As The Australian article asks - green shoots showing in the drilling business?
I've been taking a little heart from the chart of Imdex lately but haven't had any context for it. The M.D of Imdex often says patience is required, the cycle will turn.
The charts below were the first three I looked at: IMD, BLY, and ASL. All these drilling related stocks are showing recent positive volume surges and narrowed volatility
Mitchell returns to pounce on 'cheap assets'
THE AUSTRALIAN AUGUST 25, 2014
"QUEENSLAND'S wealthy Mitchell family is returning to the local resources drilling sector where it made its fortune in the belief the industry has turned and it is time to snap up cheap assets.
Nathan Mitchell says the family exited at the top when it sold the 39-year-old Mitchell Drilling to AJ Lucas in 2008 for $150 million, and it is now getting back in at the bottom. And they are being backed by some other big names.
Robert Millner's Washington H Soul Pattinson is a major shareholder in the recently listed Mitchell Services, while the nation's biggest listed fund, Australian Foundation Investment Co, and private equity firm Ironbridge are understood to be part of a $20.2m capital raising announced last week to acquire Tom Browne Drilling Services from receivers.
"If six o'clock is the bottom of the market, we're probably at seven o'clock," Mr Mitchell told The Australian. "It's not booming but I think we're coming out of it, we are seeing an improvement in tendering and requests for rigs so green shoots."
The drilling sector has been one of the hardest hit by the mining downturn. Not only has exploration spending dried up, but the big miners have all been on productivity drives, with squeezing contractors high on their list of cost-saving initiatives.
But there is a growing feeling it could be time to start getting back in, evidenced last month when private equity buyout firm -Centerbridge Partners took a 13 per cent stake in embattled driller Boart Longyear ..................................
............... Mr Mitchell said the major opportunities he saw were in
coal and
precious metals.
"The minerals industry has been down for a while and our feeling is it is starting to come back," he said.
"The renewed activity is coming from both the tier-one miners and some of the juniors, so it's good to see a 50-50 mix.""
Imdex IMD weekly
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Boart BLY weekly
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Ausdrill ASL weekly
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Disclosure: Holding IMD at a loss
Sentiment: Just to say that few of my ideas have been worth acting on, they're entertainment, and these sort of stocks are super treacherous for newbies.