Galloping to the top of the runners of the week podium is… icetana

Against a backdrop of jittery global stock markets – the United States Dow Jones has endured a 10-day losing streak – its worst since 1974 - this week’s batch of Runners have still managed to buck the broader trend with solid gains, led by news of an AI deal, a copper mine acquisition and a long-awaited FDA approval.

icetana (ASX:ICE) 

129 per cent up (from 1.7c to 3.9c)

Galloping to the top of the Runners of the Week podium this week is video analytic solution provider icetana.

icetana leapt out of the starting gate on Monday and charged straight to 3.9c on the biggest turnover of shares in more than a year after partnering with Malaysian-based AE Security System to lock in a handy artificial intelligence (AI) video security deal in Asia providing AI-driven video analytics for 1 Utama, Malaysia’s largest shopping mall.

Billed as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), the $465,000 contract - its first in Malaysia - stretches across three years and will add $155,000 per year to the company’s recurring revenue. Rollout of the software is slated for early next year.

icetana’s core technology centres on the use of AI to revolutionise security surveillance in large-scale and high-traffic commercial environments such as shopping centres and sports arenas. The company’s AI platform simplifies monitoring by learning what’s “normal” for each camera and flagging unusual activities in real time - eliminating manual tweaking and boosting efficiency.

It says the deal has expanded its global presence by showcasing its innovative approach to autonomous surveillance solutions and adds to its existing network, which already supports more than 16,000 cameras across 75 sites in 15 countries.

^{icetana captivated the market this week with a 129% share price rise after locking down a deal to provide AI generated security analytics to Malyasia’s biggest shopping centre. Credit: File}

Black Dragon Gold (ASX:BDG) 

108 per cent up (from 2.5c to 5.2c)

Taking the silver on this week’s Runners podium is Black Dragon Gold and with it, the week’s biggest mystery.

Black Dragon is the operator of the high-grade 1.5-million-ounce Salave gold project in Spain, which is one of the biggest undeveloped gold projects in Europe. At the beginning of the month, however, it had its early Christmas present severely spoilt after the Tapia de Casariego Town Council voted against the company’s application for land rezoning.

The share price dutifully halved from 3.1c to 1.6c on the disappointment. Normally, that would be the end of the story until a company - such as Black Dragon – decides to appeal the decision and possible manages to get it reversed.

The difference this time is the day after the company received the bad news, the share price started climbing, slowly at first, but it gathering pace. On Wednesday the price shot up 80 per cent to 4.5c on massive volumes on absolutely no new news. On Friday, the stock peaked at 5.2c.

Although unqualified gossip at this stage, the rumour mill is spinning at top speed right now with stories of an imminent European-wide change in legislation to restrict the actions of local councils to block developments if those developments are seen as strategic to the European Union.

Asyet, the ASX hasn’t come a’knocking, but unless some definitive announced is released shortly, the mystery will remain unanswered.

Patriot Lithium (ASX:PAT) 

84 per cent up (from 3.1c to 5.7c)

Locking up third spot on Bulls N’ Bears’ Runners list, Patriot Lithium took the plunge to spread its exploration nous from just lithium to also chase copper in Africa.

Referring to its acquisition of a strategic 80 per cent joint venture interest in the highly prospective Kitumba 27715 copper project in Zambia as transformative, the punters were onto the counter early on Monday, pushing the share price up 30 per cent to 4c at one stage.

Subsequent news, 24-hours later, of high-grade assays at the project including 4.45 per cent copper and 2.59 grams per tonne (g/t) gold really got the squark boxes chirping, cranking the share price to a high of 5.7c. This represents an 84 per cent start-to-peak performance.

Spanning an impressive 255 square kilometres, Kitumba 27715 sits just 2km south of some of Zambia’s earliest copper mines, Sable Antelope or Hippo, which were both discovered in the late 19th century. It was from this region that the 1906 copper rush emanated from and where Zambia got its well-earned reputation for being the world’s then copper capital.

The project is also regarded as highly strategic since it wraps around Chinese mining giant Sinomine’s similarly named Kitumba copper deposit, marked up for a US$600 million spend in efforts to produce 50,000 tonnes of copper annually.

The move to spread its exploration focus away from being too lithium-centric is possibly another reason why Patriot’s share price took such a run. The lithium space in the past year has not been a happy hunting ground for investors, so anything that takes attention away from that underperforming sector may well be seen as a relief.

Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) 

67 per cent up (from $1.84 to $3.09)

With a loud cheer, Mesoblast also had a standout week taking out the final spot on this week’s Runner’s list of the best performers.

In a groundbreaking moment for children’s health in the USt, the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) yesterday gave the green light to Mesoblast’s Ryoncil for mesenchymal stromal cell therapy, a treatment for reducing the incidence of bone marrow rejection during and after transplant, especially in children, as young as two months.

The share predictably rocketed away on the news, sending it as high as $3.09 or 67 per cent on massive turnover of 57 million shares.

Ryoncil, administered intravenously, demonstrated an impressive 70 per cent overall response rate by day 28 in children with severe grades of the condition, massively improving survival outcomes.

With nearly 10,000 allogenic bone marrow transplants performed in the US every year with high mortality rates and limited treatment options, it’s not surprising the Mesoblast share price vaulted as strongly as it did, after referring to the treatment as potentially “life-saving” for hundreds of kids each year.

The four runners this week have come from a diverse range of sectors, which may be a reflection of the market quietening down as we approach Christmas, or it could be that in the midst of such a gloomy week for the global bourses, there are still many good stories out there that continue to attract the punters.

Signing off ahead of festivities next week, all the staff at Bull N’ Bears would like to wish our readers a happy, safe and enjoyable Christmas and New Year.

As they say in the classics, onwards and upwards.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au