LEADCOM, a real growth company.

Lots of TWOH (the wisdom of hindsight) here but whilst that might NOW indicate that the SP should never have got to 90p earlier in the year, it did. Just remember that the institutions were very happy at that time to relieve the founders of their residual shareholding at 73p, some 6 weeks before it hit its high of 94p on May 11th.

Arthurly makes a very good point when he comments "That's the AIM market for you". The volatility in the LEAD share price this year was primarily between May 11th and July 18th when the price halved from 94p to 47p in less than 10 weeks. This was caused by a combination of 3 things - the big May market correction (AIM down by 20%), the sudden 63p placing at the end of May and the Middle East conflict which blew up at the begining of July. None of these events, let alone this unfortunate trilogy, could really have been forseen or quantified in advance. The recovery was slow and patchy (AIM is still 20% below last May) and the slow climb back to 60p by early November was then overturned by the huge volumes that were suddenly, and again unexpectedly, traded over the past 2 weeks. We still don't know the full story behind that either.

The current SP now looks undervalued in relation to the recent trading update, the increasing potential in India and Leadcoms new credit rating. The long term prospects now look really good and have been further enhanced by recent market developments. This is one of my core stocks and I will hold it for the long term in my SIP and continue to trade it through my brokerage a/c. One has to recognise that AIM stocks are much more dependent upon sentiment than larger and more mature stocks that are quoted in the main market. Thats what makes AIM both very attractive (undervalued stocks) and also very risky (one or two institutional holders can wreck the SP short term if their sentiment or circumstances change - as we saw over the past 2 weeks).

Hopefully we will now see calmer waters ahead in 2007/2008 and a more solidly based escalation in the share price as the additional potential is actually translated into sales and income.