Winners and Losers: Adelaide’s biggest returns of 2024
Adelaide’s mining and technology stocks were the smart bets for 2024, with one company’s shares rising eight-fold over the past 12 months.
As we inch closer to mince pies and cherries, we drag ourselves towards the financial year’s mid-point.
For the final Winners and Losers column of the year, we’ll take a look at the major themes of the calendar year – how most people on the planet track the passing of time.
It’s impossible to look past Petratherm. The exploratory miner’s shares rose by 700 per cent over the past 12 months, shooting the company up from the 3 cents it was worth in January to 32 cents per share.
The company was a beneficiary of excitement surrounding some of its outback discoveries.
The first jump in its share price came in September when the company announced it discovered high-grade titanium-rich heavy mineral sands over “several kilometres” at its project near Coober Pedy.
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Two more spikes came in November and early December, the former thanks to yet another discovery of titanium and the latter due to the company finding “high-value” minerals at Muckanippie.
For a sense of how much interest Petratherm has generated in the past year just look at its market capitalisation. This time in 2023 it was worth just below $8 million. Now? Just under $100 million at $92.8 million.
The mining trend continues down the list of 2024’s biggest gainers, with Rex Minerals nearly tripling its market capitalisation over the past 12 months.
Tech is another core theme of the best local investments in 2024, with battery recycling minnow Iondrive recording a 136 per cent share price rise over the past year.
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Codan remained a solid choice as far as Adelaide companies go in 2024, giving investors an 84.5 per cent yearly return on investment, and AML3D is cementing its spot at the top of the local leaderboard too.
The 3D metal printer was a perennial Winner this year for this column, and over the past 12 months its shares rose by nearly 80 per cent, with its value rising from $22 million to $85 million in just one year.
As for the biggest downers this year, Orbminco sagged by 94.6 per cent, NeuRizer – a perennial Loser – fell by 89.4 per cent and Vintage Energy was down by 80.88 per cent.
Phosphate miner Centrex also had a rough trot this past year, falling by 74 per cent from a $47 million market cap to now $17 million.
Most of the biggest Losers for the calendar year were miners, proving it’s not just trends that drive the market and it pays to be cautious.
For the week ended 13 December, Iondrive was the biggest Winner rising by 44.44 per cent, followed by Resolution Minerals, Archer Minerals and Elixir Energy.
Vintage Energy topped the Losers list this week; the last week of the year this column will track before a well-deserved break.
Orbminco, Whitebark Energy, AML3D and Micro-X rounded out the Losers list.
The full list of Winners and Losers for the week ended 13 December 2024:
