The TSX-Venture exchange hasn’t had a lot of days in the sun recently – or in the four years for that matter - as the junior Toronto exchange has undergone a precipitous fall since September. In short, the Venture has simply underwhelmed compared to its larger North American counterparts as it sits near lows since it became the Venture as we know it today while other indexes hold near record highs.
Be that as it may, there are still a lot of good companies trading on the Venture and today is a day that 50 of them get recognized to for their strength and growth.
The TSX Venture Exchange, a TSX Group (TSX:X) company, announced on Wednesday its annual list appropriately dubbed the "2015 TSX-Venture 50®." The list is comprised of the top 10 companies from five sectors: Clean Technology, Diversified Industries, Mining, Oil & Gas, and Technology & Life Sciences.
Determination of the top companies is based on equal weighting of market capitalization growth, share price appreciation, trading volume and analyst coverage.
Several companies made their debut on the Venture-50 list, including Engagement Labs Inc. (TSX-Venture:EL) and Theralase Technologies (TSX-Venture:TLT), while EnWave Corporation (TSX-Venture:ENW) made the list for the fifth time.
The top billing across all sectors was Calgary-based oil and gas company Ikkuma Resources Corp. (TSX-Venture:IKM). Ikkuma actually had a wild ride during 2014, starting the year at 35 cents per share with negligible trading volumes, to rise as high as $6.90 per share in July before oil prices starting plunging, taking Ikkuma stock value with it. The year ended at $0.99 per share (still a real nice gain overall, albeit far from $7).
At the end of January, Ikkuma said that it topped guidance with production of 7,150 barrels of oil equivalent per day in December. In the same boat with so many other energy plays as oil prices stay down, though, Ikkuma slashed its capital program by 49% from $46 million to $23 million. On the bright side, exit guidance for 2015 was increased to 9,000 boe/d.
With its top spot overall, Ikkuma obviously led the Oil & Gas sector as well, followed by Mapan Energy Ltd. (TSX-Venture:MPG). Patient Home Monitoring Corp. (TSX-Venture:PHM) took top billing in the Technology & Life Sciences sector, as POET Technologies Inc. (TSX-Venture:PTK) was right behind. In the mining sector, Niocorp Developments Ltd. (TSX-Venture:NB) was number one and Excelsior
Mining Corp. (TSX-Venture:MIN) was number two. theScore, Inc. (TSX-Venture:SCR) and Jemi Fibre Corp. (TSX-Venture:JFI) were first and second, respectively, in the Diversified Industries sector. Legend Power Systems Inc. (TSX-Venture:LPS) and Questor Technologies Inc. (TSX-Venture:QST) took the top two slots in Clean Technology.
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