Small-cap shares on the London Stock Exchange have the potential to rise faster than larger peers due to being earlier in their growth journeys. Here are two that I reckon deserve closer attention from investors.

Riding the gold boom

Ramsdens (LSE:RFX) is a high street pawnbroker boasting four divisions: precious metals buying, jewellery retail, foreign currency exchange, and pawnbroking loans. 

The company is benefitting from two trends that I expect to continue. The first is a rising gold price, with the yellow metal hitting new highs due to a number of factors, including stubborn inflation and global economic uncertainty.

In the six months to 31 March, a higher gold price sent gross profit in Ramsdens’ precious metals unit surging 53%. This helped pre-tax profit reach a record £6.1m, with more than £15m now expected for the full year.

The second trend is the cost-of-living crisis, which is forcing more people to sell jewellery and/or seek pawnbroking loans. Sadly, I see this getting worse, with tax rises and spending cuts now looking inevitable.

Ramsdens is focused on helping customers repay part of their loan if more time is necessary. It does this to not only act responsibly, but also to keep the door open for future borrowing when needed.

Now, one thing worth mentioning is that rival H&T has been snapped up by Firstcash to create the largest publicly traded pawnbroker in the US, Latin America, and UK. So, Ramsdens could face rising competition, as Firstcash has deeper pockets to invest in UK store expansion and marketing.

That said, Ramsdens is planning to open six to eight new shops each year, adding to its existing 169 stores. And its growing its online presence in both gold buying and jewellery selling, with dedicated websites attracting new customers.

The stock’s up 53% over the past year. Yet, a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 10.7 still looks reasonable, while there’s a 4% dividend yield on offer.

Fast-growing fintech

The second small-cap is Beeks Financial Cloud (LSE:BKS), which rents out secure cloud servers to banks, brokers, and other financial companies. It provides low-latency hosting right next to major financial exchanges, enabling customers to trade faster.

When I first started digging into the company a few months ago, I was worried about competition. There are so many fintech innovators around these days, and this still adds risk, I feel.

However, Beeks is growing strongly, and recently signed a contract with crypto exchange Kraken. Just in August, it secured over $7m of new contracts for its Private Cloud platform.

These latest wins span financial institutions across different geographies, underpinning my confidence in Beeks’ growth prospects. It has also taken a strategic minority stake in Liquid-Markets-Solutions, a Swiss provider of ultra-fast network equipment for financial trading.

Encouragingly, Beeks is already profitable, and its forward P/E ratio of 24.8 is far from ridiculous for a growing fintech.

Foolish bottom line

To sum up, Ramsdens is a dividend-paying pawnbroker with a strong balance sheet that’s benefitting from the surging gold price.

Meanwhile, Beeks is an up-and-coming fintech growing quickly both domestically and abroad.

While small-caps can add risk, given their modest scale, I feel these two could ones to consider for those seeking a nice blend of high growth (Beeks) and steady income (Ramsdens).

Looking for income stocks that could deliver a stable passive income even if the economy sinks? Here are two I think savvy investors should consider.

Golden returns

Gold stocks are in high demand as precious metals soar to new peaks. Bullion prices rose to new highs of $3,582 in recent hours. And, they are tipped for further gains on a range of macroeconomic and geopolitical factors.

Of course, gold prices can go down as well as up. And any retracement could put producer profits and therefore dividends under pressure. But there is a range of supportive factors, from rising inflation and geopolitical tension to worries over government debts. I think further progress is likely.

For passive income investors, I think Serabi Gold (LSE:SRB) demands serious attention in this climate. It hasn’t paid a dividend before, but in April announced plans to distribute 20%-30% of free cash flow through dividends or share buybacks.

This means City analysts are tipping a maiden annual dividend of 8.2p per share for 2025. And, as a consequence, Serabi shares carry a healthy 3.9% forward dividend yield.

Future dividends should be boosted by lower-cost production over the next decade that improves cash flows. The company’s all-in sustaining costs (AISC) rose slightly year on year to $1,792 per ounce in the first half. But new output from its high-yielding Coringa asset in Brazil from now until 2034 should pull this sharply lower.

The average AISC over the life of the mine is predicted at $1,241 per ounce.

A lot could happen to the gold price over the next 10 years, of course. The long-term trajectory of gold prices is impressive — they’ve risen 176% during the past decade. I feel Serabi looks well positioned to deliver attractive dividends.

Dividend trust

Food retailers like Tesco and Sainsbury’s can also be resolute dividend payers even during downturns. The predictability of food demand helps support earnings, though for me, the impact of severe competition on sales and margins means they are stocks I’m not tempted to buy.

I think Supermarket Income REIT (LSE:SUPR) could be a better way to consider targeting a passive income from this defensive industry. It rents out retail space to several of the UK’s biggest grocery chains (and Carrefour in France), providing a stable stream of income it can then distribute to shareholders.

Under real estate investment trust (REIT) rules, it must pay at least 90% of annual profits out in the form of dividends. For this financial year (to June 2026) its dividend yield stands at 7.9%, towering above the FTSE 100 average of 3.3%.

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Theoretically, Supermarket Income’s dividends could disappoint if its tenants fail on their rental obligations. But in reality, the probability of this happening is remote — indeed, it’s achieved 100% rent collection since its creation in 2017.

I’d be more concerned about future earnings as internet grocery shopping increases in popularity. However, the trust’s decision to focus on ‘omnichannel’ assets for both physical and online customers significantly mitigates this threat.