Recaps · August 26, 2026

SMTK, August 26: a $5.74 high at 4:00 a.m. and a day spent below it

• Small cap
• Momentum
• Main move: pre-market open
• News: 8:13 a.m.
• Gap and fade
• Float traded 3.6x pre-market
• Lower high

Float

564,683 shares

Volume

2.99 million shares

Previous close

$3.70

Open

$4.45 (up 20.3%)

High

$5.74 at 4:00 a.m.

Close

$4.16

The day before

On August 25, SMTK opened at $3.71 and traded as high as $5.44. The low was $3.30. The official close was $3.70, almost exactly where it opened. 829,030 shares traded.

The last bar of that day's data was $4.67. So the stock arrived on the 26th well above its official close.

Pre-market: the high came in the first minute

The first trades on the 26th were at $4.65, already above the $3.70 close.

The first minute, 4:00 a.m., ran to $5.74, the high so far, and closed at $5.07. At 4:01 the low was $4.70. 53,191 shares traded in that first minute.

It tried again. At 4:04 a.m. it pushed to $5.54, a lower high under the $5.74 top. It was back at $4.81 a minute later. Another bounce at 4:11 reached $5.48, still under the top.

By the end of the 4:15 a.m. minute, more shares had traded than exist in the whole float (564,683). Volume dried up after that. By 4:35 it was around $4.57.

Then a second burst. From 5:32 a.m. it went from $4.80 to $5.12, and 5:33 a.m. was the heaviest minute of the whole day, 88,588 shares, with a high of $5.35. The burst peaked at $5.40 in the 5:34 minute. By 5:36 it was down to $4.84. That was a lower high than $5.54.

The rest of the pre-market was quiet and mostly between $4.34 and $4.90. 2.06 million shares traded before the bell.

The 8:13 headline

At 8:13 a.m. GlobeNewsWire ran: “SmartKem Welcomes Ferrox Plans to Accelerate Tivani Project Toward Q4 Demonstration Production.” The 8:13 minute traded between $4.61 and $4.68, on 4,073 shares. By 8:21 it was $4.79. By 9:00 it was $4.59.

The open and the slide under $4

It opened at $4.45, up 20% from the previous close. The next minute, 9:31, dropped to $4.13 on 25,047 shares.

It kept sliding. At 9:41 it broke below $4.00, and at 9:42 it hit $3.85, the low since the open. That was 17,867 shares in one minute. It was back at $4.03 by 9:43. From there it stayed mostly around $4.00 to $4.20 until 10:29.

Here's what happened. The 10:40 minute reached $4.73 on 39,281 shares. At 10:41 it hit $4.85 on 62,448 shares, the heaviest minute of the regular session. One minute later it was down to $4.40. By 10:50 it had dropped to $4.11. The $4.85 was well under the $5.74 high from 4:00 a.m.

Afternoon and after hours

Volume faded. Many minutes in the afternoon had only a few hundred shares, and some had no trades. Until the final minutes the price drifted between about $3.90 and $4.20.

At 2:05:37 p.m. a single sell order of 10,889 shares went through six price levels, from $4.04 to $3.98. The 2:05 p.m. minute low was $3.96. At 2:13 p.m. it touched $3.91, and at 2:14 p.m. it dipped to $3.90, the afternoon low.

Near the end it pushed up. At 3:55 p.m. it jumped to $4.17 on 8,235 shares. The 3:59 bar closed at $4.16. The 4:00 p.m. minute printed at $4.22 on 41,690 shares.

After hours it slid. The low of the whole day was $3.71, first reached at 6:54 p.m., a cent above the previous close. By 7:59 p.m. it was at $3.86. 110,030 shares traded after hours.

For the regular session, 819,496 shares traded. For the whole day, 2.99 million shares traded: the float changed hands about 5 times, at 27 times its normal volume. About 2.06 million of those came before the open.

What to take from it

• After the top, the next pushes stopped lower. $5.74 at 4:00 a.m., then $5.54 at 4:04, $5.40 at 5:34 and $4.85 at 10:41. Each try peaked under the last.
• Most of the day's volume traded before the open. 2.06 million of the 2.99 million shares traded pre-market, and the float had traded by the end of the 4:15 a.m. minute.
• The high of the day came before the open. $5.74 at 4:00 a.m. was 29% above the $4.45 open.