around the traps ... with the ferret

Around the Traps ... with THE FERRET
08:30, Friday, 11 May 2007

Sydney - Friday - May 11: (RWE Australian Business News) -
*************************

Miller's Retail may have taken a new name but the profit
warnings have the same old familiar ring.

SPECIALTY FASHION (SFH), as it is now known, was not short of
reasons for the setback - anticipated aggressive discounting from
competitors, the delayed onset of cooler weather in some states,
uncertainty around interest rates and the ongoing drought.

The shares slumped 28c to $1.575, back to where they were a year
ago.

*****

BOWEN ENERGY (BWN) is one to keep an eye on after an 8.5c jump
to as high as 34c yesterday on higher turnover.

However, the shares were 34c a month ago and touched bottom at
25.5c on Wednesday.

*****

Talk about stable door ... BONDI MINING (BOM) yesterday
requested a trading halt, pending an announcement, after the shares had
risen 16c to 61c.

The shares rose 5c on Wednesday so some lucky punters have got
set at 40c.

*****

There are a lot of extreme moves in the market.

Such as EMPIRE (ERL), which shot up 10c to 32c on Wednesday
after a last-minute announcement of high-grade gold intersections at the
company's wholly-owned Penny's Find project in Western Australia.

But that was only the appetiser.

Yesterday the shares soared 21c to 53c, only to slump back to
37.5c at the close.

Turnover of 12.4 million shares was equal to more than one
quarter of issued capital.

Empire listed on February 1 and after opening sales at 24c fell
to 15c two weeks later.

*****

"Leading" dye solar cell materials manufacturer DYESOL (DYE) has
secured one of the world's largest orders for supply of ruthenium dye, a
chemical central to the manufacture of DSC products, from G24
Innovations, a UK company preparing to launch commercial DSC materials
on a large scale.

While the value of the single order for several kilograms of
ruthenium dyes is commercial-in-confidence, the directors of Dyesol
believe it is sufficiently large to be considered material to Dyesol's
business.

It may be "commercial-in-confidence" but not everything seems to
have been "commercial-in-confidence".

Dyesol rose 9c on Tuesday and 5c on Wednesday, to $1.03, ahead
of yesterday's announcement.

The shares rose a further 10c to $1.13 yesterday and went as
high as $1.19.

Dyesol says it believes securing this order has "significant and
very positive" implications for the future of the company.

*****

The late rush for SIMS GROUP (SGM) had punters cranking up the
private equity rumour mill again.

After a 55c rise on Wednesday, Sims shot up $1.68 to a record
$26.84 yesterday before closing at $26.60.

Even at these lofty levels the Sims price is not excessive on
fundamentals - p/e is 13 and dividend yield 4.5 per cent.

*****

Ferret pointed out the continued slide in HIGHLANDS PACIFIC
(HIG) in yesterday's column and suggested an explanation might come at
the annual meeting in Port Moresby on May 30.

The ASX wanted an answer now.

It slapped a price query on the stock (gee, you don't often see
a query over a fall these days).

In reply Highlands had nothing new to say, though it didn't
expect a change of more than 15 per cent in its operating result.

Highlands shares rose 1.5c to 15c before closing at 14.5c, which
goes to show that no news is good news sometimes.

ENDS

Copyright © 2007 RWE Australian Business News. All rights reserved.