HotCopper Highlights: Stokes says buy to Seven West; Melbana drills a duster & more

Good Afternoon and welcome back to HotCopper Highlights for Week 45 of the year, I’m Jon Davidson. In this segment the stocks you were watching and discussing the most this week on Australia’s #1 finance website, let’s get into it starting with the most viewed. 

Seven West Media attracted eyes this week as billionaire WA owner Kerry Stokes announced he’s out in three months time, while framing the business as one in good nick, Stokes went so far as to criticise the AFL on its TV scheduling decisions, and, ignored the fact that his darling is basically going to Southern Cross cheap as chips.

Elsewhere, Alliance Aviation rising to the hotlist twice this week, first when it suspended trades ahead of a guidance downgrade, and then again on Friday, when that disclosure went live. Shares slumped -40%, Alliance is looking at a lot of higher costs, and, nearly $5M it can’t access due to a contract dispute. 

Finally, graphite player NOVONIX attracting the wrong kind of attention after US automaker Stellantis terminated a graphite offtake contract on what appears to be a disagreement on specifications, graphite flake is a notoriously finnicky art and not a science. 

And so what about the most discussed stocks? 

Melbana Energy didn’t give shareholders what they wanted at all earlier this week when it revealed its Amistad-2 well in Cuba came up a duster, despite a very resilient show of optimism from the company’s top dog, investors weren’t sure. Melbana will continue to conduct seismic surveys in the heavily sanctioned country, the stock’s got 4B shares on issue. 

FBR Limited popped back up on the boards after a few months in the reeds as the company once again issued a fresh disclosure this week around its robotic-arm-based automated homebuilding tech called Hadrian X, with investors digesting whether the company can land a big contract before year’s end. 

Finally, Invictus Energy sliding back into DMs, or at least comments on the website, as the company’s now-somewhat-forgotten deal with the Omani royal family remains on long-time believers minds. 

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