AIM report

Aim celebrated reaching 700 constituents just before Christmas, as it welcomed Debt Free Direct and Dickinson Legg to the fold. There was also a £50 million fundraising for EPIC Brand Investments, and a slew of Christmas trading updates from retail leisure companies. These were mostly good, although plenty more Aim companies picked the very quiet trading period over the break to slip out somewhat less appetising news.

Trading cheer

It was the better-known names that came out with the best trading news. Booze retailer Majestic Wine announced an 11 per cent rise in like-for-like sales, but still fell three per cent to 482.5p. Pizza restaurant group Ask Central confirmed that it expects to hit market expectations, allowing its shares to recover eight per cent to 113.5p. Urbium, the bar-club operation spun out of Chorion last year, spurted 35 per cent to 5.75p after announcing a Christmas like-for-like increase of three per cent with a one per cent rise for the second half (in which many of its competitors have been struggling).

Honeycombe Leisure, the highly-indebted Northern pub group, and Pubs 'n' Bars also reported like-for-like increases, but while the latter only edged up half a penny to 32p, the former slumped 14 per cent to 44.5p. Bank Restaurant fell 25 per cent to 3.75p after its disappointing update.

London's ever-busy mining sector has continued to offer its share of delights and disappointments. Chinese gold and zinc prospector Griffin Mining has held up well at 14.25p, having announced excellent drilling results. Centamin Egypt gained 15 per cent to 10.6p on a number of positive developments while Monterrico Metals ran up 49 per cent to 69.5p on the board's view that the share price was undervaluing the company's potential. But the big star on the Aim mining scene in recent times has been Avocet Mining, whose shares have surged a remarkable 140 per cent since the company moved down from the main market in July.

Corporate shenanigans

Corporate action has been relatively rare of late, with activity being more of the desperate rather than progressive variety. Profit warnings and other less appealing fare have also featured regularly on the menu.

Ex-Ofex internet kiosk group Public Network and computer games company Akaei even failed to release results by their New Year deadlines, getting suspended as a result. The former admitted that it has failed to secure further financing, thereby endangering its future. The latter's majority shareholder On-Line (also the owner of a slug of ADVFN.com shares) has already written off its investment as worthless.

Meanwhile, printing group Thomas Potts glumly admitted defeat as a public company, flagging up an intention to de-list in the spring, having swung into the red. Children's film distributor Metrodome launched an underwritten £1.5 million open offer 'without which it would have to cease trading', causing its shares to run down 46 per cent to 3.75p.

Monotub took another step towards the knacker's yard with the sale of the rights to the misnamed Titan washing machine to management for £1. Its shares collapsed another 80 per cent to 0.75p.

However, Chelsea Village (composed of the football club, hotels and other leisure facilities) was given a brief boost with news that potential investors are in talks to pick up a large slug of new equity, at a big premium to the market value. Mohammed Al-Fayed's Fulham Football Club is one of the possible investors. Chelsea's adviser Seymour Pierce is also in the bid frame at the moment, with its suitors close to finalising a deal for the stockbroker-cum-fund manager.

Sniffing success...?

Investors looking for a bit of excitement to lighten up these dark days might take a punt on Osmetech, a favourite speculative punt for many private investors. Its products are not for the squeamish, being 'e-noses' (electronic odour-based sensors) for the detection of urinary tract infections (UTIs) and bacterial vaginosis (BV). All-important US FDA approval has been secured for the UTI device and is apparently imminent for its BV detector.

With the markets for such products (which save clinicians having to send test results to external laboratories) said to be 'huge', Osmetech's formerly-techMARK-listed shares could look very, very cheap at the current price of 2.5p. They hit 29p in the 2000 tech boom, made it above 14p after the last FDA approval and are worth 50p according to some analysts.