in Nigeria. Further details on the development of the company's Inhalation Drug Delivery Platform. Details regarding the acquisition of a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. Disclosure: No Stock Held
HTX: The stock was a standout performer yesterday. Unfortunately for me there were several occasions where I had an order under 10 cents ready to click but held off for a few seconds too long. Well done to those that did get on board. Anyway there is still potential for the stock to run further in the short term. The company hopes to gain a significant share of the ovarian cancer test market in the UK, where 750,000 people are screened each year. A royalty of about $70 per test will be earned by the company or about A$7m per 100,000 tests sold. Given that this is for the UK only and the company currently has a market capitalization of $22.5m it would not be hard to see the price increase further, provided initial sales in the UK live up to expectation and then the company expands its distribution to other markets. News Due: Market penetration of the company's new ovarian cancer test in the UK. Disclosure: No Stock Held
KBL: This is a new listing to watch out for today. The company will release some exceptional drilling results prior to the commencement of trading. Results include 36m @ 11g/t AU and 196g/t ag from 28m depth and 7m @ 45g/t au and 108g/t ag from 30m (released in apr?s release yesterday). The objective is to prove up around 200K ounces of gold and start production (at a target rate of about 50K oz per year) within a year at the company's processing plant at Mineral Hill. The key to this project is that the grade is very high and the deposit is shallow, so this should translate into production costs in the lowest quartile. The cash flow from the gold operations would be used to fund the development of the Sorby Hills lead / silver project, a potential company maker, with a 16.9mt mineral resource (processing 1mtpa delivering 40ktpa Pb plus silver). Anyway it will be worth watch when KBL joins the boards today at 1pm. News Due: Further drilling results from the Mineral Hill gold project. Disclosure: Holding KBL
