Whoopee! It's raining in NSW. The bushfires are out. The Covid-19 epidemic won't last forever, apparently new cases are declining in China. There's even been a bizarre boost to the toilet paper business in the eastern states.
The glass is half full, folks. Despite the sharp fall in the stock market last week, nine of the Punter's stocks bucked the trend and were up on the previous week.
Seafarms (ASX code SFG), Musgrave Minerals (MGV), Australian Agricultural (AAC), Wide Open Agriculture (WOA), Costa Group (CGC) and Buderim (BUG) were all pluses. As such, the Punter may consider adding to these holdings - but not yet. The list of would-be buyers and sellers in the market suggests that for most of them there is demand, but only if prices fall by 1 per cent or more. Investors are waiting for bargains.
Nine of his stocks were down at least 5pc on the week: Murray River Organics (MRG), Lithium Australia (LIT), Clean Teq (CLQ), Bio-Gene Technology (BGT), Papyrus Australia (PPY), Ridley (RIC) and Terragen.
Last week's column noted that Bio-Gene's revenues were up 545pc. The directors' summary of the half-year results stated that "revenue from ordinary activities" was up 545pc. But dig into the fine print and you find that of the $426,412 increase in "revenue", $359,140 was back paid from the taxpayer.
Bio-Gene did earn $80,000 in research collaboration receipts. It's an indication of how seriously other research bodies are taking BGT's work on combatting grain pests, mosquitoes, and other nasties. If the market continues to fall and drag BGT with it, the Punter may add to his BGT holding.
His biggest loser was Murray River Organics, down 20pc on the rights issue price. The Punter is hanging in there, encouraged by the fact that the UBS group last week paid $2.25m to buy 150 million MRG, or just under 15pc of the company.
- The Punter has no financial qualifications and no links to the financial services industry. He owns shares in a number of companies featured in this column.