Market Interest Kicks In Following Diggers

THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Before we trundled off to Diggers & Dealers we pondered what results there would be share price-wise for the companies presenting.

Now we don’t pretend to be very scientific here at The Roadhouse, so we were interested in seeing what impact – if any – presenting at the country’s biggest mining forum would have on these companies and their market capitalisation.

As it turns out not much – as you can see from the tables below.

However, looking beyond the share price movement, to the volume of shares traded on particular days, one pattern seems to emerge.

Present early in the day, when the market is still open, and you have a chance of picking up some interest.

Present in the afternoon and punters seem to be distracted – Kalgoorlie has that effect on people – and you will most probably be ignored during the next day’s trade, unless, of course you have a really good tale to tell.

But, when the dust settles and everybody has gone home, it seems they do pay attention and then when back in front of their screens start to recollect what they have seen in the presentations and heard at The Palace during the evenings.

Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) presented on Day One and although its share price didn’t move just over 7.9 million shares changed hands.

Two days later the company share price spiked with 7.6 million shares traded.

Shares closed yesterday at 37.5 cents with volume way down on Diggers figures at 1.8 million

Breaker Resources (ASX: BRB) must have said something that sparked investor interest with its shares doing very well since the conference closing yesterday seven cents to the better from pre-conference levels with no market announcements to create interest.

The day after presenting at Diggers the company’s shares spiked at 78.5 cents with just over 838,000 shares changing hands.

No surprises with gold producers Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST) and Evolution (ASX: EVN) finding positive ground.

Day three was when Northern Star attracted investor attention trading just over 4.4 million shares during the day’s trade, which it followed up on the days following with 3.1 million on Thursday and hitting back over the 4 million mark on Friday taking the price to $4.92.

Evolution was similar, only volumes were twofold with 11.2 million share trade on the Wednesday and 9.2 million and 13 million moving on Thursday and Friday respectively.

Day Two presenters did alright with Saracen Mineral Holdings (ASX: SAR) gaining six cents overall.

Speaking in the early session paid off for Raleigh Finlayson with the company enjoying the initial six cent leap with just over 6 million shares transacted.

There was more joy on Wednesday when Saracen hit a spike of $1.37, trading just over 9 million shares for the day.

Diamond play Lucapa Diamond Company (ASX: LOM) enjoyed a pre-conference run, which hit the skids post presentation.

Whatever CEO Stephen Weatherall said it managed to scare off approximately 665,000 punters who sold out pretty quickly, although 410,000 newbies jumped on board on Friday to take the share price up to 29 cents.

The CEO newly-dubbed ‘the charming man of mining’ Bob Vassie of the company named Digger of the Year, St Barbara Mining (ASX: SBM) took advantage of his pre-lunch time slot to send his company share price in an upward direction.

Although1.8 million shares were traded on the day of his presso, the share price remained static, but took off over Days Two and Three, during which time over 6.6 million shares changed hands and the share price made its way north.

Further interest earlier this week took it to 28.8 cents with things settling back by yesterday.

Day Three is always saved for the big-hitters, but the company that would be named Emerging Company for 2017, Kin Mining (ASX: KIN) became the boutique stock of the conference by adding four cents by the end of Friday trading with an approximate total of just 850,000 shares moving between trading screens.

Winner of the Digger of the Year Gong, Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR) enjoyed its time in Kalgoorlie.

After presenting in the death slot – after lunch on Day Three – Gold Road attracted plenty of attention on the days following moving some 875,000 shares on Thursday and just under 2 million on Friday when it closed at 69 cents.