The joke, and it really is laughable, is that the London stock market has been barely affected by the AI bubble bursting, as we have hardly any plays on this phenomenon. It is a bit like having no exposure to railroads, cars, Dotcom et al at the various times in history, only worse. Indeed, it could very well be the case that AI turns out to be the most important thing to be invested in history. But due to a combination of our fiscal policy, culture and funding methods (or lack of them), we have totally missed the boat. True, there have been some companies who have got on the AI bandwagon: tech investment companies who switched to AI investment, or the recent small cap, Roundhouse AI (RHAI) which is building reputation infrastructure for the autonomous artificial intelligence agent economy. However, we need hundreds of such companies, and even so they will be nothing to match what has come out of Silicon Valley and China. Of course, prefer to tax people to death to pay for social security. No national security, or what is almost as important, technology security.
Given the pain and misery in the US tech sector, one can assume correctly that there were not too many highlights among the UK small tech space. That said, it has been a great few weeks for Quadrise Fuels (QED), rising nearly 80%, and 50% of that during the past week. The trigger for the rise at the manufacturer of lower cost, lower emission, replacement fuels and biofuels for shipping and heavy industry, provides an update on its project with Valkor Technologies LLC in Utah, USA. The good news is that Valkor has advised the Company that it now expects to pay US$300,000 of the outstanding US$950,000 site licence fee balance, that was due by 31 October 2026, in early November 2026. The remaining US$650,000 balance is expected to be paid upon completion of Valkor's ongoing fundraising process in Q4 2026.
There was a 6x rise for GCM Resources (GCM) during the summer. But then, like so many one hit wonder small caps, the profit taking came in after the company was momentarily Big In Bangladesh – could be the name of a pop group. Insult was added to injury with a Letter Before Claim from the company’s CEO last month – who does that? The good news is that the matter has been settled, after the oxygen of publicity of a RNS. Interesting how that works. Shares of GCM bounced hard, presumably after having dropped off the back of some well-informed people knowing that the claim was coming.
A company where there should have been a RNS, but wasn’t, came in the form of overdraft app group Fiinnu (BANK) , where people, especially myself, have grown old waiting for the app to see the light of day. That said, after the RNS from Manx (MFX) mentioning that it is finally going to happen early next year, BANK shares rallied well. This was even though the company was perhaps trying to save the money it costs to deliver a RNS of its own.
Stocks In Focus
One of the stocks that is currently providing interesting chit chat in the market is Medpal (MPAL) . What is notable here is the way that month after month the AI-native digital health and pharmacy group comes up with better and better numbers / sales, and yet some people continue to kick the tyres / look the gift horse in the mouth. Indeed, whereas in the US a company like this would have money thrown at it to expand yet further, in the UK people seem to enjoy quibbling over trivia. The reality is that the company has been one of the best IPOs of the recent past, with a real business which whether via equity or debt, is going to have money thrown at it for both expansion, and a land grab.
One of the more notable small cap developments was the revelation that Blackrock are in at 5% on the shareholder register of Roadside Real Estate (ROAD). This is obviously a great validation for the company, which is rolling out its out of town retail offering. Blackrock are in after a couple of shareholders exited last month. CEO Charles Dickson has 43%, so the cap table remains tighter than a Glaswegian when it is time to get a round in (I was born in Glasgow).
Finally, it is usually the case that director share buying is an encouragement to the market after a painful or unexpected share price fall. That said, it needs to be either meaningful, or preferably adding to an already significant holding. In the case of Orosur (OMI) one would have to say that neither of these conditions were met by the director announcements at the end of the week. Instead, we have to hope that after the punch in the guts placing of C$16m last month that the company can deliver at Anzá.