Missed the 700%, 500%, 200% Movers plus over a dozen more ideas up over 50%? Don’t Make the Same Mistake in 2026 — Follow @TMS_MarketInfo & @TMSreach.
Against the backdrop of a battered small-cap landscape, the @TMS_MarketInfo shortlist proved to be one of the few reliable maps through the storm. From 700% rockets to 500% movers and over a dozen 50%+ risers, our 2025 calls showed that opportunity thrives even in a market gripped by fear. AIM may have been shaken, but the TMS picks helped define the year’s standout success stories. Only two ideas really failed to deliver and both have de-listed in OCTP and WBI.
2025 has been carnage for most small-cap investors — but not for @TMS_MarketInfo followers. While AIM battled interest rates, liquidity black holes and relentless selling pressure, the TMS 2025 Watchlist delivered one of its strongest years ever.
Plus our Christmas/New Year selections for 2025 included Sixteen of our forty calls — 40% of the entire list — trading more than 100% up during the year, including several explosive multi-baggers (+700%, +500%, +200%). Add in dozens more names delivering 50%+ returns, and the message is clear: even in a shocking market, TMS research continues to find the winners long before the crowd wakes up.
After three tough years AIM seems to be turning the corner. The FTSE AIM All-Share index has delivered a return of 9.4pc so far this year after falling by more than a third through 2022 to 2024.
AIM’s recovery has been achieved in the face of the strong headwinds that have continued to buffet small caps. The higher interest rate that has lingered since the pandemic is still hitting smaller companies that have taken on debts to grow particularly hard. Junior markets continue to labour in the shadows of blue chip indices driven by tech giants fuelled by speculation about the transformative possibilities of AI. Many natural resources small caps are sensitive to delicate supply chains disrupted by on-off trade wars and the stubborn presence of real war in Europe.
UK small caps have faced particular difficulties. Institutional investors have hedged their exposure to London’s markets over the past few years in favour of booming US indices. And last year’s painful Budget halved long-standing tax exemptions on AIM shares.
AIM in 2025: green shoots
But despite everything AIM has – as always – yielded winners for those willing to follow the market closely, diversify, and take informed risks. The 40 mining, oil and gas and miscellaneous companies listed in our roundup of companies to watch in 2025 plus our on-going selections via @TMS_MarketInfo in 2025 included several small cap performers that performed strongly through or during the year, many on AIM, notably:
- Roadside Real Estate (AIM:ROAD) up 700pc
- Guardian Metal Resources (AIM:GMET) up 500pc
- Gem Resources (LSE:GEMR) up 200pc
- 80 Mile (AIM:80M) up 150pc
- Landore Resources (AIM:LND) up 100pc
- Tower Resources (AIM:TRP) up 100pc
- Empire Metals (AIM:EEE) up 80pc
- Panther Metals (AIM:PALM) up 80pc
- Creo Medical Group (AIM:CREO) up 80pc
- hVIVO (AIM:HVO) up 50pc
But this year’s winners were not isolated performers going against the grain. We also highlighted over 20 Companies that were up 0ver 50% from the entry level. The wider AIM index has started to pick up over the past 12 months. 2025 has been the market’s best year for fundraising since the boom year of 2021. By the end of August AIM-listed companies had raised £2.1bn from IPOs and secondary fundraisings (shares sold by current shareholders rather than issued by the company itself), more than double the £889m raised in the previous 12 months.
And AIM has continued to dominate Europe’s growth markets, accounting for 53pc of all capital raised across European small cap indices over the past five years: more money than its five nearest European rivals combined. IPOs on London’s junior market rebounded through the 2024/25 financial year, 16 companies listing so far against just nine last year. The average amount of new money raised per IPO was £9.9m, up from the low of £6.8m recorded in 2022/23.
This year’s recovery is a reminder that despite all its recent trials AIM remains the world’s most important growth market, making a crucial contribution to the UK and the wider global economy. A major research paper by accountants Grant Thorntonpublished last year showed that even during the lean years that followed the pandemic AIM continued to fulfil its historic role of channelling capital to small businesses.
The direct economic contribution made by AIM companies to the UK – even through the troubled period from 2022 to 2024 – grew by 6.6pc. UK incorporated AIM companies contributed £35.7bn Gross Value Added (GVA) to Britain’s GDP, directly supporting more than 410,000 jobs and making a significant corporation tax contribution of £5.4bn. With their supply chain spending factored in they contributed an overall £68bn GVA and more than 778,000 jobs, a cumulative impact greater than the economy’s combined agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors.
Despite this year’s resurgence the market has some way to go to return to its 2007 peak, when it hosted nearly 1,700 stocks from around the world and launched more than 300 IPOs. AIM currently lists just under 700 companies. And though more than £2bn was raised this year, £6.6bn was generated in 2021.
Reasons for hope in 2026
But there are good grounds for believing the revival will gather pace in 2026. The brutal shakeout over the last few years has left a core of higher quality, better capitalised companies better able to inspire investor confidence. As a junior market AIM is particularly well positioned to benefit from the prospect of lower interest rates that will ease the debt burden of smaller companies.
The Bank of England has signalled that the current 4pc rate is likely to fall in response to expectations that inflation has peaked. It is too soon to judge the likely impact of the tough measures announced in this year’s Budget, but whatever the market’s verdict, the Chancellor’s statement was designed to signal the Government’s commitment to fiscal discipline and to pave the way for lower rates.
