One of the Punter’s “investments” rose 84 per cent last week.

One of his would-be gold miners also released some pretty good assay results, which enhanced the value of the resource it already plans to start mining next year.

Okay, so the big mover, Punter’s put option on Westpac (ASX code WBCTL7), is still showing a thumping loss.

And the good news from Millennium Minerals sparked absolutely no interest in the Punter’s traded options (MOYOB) which are worth barely half what he paid for them.

But he lives in hope.

In the present market, you have to be a raving optimist just to sit on your hands and do nothing.

The Punter, however, has decided to spend some more of his dwindling reserve of cash.

He has taken up his rights to buy additional shares in Ceramic Fuel Cells (CFU), even though the offer – 10.8 cents – is no bargain at current prices.

This manufacturer of stand-alone electricity generators needs the money to scale up production now demonstration models have started to generate serious sales.

It still makes a loss, but on current form this should change in the next year or two.

The one-for-four offer brings him an extra 3000 CFU at a cost of $324.

He has also decided to buy shares in Australian Vintage (AVG).

Yes, there is still a wine glut, the company’s main export markets in Europe are teetering on the brink of recession, it has been hammered by the high Aussie dollar, overall debt has increased and the company is making no forecast for the current year.

But tight cost control and focusing on bottled premium brands during the past few years has started to pay off, to the point where it has paid a dividend for the first time in five years.

Increasingly it is turning its attention to China and other Asian countries and, unlike some of its peers in the industry, it is starting to look like a survivor.

At the current price, AVG shares sell for around six times earnings and yield almost eight per cent.

In the long run, if it does survive, that is going to look cheap.

The Punter has no financial qualifications and no links to the financial services industry. He owns shares in a number of companies featured in this column.