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A happy Friday to you and welcome to HotCopper Highlights for Week 39 of the year, I’m Jon Davidson. In this segment we look at the most popular stocks on Australia’s #1 finance and stock research website, which means which stocks you were looking at – let’s get into it starting with the most viewed. 

Invictus Energy catching a lot of eyes this week after it issued a trading halt then raised capital at 9.5 cents per share, well below the share price around 22 cents the stock had been commanding since we recently learned the Qatari Royal Family were buying a stake in the company just south of 20%. Investor reaction was mixed, though long-term holders may have been more pessimistic. 

Elsewhere, Vection Technologies climbing into the most viewed rankings as it becomes the latest Aussie defence junior to benefit from exposure to the global remilitarisation thematic; the combat VR headset company popped on a milestone contract at the same time Russia has been flying drones into Poland and Estonia in recent weeks. 

Finally, Race Oncology has been a quiet bull stock this month, intraweek month on month gains were up 180% as the company has flagged a string of wins across its cancer drug portfolio broadly, but at this point, it can’t be denied the stock has become the target of volatility-hungry swing traders.

And what about the most discussed stocks? 

Myer Group generated relative chatter this week after it announced its first yearly results following the acquisition of Apparel Brands earlier this year, which gave it brands Just Jeans, Jay Jay’s and Dotti among others. While a net loss over $200M was attributed to the cost of that transaction, investors were spooked by two things – first, sales growth remains flat, suggesting Myer may have bought a lemon off Premier Investments. Secondly, it didn’t distribute a dividend.

Elsewhere, erectile dysfunction nasal spray biotech LTR Pharma caused confusion, mostly positive confusion but still confusion, when it this week bought 33% of an omega-3 fish oil company that was registered last week in NSW. With R&D development activities flagged, the more cynically minded may wonder if this is really about a nice fat tax rebate. 

Finally, Larvotto Resources remains a popular stock to digest and debate given that the early-mover explorer on the antimony thematic now finds itself in a crowded sector with a lot of peers to compete with; still, conviction in the stock remains strong, despite a litany of other companies perhaps copying from its playbook. 

That’s HotCopper Highlights for this week, I’m Jon Davidson, have a great weekend and we’ll see you on Monday. 

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