Last Orders: Stocks climb again as the ASX issues more speeding tickets

The ASX tracked higher at the big end of town in Wednesday trade, as the ASX200 closed 0.70 per cent higher.

The Small Ords Index also had a steady day with a 0.61 per cent gain, while the microcap Emerging Markets Index fell by 0.29 per cent.

There were no major catalysts to drive the market, as another string of companies reported their December half-year results.

The top performing small cap today was Fatfish Group (ASX:FFG), which continued it torrid rally as the stock nearly tripled on no news.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Navarre Minerals (ASX:NML) has entered into a binding agreement with Resource Base Limited for the sale of its Black Range base metal exploration tenement. The divestment is part of the company’s strategy to move away from its non-core exploration assets and focus on gold exploration, particularly at its flagship Stawell Corridor.

Navarre managing director, Ian Holland, said: “The divestment of the non-core Black Range Project reinforces Navarre’s strategy of accelerating exploration of its high-quality gold assets in Victoria.”

Holland added that “we have formed a view that divestment of Black Range is the best path forward to unlock the value in this project for our shareholders”.

In line with the trading activity in recent days, a number of stocks received speeding tickets from the ASX after surging ahead on no news:

They included BNPL player Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) and payments company Cirralto (ASX:CRO).

Both companies said they weren’t aware of any news that would prompt such outsized surges on trading volume and intraday price gains.

Shares in Dart Mining (ASX:DTM) climbed more than 9 per cent today after the first ever holes to be drilled through the historical Sandy Creek gold field returned results such as 3m at 8.8 grams per tonne gold from 18m and 1m at 15.5g/t gold from 3m.

The shallow, high-grade hits underscore its potential to host significant gold resources and there is potential for further growth as mineralisation remains open and untested along strike and at depth.