What's going on at Stentor, the telecoms tiddler that has had a chequered history in its very short life as a public company.

For the second time in the space of three months, the board felt obliged to make a statement to the stock exchange saying it knew of no reason for a sharp rise in the share price.

The first time such a statement was made was in March, and was followed seven weeks later by the announcement that Stentor had formed an alliance with a telecoms giant which had the potential to generate £8 million in revenues. Back then the shares were trading on AIM at 19p sterling.

Fast forward to last week when the shares shot up from 33p to 50p before another statement from the Stentor board knocked the shares back a bit. The board disavowed knowledge of any reason behind the most recent rise, but sections of the market are not convinced, with Stentor shares continuing to trade around 45p sterling.

Rumours in London were of another deal with a telecoms major, but quite what Stentor has to bring to the table is not very clear. Given its history - the shares hit 195p at one stage before falling out of bed - punters should be extremely wary about getting into shares like Stentor.

The activity last week had all the hallmarks of rumours being put into the market simply so some cute investors could make a quick killing.