Sydney - Friday - January 13: (RWE Australian Business News) -
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SENEX ENERGY (SXY) has been pretty SXY lately, what with all the attention the stock has received in the papers, online, in analysts' comments and from the ASX share price rise query department.
Senex yesterday responded to an ASX query over a rise in its share price from 62.5c on Thursday last week to an intraday high of 80c (a record) on Wednesday.
It was steady at 77c yesterday.
In the reply (one of the longest and most detailed we've seen in recent weeks) the company noted increased investor interest in the activities and the plans of companies that produced oil and gas, companies that held exploration interests in areas prospective for discoveries of oil and gas, and in particular companies aggressively pursuing plans to explore, appraise and develop such interests.
The write-up online and in the papers last week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday helped.
One of the write-ups predicted a sharp pick-up in corporate activity in the shale oil and gas sector.
It suggested Senex was a stock to add to a portfolio exposed to shale oil and gas.
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It's hard to get mining punters stirred up these days.
MACPHERSONS REWARD GOLD (MRP) yesterday announced the "very first" drillcore assay results had been received at its 100pc-owned Nimbus project and that they had confirmed the high-grade VHMS zone.
The central 7m portion of the first 13m thick massive sulphide zone has an average assay of 1660 g/t of silver (that's 53.4 ozs/tonne), 31.1pc zinc and 6.92pc lead.
Individual metre-thick samples ranged from 505 g/t to 3270 g/t silver and from 20.2pc to 41.1pc.
There have been times in the recent past when shareholders would have been rubbing their hands with glee over news such as this but yesterday? ... a lousy 1.5c rise to 30.5c.
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There's light at the end of the tunnel for long-suffering shareholders of NKWE PLATINUM (NKP), which has been suspended since November 8.
On December 23, it announced that, starting in July, it and controlling shareholder Genorah Resources had initiated discussions with Anglo Platinum, African Rainbow Minerals and the Department of Minerals and Energy as facilitator to settle a longstanding dispute as to the ownership of certain PGM farms controlled by Nkwe and Genorah.
Yesterday it said negotiations were continuing.
The company said it appreciated the frustration of shareholders and was "acutely aware of the valid and substantial concerns expressed by shareholders due to the extended period of the negotiation".
However, Nkwe expected to make a definitive announcement this month.
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CARBON ENERGY (CNX), the stock we highlighted earlier this week after it rose 2.2c to 11.5c on Tuesday for no obvious reason, rose a further 2c to 13.5c on Wednesday and became a candidate for an ASX query.
The company came back yesterday with a brief don't-know answer and the shares fell 1.5c to 11.5c.
Carbon Energy has an Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) project at Bloodwood Creek, near Dalby in Queensland, which at last report had continued to perform above expectations.
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It hasn't been a happy time for Australian early-stage drug development company CBIO (CBZ), which on December 16 announced that Novo Nordisk had declined to exercise its option to license XToll for further development and commercialisation.
The shares plunged 4.3c to 9.1c that day.
To rub salt into the wound the ASX queried the company over who knew what when because the stock had been on the skids in the week prior, from 19c.
The shares hit bottom at 6.3c on December 30.
However, its been all good since and Cbio rose 2c to 10.5c yesterday.
As a result of Novo Nordisk's decision, CBio has the right to develop and commercialise XToll either independently or in collaboration with third parties.
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When FACILITATE DIGITAL HOLDINGS (FAC), a provider of technology used to buy and measure digital media advertising, announced on December 13 that it was confirming previous advice of significantly improved first-half profit, the shares actually fell, by 0.3c to 6.5c.
It recovered to 7c next day and has not looked back.