And AIM is a particular focus of ongoing efforts by policy makers (across all major parties) and regulators to improve the competitiveness of London’s markets and direct more investment into UK assets. Shaping the Future of AIM, a consultation paper published this year by the London Stock Exchange, proposes a package of reforms intended to strengthen AIM’s attractiveness for both issuers and investors by reducing costs, improving efficiency and simplifying regulation.
The paper underlines the Exchange’s commitment to ensuring AIM equities fully participate in initiatives – such as the Mansion House Compact and the Pension Investment Review – to consolidate UK pensions into mega funds. Regulators insist that the proposed reforms, which have the potential to channel more than £50bn into UK securities, must distinguish between small and large listed companies by recognising the different dynamics affecting the two parts of the market.
The paper proposes a range of initiatives to encourage both companies and retail investors to engage with AIM. New IPOs should be encouraged through the strengthening of fiscal incentives to participation such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme, Venture Capital Trusts, ISA inclusion and business relief, streamlining admission requirements, rationalisation of the nominated adviser system, and permitting dual-class share structures for founder-led growth companies. Retail investors should be encouraged through more and better equity research, and improved access to market admissions and placings.
Another encouraging sign that AIM’s fire is rekindling is the volatility it has shown this year, notably in the spring, when it fell by 3.1pc in March, flatlined in April, then surged 8.23pc in May, its fastest leap since December 2020. There were spectacular failures as well as winners. Not all of our 2025 picks were successful: Oxford Cannabinoid (OCTP) is in the process of delisting and Woodbois (WBI) was suspended in November. And that is just how it should be in the world of AIM. It’s precisely that volatility that makes the market attractive to sharp investors able to choose wisely and manage risk.
The prospect of lower interest rates and – in due course – market reform augur well for AIM’s continued recovery in 2026. And though investors rightly look to the junior market for short-term gains they should not lose sight of one of the most well observed market patterns, frequently highlighted by TMS: the tendency of small caps to outperform their larger counterparts over time. The pattern has asserted itself in recent history, small and mid-sized companies generating a return premium over their larger peers of 6pc between 2009 and 2021. AIM was designed precisely to provide a framework for small cap growth over extended periods.
More about our top picks
For investors willing to do their homework, manage risk, spread their money over different sectors, and hold on to promising shares through tough times, AIM offers as many opportunities as it ever has. Our upcoming Christmas roundup will pick out companies to look out for in 2026 – in the meantime here are a few words about our top 2025 picks:
Roadside Real Estate (AIM:ROAD) has taken significant steps to move towards a scalable forecourt fuel and retail model, and secured an option for an investment in Cambridge Sleep Sciences which could be worth at least £48m. The company has also reached agreement for the sale of its non-core commercial property division for £12m.
Guardian Metal Resources (AIM:GMET) has published promising high grade assay results for its Pilot Mountain Project in Nevada, prospective for tungsten and other strategic metals, and secured a contract with the US government for the project’s possible development.
Gem Resources (LSE:GMER) resumed production at its flagship Gravelotte Emerald Mine in South Africa after extensive modernisation work, and achieved its first sale of emeralds. Independent valuation estimates an inferred resource at Gravelotte of some 29 million carats, and an NPV of $22.4m, with a projected pre-tax profit over a 17 year mine life of $79.5m.
80 Mile (AIM:80M) is repositioning from a pure minerals exploration and mining company to a diversified resource and energy group, balancing critical metals exploration in Greenland with a growing footprint in biofuels and sustainable energy in Italy, and developing exposure to hydrocarbons. An independent assessment attributes the company some four billion barrels of gross un-risked prospective oil resources in the Jameson Land Basin in eastern Greenland to 80M.
Landore Resources (AIM:LND) benefited from surging gold prices as it began drilling at its flagship BAM Project, prospective for gold, nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum-group elements, iron, and other metals, in northwestern Ontario. The project, some 235 km north of Thunder Bay, may host an estimated 1.5 million ounces of gold.
Tower Resources (AIM:TRP) has moved towards drilling and production at its wholly owned Thali licence offshore Cameroon, raising funds and securing a drilling rig. Tower has exposure to other oil and gas provinces off the coast of Namibia.
Empire Metals (AIM:EEE) announced a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate for its Pitfield Titanium Project in Western Australia of 2.2 billion ounces representing some 113 million tonnes of contained titanium oxide, which would make it one of the world’s largest and highest-grade titanium resources. The company launched a drilling campaign at one of Pitfield’s major prospects.
Panther Metals (AIM:PALM) developed its exploration and early-stage projects in Ontario, starting work streams to evaluate historic tailings at the Winston Lake Mine, aiming to unlock cash flow from existing infrastructure, and advancing exploration at its Obonga and Dotted Lake Projects. The company also undertook capital raising and balance sheet restructuring.
Creo Medical Group (AIM:CREO) accelerated its transition from a technology development company to a commercial medical device business, strengthening its balance sheet and developing its CROMA platform designed to offer minimally invasive surgeries for the treatment of cancers or pre-cancers.
hVIVO (AIM:HVO) continued to develop its core early stage drug and vaccine testing business based on the human challenge model, while significantly diversifying its service to include contract research organisation, lab work and consulting.
…and remember, stocks are for selling not to just sit and watch them go up and down. If You Want to Win in 2026, Follow @TMS_MarketInfo and @TMSreach. It’s That Simple.
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