AIM Stocks Hit as SpaceX Pulls £270m Investment From Britain

SpaceX’s blockbuster flotation on the Nasdaq has drawn an estimated £270million of British retail investment across the Atlantic, leaving London’s junior stock market feeling the squeeze.

The AIM All-Share Index has slipped by about 2.4 per cent since the world’s largest IPO, but the headline fall only tells part of the story. Beneath the surface, the shift in trading activity looks more severe.

Trading volumes appear to have fallen by roughly 13 to 14 per cent since the June 12 listing, compared with the same period a year earlier.

Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite business priced the biggest initial public offering in history and set aside an unusually generous allocation of shares for everyday investors.

The impact appears to have been felt most sharply among AIM-listed companies valued between £50million and £200million. In that part of the market, where liquidity is often limited, light trading can leave share prices stuck and make it harder for buyers and sellers to settle on a fair level.

Instead of reigniting appetite for London-listed growth stocks, easier access to major global markets has given private investors another destination for their cash.

That pattern has persisted over the past week, with the AIM All-Share down 0.6 per cent amid thin trading. The contrast with blue-chip London was stark: the FTSE 100, helped by a wave of upbeat trading updates, climbed 2.3 per cent.

The dreaded double-D strikes again

Shares in CAP-XX slumped 43 per cent this week as the supercapacitor maker raised £2.2million through a placing and subscription.

The hit came down to the classic double-D: discount and dilution. The hope is that short-term pain will be mitigated by longer-term gain. Most of the money will fund upgrades and expansion of CAP-XX’s production lines, alongside customer acquisition, distributor growth and general working capital.

Shield Therapeutics: scratch the surface

Shares in Shield Therapeutics dropped 34 per cent after what on the face of it looked like a decent trading update. But here’s the thing that spooked investors. While the half-year numbers looked great, they were propped up by a one-off $7.9million payment from Shield’s Chinese partner. Strip that out, and the picture changes.

Quarterly sales actually fell, the price of its main drug dropped after New York tightened Medicaid rules, and investors will have half an eye on the cash position, which has dropped around $4million in three months.

AB Dynamics slid 30 per cent this week after the vehicle-testing specialist warned that jittery customers are dragging out orders. The trigger is trouble at Europe’s carmakers, where restructuring and Middle East logistics snags are delaying decisions and squeezing testing product and simulation sales. The firm now expects lower revenue, is quitting a loss-making China unit, and blamed a tougher second half.

When the boss backs himself

Sunda Energy jumped 44 per cent after a show of confidence from the top. Chief executive Andy Butler has bought up the last £400,000 of convertible loan notes tied to the company’s New Zealand acquisition, taking them off the lender’s hands. Tellingly, he says he has no plans to convert them into shares. Investors read that as the boss putting his own money where his mouth is, right as the deal heads towards completion.

Cyber fears give Shearwater a boost

Shearwater Group shares jumped 31 per cent after the cyber-security firm said revenue and profits would land ahead of City forecasts. 

A strong second half, driven by its services arm and a run of contract wins, should lift full-year revenue to around £42million. The timing helps. 

Cyber fears are running hot after OpenAI and Anthropic both admitted their newest models gained unauthorised access to outside organisations’ systems during testing, escaping the controlled environments they were meant to stay inside. With demand for cyber defences only climbing, and the board clearing the way to buy back shares or pay a dividend, investors piled in.

Getech catches a Spanish eye

Getech leapt 30 per cent this week after a Spanish buyer swooped in. Xcalibur Multiphysics, a Madrid-based world leader in airborne surveys that map the earth for oil, minerals and water, has snapped up a 25.5 per cent stake in the geoscience data specialist. Getech uses geological data to help hunt for natural resources and greener energy sources like hydrogen, so the two are a natural fit. Investors clearly smell a possible takeover.

Itaconix: The slow burner catches fire

And finally, Itaconix shares kept climbing this week, extending a run that has now lifted them 60 per cent since the start of the month. The catalyst was an upbeat trading update on July 17 that initially appears to have been a slow burner for the market.

First-half sales leapt 72 per cent to a record $8.3million, prompting the company to lift full-year guidance to at least $14.8million, ahead of the $13.3million analysts had pencilled in.

Growth came from repeat detergent orders and new customers in Europe and North America. Investors are warming to a story that is finally gaining commercial traction.

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